Asked What I Did Wrong: Sonali Bendre on Cancer Diagnosis

The actor recently returned to India after seeking medical treatment in New York.

Sonali Bendre has been documenting her journey with cancer on social media.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

Actor Sonali Bendre opened up about the mental trauma she went through when she first received her cancer diagnosis at a recent event in Mumbai. She described how the news prompted her to question her lifestyle and thoughts, so much so that she sought the help of a psychiatrist in New York. She confessed,

“Everyone said, ‘Your lifestyle was never like that. How did it happen to you?’ I actually thought that it was me doing something wrong and that I have caused it. I went to a psychiatrist in New York. I was like, I don’t understand what is happening to me. I’m not a negative person, I have a lot of positive thoughts. Am I being delusional? Do I actually have negative thoughts and I am burying it so deep in my subconscious that I don’t realise it? I needed to understand what was happening to me.”

Sonali Bendre, Actor

It was upon receiving reassurance from the psychiatrist that Sonali was able to begin to come to terms with her diagnosis. “It was like a weight lifted off,” she said. “I said I can deal with this. I don't have to flog myself. Because I was doing that. I kept thinking what did I do wrong. I realised that we have done nothing wrong if we have got this disease," she added.

Sonali sought medical treatment in New York in mid-2018 and returned to India at the end of the year. She has kept fans posted about her progress through social media where she shares the highs and lows of her journey. She returned to work in February, shortly after her 44th birthday.