Actress and filmmaker Pooja Bhatt, who quit drinking on Christmas last year, says a person can conquer one's alcohol addiction by first acknowledging that there is a problem.
At 'Closeted Conversations... Let's Start Talking Again', a conference in the capital for woman change-makers, Bhatt spoke about her alcohol dependency and how she overcame it.
"I stopped drinking by first acknowledging that I had a drinking problem," she said. "Because you are a woman and you live in a society where they are always taught or forced to brush things under the carpet, we tend to bury this shameful habit and say, 'Oh, we don't have a problem, it is somebody else's and I am not that drunk'."
Bhatt, who made her acting debut with the film Daddy (1989), directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt, which acknowledged a father's drinking issue with the daughter helping him out, said it had been "90 days of my sobriety".
The 45-year-old said that sometimes she has to deal with the pressure of people asking, 'Hey, you are not drinking? You must have a drink.'
"It is not alcohol you are addicted to, it's the absence of absence. All of us somewhere are lonely. Some expect a man to find the answer while some find it easily in the bottle of alcohol. It seems very gratifying, it pulls you and before you know it, you are down the rabbit hole and it is difficult to come back," said the filmmaker.
Chandro Tomar, also known as Revolver Dadi, Nithya Shanti (happiness coach), Sundeep Rao (comedian) and Namrata Joshipura (fashion designer) were also present at the event.