“I Would get Nervous and Suffocate”

How Saira navigates her mental health with caution and care

- TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS: YASIR IQBAL

SAIRA (name changed), now in her late 20s, had a panic attack for the first time when she was in college. Unaware about what was happening, she would get nervous and suffocate. It was only when she met a therapist on her friend's advice that she began to deal with anxiety and panic issues. Until then, she didn't even realise what the actual problem was.

“This issue didn't just surface out of the blue, I guess. I think behind my anxiety, there might be the struggle of our migration to Kashmir and that pressure to rebuild our life from scratch. I did not realise this back then,” says Saira.

Saira's father had crossed the border in the early 1990s— during the political upheaval in Kashmir. He chose to stay in Pakistan. He eventually got married and started his family life. After a couple of decades, in 2016, he decided to return to Kashmir under a state government policy that allowed those who had crossed the border in the 1990s to return.