Mental Health: An Asian Teen Perspective
Brief Mentions of Sexual Abuse and Self-harm
According to NAMI in 2003, Asian Americans are the least likely to use mental health services, yet mental health issues are the most prevalent within this community. The lack of awareness and cultural barriers consistently prohibit people from seeking out help and recognizing their problems. To better understand this issue, we decided to conduct a survey on several average Asian-American high school students near us. Below are several responses we’ve received from our participants.
1. What’s your experience with mental health from an Asian-American perspective?
Long story short--I’ve struggled with dealing with mental health for years now ever since middle school, but I suppose that the main factor behind why I’ve struggled so far, the environment I grew up in, has been with me ever since I started elementary school. Here’s the thing, I’ve always looked up to my brother as a role model figure and have been following his footsteps since I was young. This is because to me, and to plenty of other people, he is your very standard, perfect Asian in which he’s smart, talented in his extracurriculars, popular, friendly, and a great leader. But not only that, but he stands out among the Asian community even more because of his leadership skills, so of course I’ve always tried to follow him. Many activities that were pushed upon me since I was young were due to my parents trying to morph me into a mini-him, regardless of my own opinions on what I want to do. My parents have always been extremely resilient of me keeping up my grades and being the top of my activities--to the point where I, personally, see myself through the same light--continuously pushing myself to my limits. Once I hit middle school, I really no longer had my own identity and everyone saw me as “his sister” instead of who I am. Now, I’m not gonna go into extreme details of what happened, but after high school started, I started skipping school for uh related reasons and eventually “dropped out.” I started taking a lot of medications (prescribed after seeing doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc.), including but not limited bupropion, abilify, focalin, trazodone, and more. Eventually, I started getting back on track and my parents started becoming more lenient, so I guess you could say that my problem was over. But even now after I have returned back to school, I still feel as if I’m stuck in a bottomless pit of not knowing what I want to do. I am getting way better though and I’m starting to pull back on my meds. I’ve also started to explore on my own the fields of which I’m interested in.
-Anonymous
I had a cousin who was sexually assaulted and self-harmed. I have had friends self harm in response to receiving bad grades.
-Amitav Rawat
I feel like mental health and making sure that Asian-Americans are truly mentally healthy is often talked about but not completely internalized. Yes, sure, everybody in the Asian-American community has heard stories about teens who burned themselves out trying to attain a goal or accomplishment that was unrealistic, but nobody feels like its truly them. It’s kind of expected for one to push through the hard work, not only because it’s now become almost necessary (because of high expectations for post-high school edu[cation]) but also because it’s become a societal and cultural expectation to challenge and apply oneself in as many ways as possible. Personally, I hear all of these fantastic stories of success and the hard work and dedication required to go there, and I also hear all of the stories about burnout and the health problems resulting from those. However, I think society and Asian culture has naturally focused on the success stories while brushing aside the “bad” stories and not stressing enough the importance of an internal drive, or internal compass. Often, Asian Americans are propelled to try and succeed because of other people’s accomplishments, rather than an innate and personalized desire to succeed in one’s own way. When someone organically produces a genuine desire to succeed and THEN push themselves to the limit THEY can handle (my dad tells me all the time about how he did this), then I feel that this is the most effective way to mitigate the mental health issues from an expectations perspective.
-Jacob Lei
I myself don’t think I’ve experienced any long-term mental health issues, but there’s definitely been times in recent years where I have been at extreme lows and strongly considered attempting suicide, along with perpetuating feelings of loneliness, and lack of trust in myself and others. There was a time where I was woken up at around 3 am by my mom, who had discovered cuts across my left and right forearms, and instead of being talked to sincerely and being asked about getting help, my Indian parents had proceeded to tell me that it was cowardly and unacceptable in our culture to not be positive about life and to contemplate ending a life that was gifted to me by god. This was my first major encounter with not only an issue with my mental health, but also the way my parents viewed it in such a negative way.
-Sophomore from Westview High School
2. Describe the cultural stigma around mental health you’ve seen.
There is definitely a stigma around talking about mental health. No, I mean REALLY talking about mental health. We hear all the time in school or in the news about the latest statistic or health report detailing how bad expectations and pressures are. However, although we might consider it at the personal level, subconsciously it’s just too easy to brush aside these as someone else’s problem, not mine! And then when these all too present problems approach US, yes US, then we consider our problem suddenly unique. We feel that there is no one that can truly understand us, even though we hear all the time about school counselors or mental health hotlines that are available 24/7. This is because we simply as a society have not developed the culture about TRULY being open about our feelings, and to a minor extent I think this might be a result of the spread of mass media. Stories about heroism and all the attention paid to heroic stories and stories and tales of all of these positive virtues have subconsciously made us afraid of revealing genuine, prevalent feelings of doubt, sadness, and incompetence. Personally, I am fortunate enough to have a great dad as a role model that I can look up to and that I can really talk to personally, which can then allow me to ACTUALLY lay out my problems on a table, instead of subconsciously half-heartedly doing so.
