Battling depression, actor Vijay Antony's daughter ends life in Chennai

Chennai: Sixteen-year-old daughter of composer, actor, and producer Vijay Antony, ended her life in the early hours of Tuesday.

Her body was found at Chennai residence. She was shifted to a private hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.

Reports indicate that she was undergoing treatment for her mental health.

Vijay Antony, known for his work in Tamil cinema and his recent successful concert in Chennai, faced a devastating shock on the fateful morning. His daughter, a student at a well-known school in Chennai, is believed to have been battling depression, although these reports are unconfirmed.

Further details about this heart-wrenching incident are awaited. Police are investigating the matter.

Vijay Antony is a renowed composer deeply involved in Tamil cinema. Over the years, he expanded his career to include roles as a producer, actor, lyricist, editor, audio engineer, and director. He is married to Fathima Vijay Antony, who also manages their production company. The couple has two daughters.

Parents should pick subtle signs of pressure that may lead to student suicides

According to mental health experts, student suicides are usually multi-factorial. A combination of one or more factors such as academic stress, anxiety, depression, peer pressure, and relationship issues are often involved.

Referring to the suicide of Tamil actor-composer Vijay Anthony’s daughter, Dr Adi Pratyusha, child and adolescent psychiatrist at Asha Hospital, said, “If a child is known to be stressed or depressed and is undergoing treatment, it is even more important to closely monitor their behaviour and not assume that everything is okay once they start medication and therapy. Multiple follow-ups and adherence to prescribed medicines are very important.”

“But in many cases, once the patient feels better, treatment and medicines are stopped midway, which worsens the already vulnerable cases. Watch out for any subtle signs of whether they continue to be socially reclusive and interact with them. Usually, adolescents are not very good at expressing themselves and feel misunderstood, not heard, rejected,” the doctor said.

Apart from that, board exam stress, fear and anxiety of performance can also be overwhelming, especially because schools are competition-oriented. Acute stress can lead to one taking sudden, impulsive, extreme steps like self-annihilation.

Dr Pratyusha also said that the outlook of society and parents needs to change towards students’ careers. “Students need to be taught to handle failures as part of life, part of success. Parents need to understand that there are several career options apart from medical and engineering. They should always encourage their children based on their talent, aptitude and strength areas in academics or in the pursuit of a career. It needs to be a combined effort of parents, teachers and society as a whole to stop such unfortunate incidents like student suicides,” she said.

If you need support, please reach out to the following helpline numbers: Call- 9152987821, AASRA-9820466726, Roshni Trust- 040-66202000.