18 Comments

Culturally, many in East Asian communities don’t talk about mental health and depression because of long (and I mean long) standing cultural beliefs thanks to Confucianism. These cultures, which include Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, believe in balance and if you have mental health issues, your balance is off. They also believe that it means your ancestors did something wrong. And that would bring shame to the family.

Honestly, if it’s about balance, fixing it would rebalance the issue. I started making my own bread when the pandemic began. If the dough is too wet, I’ll add more dry ingredients. Too dry? More wet. It’s balance.

https://www.cigna.com.sg/health-content-hub/thought-leadership/mental-health-stigma-in-Asia#:~:text=Reasons%20for%20mental%20health%20stigma%20in%20Asian%20cultures&text=Asian%20cultures%2C%20for%20instance%2C%20tend,of%20shame%20for%20the%20family.

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/confronting-mental-health-barriers-asian-american-and-2#:~:text=Culture%20and%20mental%20health&text=In%20some%20Asian%20cultures%2C%20mental,mental%20health%20is%20really%20significant.

Expand full comment

I should add that it’ll take time and maybe another half generation before things are fixed and that you see more diverse representation. Millennials and GenX are already better than boomers and GenZ and Alphas are even better. Language challenges are also at issue. Finally, many GenXers and Millennials were simply discouraged by parents to specialize in mental health. Many Asians here may be doctors, but as soon as they say they want to specialize in psychiatric their (mostly immigrant) parents feel embarrassed that their son or daughter is in such a field. And if you’re a therapist, it’s even worse. At least the psychiatrist has an MD

Expand full comment

Thank you for your thoughts. The psychology degree program I did was integral combining eastern philosophy with western psychology so we discussed this a lot. Different approaches. Non traditional care options.

Have you read the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?

Expand full comment

No, I have not. Maybe I'll check it out!

Expand full comment

In case that one didn’t come through ⏏️ (accidentally responded to myself not you)

Expand full comment

It’s not about mental health per se but it’s one of my favorite books that illustrates how complex it is for people from other cultures to have to deal with an American medical system that really doesn’t practice enough respect for different beliefs.

Expand full comment

I looked at what the book was about. I have epilepsy as well. I don’t know how my parents reacted, only that they out their trust on the neurologists that treated me and they’re really invested in neurological

health and its research even now (though they did hide the diagnosis from me and only found out by finding literature on pediatric epilepsy hiding in the house when I was 9, three years after my first seizure). I’m trying to get them more involved with dementia as they get older (my grandmother had dementia in her final years). We also have to remember that as immigrant cultures evolve and no longer become as immigrant, treatment will need to evolve along with it. People like me - born and raised in the west - look at things very differently from our parents and grandparents. My parents came to Canada in their 20s for grad school and their peers are also highly educated immigrants who worked in various areas including medicine, finance and IT. Many, especially those in medicine, served those from the same immigrant communities of their origin.

Expand full comment

It sounds like it was complicated for them to share the diagnosis with you which I can certainly understand. There are no right choices as parents, just the best we can do. Do you still live with seizures? From what I understand there is still so much we don’t know about it so i think it’s great they want to keep helping with research but yes dementia research is also critical.

The book may or may not resonate. It’s about a family from the Hmong culture. For me it was really helpful in understanding different ways of viewing health. 💕

Expand full comment

My seizures are under control with medication. I think the idea of keeping it from me and telling me the medication were “vitamins” was to keep me from thinking that I was “different” and “special needs.” I was able to have a normal suburban childhood that way. And my epilepsy was probably the reason why I wasn’t allowed to go to slumber parties (not because they’re immigrant parents. Seriously, my parents are not really “typical immigrant Asian”).

Expand full comment

Also wanted to say that there’s so many cultural facets to consider and I’m glad you shared this reminder. I am “white” American but my grandfather was a holocaust survivor and that’s a trauma we weren’t ever allowed to talk about. So it passes through generations in so many ways and when there’s a culture of stigma around that mental health care it does take time through generations to have a different view.

Expand full comment

This is why I don’t like the term “White.” I tend to correct people and say Anglo-Protestant, though people don’t like it when I do (I spent several years of elementary school in a Catholic school. We were all ethnic in one way or another and save for the Irish kids, no more than two generations off the boat/plane). And honestly, when people say “Asian” they really mean East Asian cultures influenced by Confucius (I get that it’s a pretty big chunk, but still) and mostly wealthier countries there or various South Asian cultures from the Indian subcontinent. That leaves out many other backgrounds. It’s a pretty big continent.

My husband is Ashkenazi but unlike your family, doesn’t have a direct ancestor affected by the Holocaust that he knows of. Both sides of his family have been in Canada since at least the 1920s. However, my BFF in high school is a grandchild of survivors on both sides.

Expand full comment

I’ve been yelling at the mouse in my room for the past few weeks. He comes out some nights, creating mayhem. Other nights he’s asleep. I’ve not been sure why he hadn’t attacked my box of Ritz Crackers, or my loaf of Brownberry Bread I keep in my room at assisted living, along with peanut butter, fruit snacks, and some chocolates.

Instead he runs through my art supplies and papers. I’m surprised he’s not run across my bedcovers. So where is he?

He’s locked in my mind I finally discovered. He’s part of my psychosis, just as the loud crashes I’d been hearing at night, as if someone had been throwing plates against the walls.

It stopped this week. Maybe it’s because I plan on moving as soon as I can. And I’m figuring out how to try and make that happen. I don’t know…

Expand full comment

I’ve had literal mice in my house and can’t wait until I am moved away from them. Glad the ones in your mind decided to leave. ❤️

Expand full comment