-Jacob Lei
Common stigma factors
- good grades
- lots of extracurriculars
- stem-based academic fields
- shame of having bad mental health
- the desire to be “normal,” as if being depressed is something that is not okay
- if depressed, parents focus more on getting back on track rather than dealing with the root problem
-Anonymous
I definitely think that culture plays into aspects of why there is so much stigma and denial about the importance of mental health in today’s society. I think it’s difficult for kids especially in this generation, who have grown up with immigrant parents who grew up in societies where issues like mental health really weren’t heard of and talked about daily. There are probably other factors as well, but I think the cultural barrier is what I personally find as the main obstacle in being able to reach out to my parents as a first step and then other professionals as well. Something that would help me reach out could be a forum for people who are experiencing the barrier of culture and I think that could be helpful to stimulate discussions and also would be good to acquire resources for people who are struggling with stigma about mental health in their homes.
-Sophomore from Westview High School
Mental health is typically a concept avoided due to the lack of education on the idea of Asian American culture. Furthermore, the concept of identifying the issue from the parents’ side is typically brought up from other cultures.
-Anonymous
3. Do you feel that it’s difficult to reach out for mental health help because of the cultural barrier? What would help you with reaching out?
Yes, I feel that people don’t know how to stop if they start and I believe that it is difficult to receive help and there is a constant fear of how parents will react.
-Amitav Rawat
Definitely, and even more so because I often feel alone, even within my own family. An extensive community where people can anonymously and freely talk to each other about their feelings and problems--and of course to help each other
-Anonymous
Yes, the cultural barrier is an impediment to many for reaching out because many don’t feel they have someone they can truly relate to. For me at least, I have a great dad that I can talk to about most things and concerns I have (whatever they may be) and that is more fortunate than most. Of course, nothing is perfect, and I do not lay out every single personal concern I have, whether that may be something that I just want to keep private for my sake or for the sake of me wanting to develop my own skill of tackling these problems. What would help others to reach out is to, again this is difficult and central to the problem, but developing a culture (slowly) of openness and a willingness to show weakness. Lots of resources are available for many (at least for people we know) but it’s just the matter of actually talking to them. It’s about mustering the courage to cast aside the perceived societal judgments and talking to someone. However, to actually remove and mediate these societal judgments and culture of judging and feeling judged about revealing anything other than the best, that is the question of the day.
-Jacob Lei
I definitely think that culture plays into aspects of why there are so much stigma and denial about the importance of mental health in today’s society. I think it’s difficult for kids especially in this generation, who have grown up with immigrant parents who grew up in societies where issues like mental health really weren’t heard of and talked about daily. There are probably other factors as well, but I think the cultural barrier is what I personally find as the main obstacle in being able to reach out to my parents as a first step and then other professionals as well. Something that would help me reach out could be a forum for people who are experiencing the barrier of culture and I think that could be helpful to stimulate discussions and also would be good to acquire resources for people who are struggling with stigma about mental health in their homes.
-Sophomore from Westview High School
4. What do you wish other Asian-Americans knew about mental health?
I wish parents and children know that they are there to help each other. Although it may seem like parents are there to just stress us out, I truly believe that somewhere in there, they have an innate sense to help you as much as possible. Whether that may be seeking additional help with their assistance or talking to their 1 on 1, I think the problem is to just start talking frankly and seriously, and these adults/respected figures should pick up pretty quickly.
-Jacob Lei
- it definitely helps to talk to other people
-when listening to someone else talk about their own mental health, listening rather than giving advice is a must (for example, most of us just want someone to listen to, knowing that someone else knows what’s going on in your life is so helpful, but sometimes their advice (coming from someone who hasn’t experienced mental health deprivations) can come off as disappointing or even offensive)
-be open to those who want to help you
-talk to your family
-don’t be afraid to see a doctor, psychologist/therapist, psychiatrist--it’s not something to be ashamed of--they really help--it’s their job
-don’t be afraid to do what you need to (i.e. taking meds, taking a break from school, talking to your school counselor about your situation)
-of course, don’t turn to overdosing on drugs, illegal substances, etc.--those are all just temporary coping skills
-it gets better--I promise
-Anonymous
I would like people to know that life is not always rainbows and butterflies, and although that might seem cliche, people suffer from very important mental health issues such as depression and anxiety that should not be ignored in any society no matter the cultural backgrounds of people. Mental health is SO important, and it needs to be brought up and talked about more than anything else, because the effects of experiencing these issues can be devastating. The least you can do as a parent, teen, and citizen is not shut those people out, and you should outstretch your support whenever possible, because the people suffering from mental health issues need to be supported and be able to reach out for help in their communities without the cultural stigma that surrounds mental health.
-Sophomore from Westview High School
With these survey results, there’s a clear trend in how these Asian American teenagers feel about mental health issues and how to deal with them. They have witnessed or personally experienced struggles with communicating their problems and instead internalize their thoughts because of the stigma they feel. This needs to change and it starts by raising awareness and conducting cultural education.
Through Project Lotus and a collective effort to recognize mental health issues in our community, we can take the first steps to destigmatize.