PETALING JAYA, March 19 — Actress and fitness influencer Sharifah Sakinah dropped a bombshell yesterday, revealing she has plans to leave Malaysia because her mental health is suffering.
The 31-year-old whose real name is Sharifah Nurul Sakinah Syed Abu Bakar Al-Khaired has been seeking help from doctors and therapists for the past couple of years.
The mum of one said she suffers from severe depression, anxiety and would self-harm.
Sakinah, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was also prescribed medication to improve her mental health.
“I’ve suffered from heavy depression, anxiety with self-harming behaviour and my world has sometimes been reduced to my room where I’ve spent days in bed without going up.
“My anxiety and depression have sometimes been so bad that I’ve been afraid of my own actions, or actions I might take if I didn’t pop my pills.
“I’ve been my own greatest danger,” she wrote to her 2.4 million followers.
The Aku Yang Kau Gelar Isteri star said she plans to move abroad and take a hiatus from acting.
“I’ve now realised I can’t do this fully on my own and I need a change of scenery, which is why I plan to leave Malaysia.
“I’ve already informed (you) that I will take a break from acting and now you know the real reason,” Sakinah said, adding that she needs to focus on her personal challenges.
The comedienne concluded her post saying she will return to acting and included the hashtags #mentalhealth and #adhd.
Her post comes in conjunction with an interview with talk show host Datuk Aznil Nawawi on the Astro Ria programme Hard to Heart that aired last night.
In a snippet from the interview, a tearful Sakinah is seen apologising: “I’m sorry, I need you to understand that my mental health is really bad right now, that’s why I’m planning not to stay in Malaysia — I’m moving.”
The actress who has a four-year-old daughter also spoke of how she was told she was a bad parent and wife when she was married to businessman Alif Adha Jamil.
She is now engaged to Swedish national Michael Hansen and the pair plans to wed in May this year.
Despite her bubbly personality and knack for making others laugh, Sakinah is often targeted by the internet’s moral police who would criticise the actress for her workout clothes.
She has been cyberbullied over her chest size and is often admonished by conservatives for her choice of clothing.
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