Uma Chatterjee Shares Her Story at the 31st One Mind Music Festival, Emphasizing the Impact One Mind Has Had on Her Journey

In this courageous and deeply personal speech at the 31st One Mind Music Festival for Brain Health, Uma Chatterjee—Mental Health Advocate, Science Communicator, Neuroscientist, PhD Student, President of OCD Wisconsin, and Member of the One Mind Lived Experience Council—shares her journey of survival, resilience, and advocacy.

Uma opens up about living with severe OCD, treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and cancer, describing years of misdiagnosis, stigma, and failed treatments that left her struggling to survive. After more than two decades of pain and 22 clinicians who “got it wrong,” she finally received proper evidence-based treatment at 25—an intervention that transformed her life and gave her the chance to return to school, pursue neuroscience, and begin shaping the very research that saved her. Her story is a powerful reminder of why mental health research and funding are critical, and why society must do better for people living with serious mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Uma calls for change, emphasizing the importance of science, lived experience, and communities like One Mind that empower those often left unseen. This is more than a speech—it’s a call to action. A call to do better.