'Stress is a silent killer': Sushmita Sen on why protecting your peace is 'true strength'

Khaleej Times

26-05-2025

What does it take to live with a chronic condition?
It's a question with no easy answers because the experience is rarely loud or visible. Often, years pass, yet the struggle remains deeply personal. The silent, daily effort of battling an autoimmune disease can be difficult to put into words, becoming deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life.
The endless cycle of medication, the lingering side effects, the constant uncertainty of how your body might respond — few speak about it, and even fewer truly understand it.
For Indian actor Sushmita Sen, that silence has long been filled with something she calls quiet strength — a quality she cultivated years ago when she was diagnosed with Addison's disease. Though she's spoken of her recovery in 2019, the imprint of chronic illness is rarely erased.
'You become accurately aware of your body and what it needs,' says Sen, seated in a quiet corner of The Atlantis just moments after taking the stage at the 4th edition of the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award — a morning dedicated to honouring nurses who, as she puts it, 'cannot be taken for granted.'
As someone who's been on the receiving end of care that often goes unnoticed, she doesn't hold back when crediting nurses for the role they've played in her recovery, especially following a heart attack that shocked the world over two years ago.
'Till I came across this initiative, Aster's Guardians Global Nursing Awards, I didn't even know that there was an award for nurses, let alone the fact that you're not just recognising their efforts, you're gifting them monetarily, $250,000, substantially letting them know how much they're appreciated.'
Her voice softens as she recounts one nurse in particular: Uma Maheshwari. Assigned to Sen in the ICU following her angioplasty, Uma was meant to stay for just a week. But as Sen prepared to return to work on Aarya, she insisted on keeping Uma by her side.
'Uma just had to come and look after me for a week, until I left the ICU, moved into a regular room, and was discharged from the hospital. But because of the severity of the situation, and the fact that I was going to shoot for Aarya right after, they said, 'You can't go without a hands-on nurse.' So I said, 'I want Uma to come with me.''
Uma ended up staying with her for six months. And even now, years later, she messages Sen twice a day to remind her to take her medication. 'We just completed two years of angioplasty. She's no longer employed by me or the team or anyone. But every day, at 9 am and 9 pm, there will be a message from her to take my beta-blocker,' she adds.
'That kind of grace and goodness — money can't buy. It has to come from that kind of empathy. And nurses, I think, have that in abundance.'
A truth she's come to know intimately, over years of navigating her own health and healing journey, Sen adds, 'You cannot heal without a nurse". "I often say this: a doctor can get you a cure or a treatment, but it is a nurse that takes you through the journey of healing. Doctors only look at your symptoms; the nurse knows your tendencies. I've seen this happen repeatedly.'
It's hard not to pause when Sen speaks because her silences speak louder than words. Even though she's always been known as someone who speaks with great conviction, there's a new kind of quiet that follows her now — one that radiates immense strength.
'Quiet strength, I do deeply admire, because it's something that takes a lot of resilience. It takes a lot of acceptance,' she says. 'And as women — be that in the nursing community, in my or your community, the professional aspects of our lives or the personal ones — it's so much easier to scream, shout, yell, try and make a point, try and win every argument. But it's such a criminal waste of time," she adds.
'The minute women discover their quiet strength, they don't need validation anymore. They can build from there."
For someone who has worn many hats — Miss Universe, actor, single mother, producer — Sen has long lived without the safety net of convention. But that kind of strength often comes at a personal cost, especially in an industry that demands youth, perfection, and constant reinvention to keep pace with its relentless rhythm.
'Be it my health journey or everything else that I've gone through in my life, I've realised: I can either waste my energy or I can conserve this energy and then use it as strength," says Sen.
But strength isn't about endurance alone — it's also about knowing when to walk away, she adds. 'Stress is a very, very silent killer. And if you're not careful, conscious, aware of it, it has a way of consuming you faster than you can take your name.'
'I can't say I succeed 100 per cent all the time but I've come to recognise its triggers. So when I see stress around me or people who are stressing me out, I have a way now in which I don't tell them to leave, but instead, I walk away. Because you have to protect your peace and your environment," says Sen.
Throwback moment
This year also marks 31 years since Sen became the first Indian woman to win the Miss Universe crown — a moment of national pride that transformed not only her life but ignited the dreams of generations to come. A moment that told young girls they could dare to dream.
So, what would Sen, at 49, say to the 18-year-old girl who walked into the pageant with nothing but the courage to dream?
'I'm so proud of you, kid. Thank you for laying the foundation and making my life — the one I'm living now — possible.'
Perhaps, a sentiment that countless young Indian girls, who've woven Sen's victory into the fabric of their own stories, would also echo.
So, what's next for Sen?
On the work front, Sen's return to the screen has been met with immense admiration — particularly for her role in the acclaimed series Aarya, where she plays a fierce and resilient mother drawn into the world of crime to protect her family. But for her, work has always been about purpose, not pace. 'I'm so happy that people still want to see me,' she says, smiling. 'The audience is the reason I do what I do.'
Her bond with the audience is something she calls her 'life's biggest blessing'. 'For as long as people want to watch me, I promise to keep coming back. We're getting into film production as well,' she reveals. 'So a lot of the stuff that you will see, we will probably be producing ourselves and also acting in it. Wait for it.'