{"id":4299,"date":"2025-06-22T08:37:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2025-06-22T08:37:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:37:27","slug":"finding-light-in-the-dark-through-counseling-this-is-ankitas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/finding-light-in-the-dark-through-counseling-this-is-ankitas-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding Light in the Dark Through Counseling: This is Ankita\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe darkest hour is just before the dawn\u201d- Thomas Fuller.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 27, Ankita has had a childhood with situations and experiences like no one else. She has faced many situations and stands before us today as a warrior who has faced the battles and won!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ankita hails from Rawatbhata, Rajasthan. She is currently a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at IIT Mandi and is working on exciting research projects. In her downtime, she reads books and listens to music. Creativity is integral to her daily life; she plays her guitar and draws mandalas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ankita comes from a nuclear family that includes her dad, mom, and brother. Her father worked for NPCIL, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, so she grew up in a community surrounded by children whose fathers worked in the same nuclear plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first part of her childhood, she grew up in Rajbhata, and she remembers seeing some class divisions and how families were split in that apartment complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cMy best friend and I used to live in Type 2.  But then I had some friends who used to live in Type 3 apartments. And then, there were these Type 4, Type 5, elitist, you could call them, apartments, who would show that their dads have significantly higher roles to play in the organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This was something she observed when her parents relocated to Mumbai as well. She found that elitism was one thing that she experienced. While it was a little more understated in Rajbhata, she experienced that more while being in Mumbai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she experienced these different aspects in her childhood, she remained strong and committed to her dream. She developed close friendships and navigated the challenges of shifting societal norms during her family\u2019s relocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it was her hard work that led her to the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last couple of years, a few incidents impacted her well-being. She describes the years 2021 and 2022 as being particularly tough. She mentions that the incidents that took quite a bit of a toll were the sudden demise of her grandfather, her grandmother coming down with a stroke and the end of a long-term relationship of seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ankita was also having a tough time at work and felt her supervisor lacked support for her research. Beyond this, she was facing further complications with a few colleagues on her campus, which doubled up with some issues she was facing with her mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mother used to bully me for being overweight. And I remember, even though my family was concerned about my entire body, it gave, started giving me insecurities about myself<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all these incidents happening one after another, Ankita could not focus at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI found myself lagging a lot behind compared to my peers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Feeling lonely and sad, Ankita struggled to get through her days. One of her colleagues saw her on one of those days and recommended she see a therapist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since her institute has partnered with YourDOST, she booked a session with Ms Shreya, one of the experts. With her guidance, Ankita learned coping strategies, such as mindfulness, gratitude practices, and breathing exercises, to manage anxiety and stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therapy also gave her a safe space to express herself, address unresolved emotions from her past and rebuild her confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI started employing these daily journaling habits, and I was able to identify the trigger for my anxiety or panic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ankita rates herself as 3 out of 5 in terms of feeling better. While she believes she still has a long way to go, she is proud of her progress from the person she used to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ankita\u2019s Warrior Tips:<\/strong>
1.\u201cHold on during the tough times, as the brightest times are always ahead.\u201d<\/strong>
2.\u201cEmbrace the small joys and the connections in life. They will keep you going in the challenging and bright times.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you someone who has gone through a difficult phase and emerged stronger and better, with some professional help? Share your story with us to encourage thousands of others who might be struggling. <\/em><\/strong>click here<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/a> to submit your story.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe darkest hour is just before the dawn\u201d- Thomas Fuller. At 27, Ankita has had a childhood with situations and experiences like no one else. She has faced many situations and stands before us today as a warrior who has faced the battles and won! Ankita hails from Rawatbhata, Rajasthan. She is currently a Junior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,24,70],"tags":[149,28,29,170,55,47,32,43,51,30,26],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-depression-and-bipolar-disorder","category-psychological-conditions","category-trauma-and-ptsd","tag-calm-mind","tag-counselingsupport","tag-healingfromtrauma","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalfitness","tag-positivethinking","tag-resilience","tag-silentwhispers","tag-yd-diaries","tag-yd-warriors","tag-youarenotalone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4301,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions\/4301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}