Mana - Sanskrit for Mind - is a YouTube channel for sharing my perspective on topics at the intersection of mental health, AI/Machine learning, and related topics. I discuss my own struggles with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and some of the treatments & advances in psychotherapy, that helped my condition. Hopefully, this is useful for anyone struggling with mental health conditions.
There are many who suffer in silence - including some members of my family & close friends - I hope this encourages them to overcome the stigma and seek medical help.
I am the luckiest guy in the world: I grew up in idyllic rural India, developed PTSD from racist attacks in Ireland of late 90s, but also fell head-over-heels in love with AI, and acquired the ☘️ luck of the Irish ☘️ . I then got a chance to study at MIT with none other than Sir Tim Berners-Lee (CSAIL) and had the audacity of disagreeing vehemently with him (how lucky am I!) . Then started a company in the late 2000s leading to a meh exit.
I later co-founded Netra in 2014 to commercialize my two-decade-long passion for AI, raised money from Mark Cuban in 2014 over a “cold email”, made a major misstep on my part - thanks to our founder/CEO Amit, supported by investor/board member Raymond Chang & many others - who brought the company back from the dead like a phoenix and now set for a great future.
Along the way, I got treated by some of the best doctors at MIT and Harvard/MGH for my PTSD and getting better. I am sharing my story, in an attempt to normalize & de-stigmatize mental health - well, a headache is a mental disorder - and show we are all human: psychological ailments are as much a part of the human experience as Cancer, Heart Disease etc.
In my small way I hope to raise awareness across all our communities and reduce the guilt & shame of mental health, and encourage people to seek medical help. In future videos, I plan on sharing my decidedly amateur thoughts on the current and emerging therapies. If you find this useful, please subscribe/share so it reaches a wide audience.
<aside> ❗ Important: I am NOT a licensed medical practitioner, I am only offering a patient's perspective and speak in an individual private capacity. Please seek professional medical help for treatment.
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“But you don’t look like you have PTSD!”
is a very common exclamation of surprise by many with whomever I’ve shared my PTSD diagnosis. PTSD has a perception of being a warrior’s disease and thus prevents lesser-mortals like me to seek help as we feel this shame about being “cry-babies”. Let’s get over this stigmatization of mental health and normalize it.
I feel a sense of guilt that I was able to obtain state-of-the-art medical care, and meanwhile people I personally know both in the US, and my native India, who are suffering with mental health issues. Depression, Anxiety, Trauma are not just as common as many other chronic ailments, but eminently treatable. Excellent therapies for mental health conditions are now available and many new ones in the pipeline. Through this site I plan on offering a patient’s perspective to cut through the overwhelming information and offer a “boiled down” patient’s perspective.
<aside> 👉 You are not alone, no matter how bad you feel. There are many who have been through that and gotten better. I am one of them, and you can get better too. Please seek help ✨
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