Mental Health and South Asian Americans

Since it’s Mental Health Awareness Month I want to talk about mental health in South Asian Americans and chip away at the stigma we have in the brown community. With the use of social media platforms growing, mental health awareness is being brought to the forefront. Still mental health does not get the same recognition as physical health. People react differently when you hear “she’s undergoing surgery…” vs. “she’s suffering from clinical depression.” So many times, I have heard that “mental illness is an American problem”. Well truth is, we are Americans, and children of immigrants—which comes with a huge burden. We are learning to navigate a world that is different from our friends and vastly different from our parents.

I want to write a series of posts covering 1)Awareness, 2) Behavioral and attitudinal changes, both proactive and reactive 3) De-stigmatization. But for today I will address awareness.

Awareness

Let’s start with some facts.

This means somebody in your family and many in your community are suffering or has suffered from a mental illness classified by the DSM-IV manual (This study is a few years old—hence DSM IV and not V, but mental health numbers grow). We all accept that South Asians have a disproportionately high prevalence of diabetes. In fact, US immigrants have a higher prevalence of diabetes than South Asians living in Asia—1 in 3 to be exact. If we are willing to talk about, treat, and take preventive measures for diabetes, why do we have a hard time doing the same for mental illness?

Studies show that the children of immigrants (1st gen Americans, aka people like me) have higher incidences than their parent populations. Several factors have been identified, gender being one of them, and simply being born in the US being another! Other factors include, underlying genetics, lack of extended family support, societal pressures from both the south Asian community and America.

So, let’s talk about some of those factors. Females have higher incidences of mental health illness than men. That might also be because females are more likely to report and seek help from professionals. Keeping up a high level of achievement comparison to others in the brown community is another contributor. Another one is managing a high-functioning job, while living in the US.

So basically, how we are destined to have diabetes, and should be taking care of our bodies, we are also destined to combat a mental health crisis. There are many things we can do as a community in whatever role we play whether it’s a parent, sister, brother, or friend to be proactive and reactive in taking care of our mental health. I will discuss these in upcoming posts, until then… take care of yourself!

Always reach out if you want to talk! @goldengirl27708.

Muah,

Swarnali