Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu recently offered a raw and honest glimpse into a dark period in her life — the year following her divorce from — revealing just how deeply it impacted her mentally and emotionally. This was the same time when she was diagnosed with myositis, an autoimmune disorder.
Speaking to , she didn’t sugarcoat the pain, nor did she try to neatly wrap it in false positivity. Instead, she spoke of what it truly means to face despair head-on, when nothing seems to make sense anymore. “I remember once I actually went to the point where I thought like, ‘enough, I can’t do this anymore’. I had the worst possible thoughts. I obviously didn’t have the courage to go ahead and do it… It was hard for a year. There was nothing that was working, there were no answers being given. Every direction I turned, there were no answers. Everything felt broken. I backed out,” Samantha admitted.
What helped her pull back from that edge was not instant hope, but a slow process of from scratch. “I obviously chickened out because you need to have lots of guts to act upon these thoughts. So I was like, ‘I better find a way to build some kind of resilience and start thinking of other things I can do with my life’.”
She opened up about the lessons she learned from her experience. “Now, when individuals say they are going through a difficult period, I advise them to get through it. There is always a lesson to be learned and a light at the end of the tunnel. “My failures and hardships taught me more than my success,” she said.
Jai Arora, counselling psychologist and co-founder of Kirana Counselling, tells , “When someone says this, they’re describing a state of deep emotional confusion, what we often call mental fog or brain fog. Life feels hopeless and directionless. This kind of inner struggle may show up in individuals going through grief, trauma, or major life transitions like a divorce.”
In this space, Arora states, even basic decisions can feel impossible. “There’s no clarity, just noise. The way out isn’t about solving everything overnight. Building becomes crucial. The ability to tolerate painful emotional states and also accepting some hard truths (not necessarily labeling it as good or bad). It starts with small, grounding actions — like sticking to a simple routine, talking to someone you trust, or just getting through the day. These tiny steps slowly clear the fog and help rebuild a sense of direction.”
Arora suggests the following:
