Acknowledging mental health in Asian households

so good afternoon

my name is chanel and i was studying

political science in the us

and obviously huge cultural shock

one of the most shocking events i’ve

been to is

the tunnel of oppression in a ton of

oppression

there were rooms where to walk through

and in each room

there were various scenarios of mental

health related issues

and there would be people acting out a

scenario based on mental illnesses such

as depression

anxiety ptsd and the list goes on

now this is where it gets interesting

the way that they portrayed people with

mental health issues was not what i

pictured it to be

i imagined that they would be crying or

screaming

but in reality they look just like

me so i went home to do some reflection

and i wondered to myself why haven’t i

been to events like the town of

oppression

in malaysia so this brings me to my

topic today

and that is acknowledging mental health

in asian households

now does anyone here know what is

commonly used in mandarin when referring

to a person who has

mental health issues well the

translation

is zing shenti bing and as a mandarin

speaker

i just found out that zing shanti being

is a more appropriate term when

referring to a person with mental health

issues

because in a casual conversation what we

would normally say

is

which means the same but it carries an

entirely different

energy now there’s no doubt that there

are people who view mental health

negatively

in fact forty percent of the survey

report in

india describe a person with mental

illness as crazy

mad or stupid but this can be understood

from our social stigma

now a stigma happens when a person

defines someone

based on their mental illness rather

than who they are as an

individual so for example they might be

labeled as

psychotic rather than a person who is

experiencing

psychosis so any example i showed was

we label the person as mentally unstable

rather than a person who is experiencing

mental health issues

so we know that social stigma can affect

our perception on mental health

but i want you to think even further to

non-verbal

communication now non-verbal

communication is like body language

and there are different ways to use

non-verbal communication but

i want to highlight on a sensing

nonverbal communication

this type of communication is used to

alter the interpretation

of verbal messages like words so

the example i showed was

but it can also be mental illness

can you see the effect of the whisper

and the

facial expression because it can be

mental illness or shenzing thing

now i’m sure you can tell the difference

between those two because

one carries a stigmatic belief and the

other does not

and we might be able to find some

answers as to why we carry such a

negative connotation

in our culture now don’t get me wrong

our culture is beautiful and every

country has their own culture and the

same goes to every ethnicity and even

smaller communities like your friend

circle

and we can see that through culture we

develop a sense of belonging

personal and connective growth and the

ability to empathize and relate to each

other

according to a research by cramer the

asian culture has embedded the idea that

seeking for mental health care

is a shame now this explains why mental

health is not as valued in many asian

families

for example in the traditional belief

system

vietnamese believe that depression

equals sadness

japanese believe that mental illness is

not a real illness

koreans believe that mental illness is a

result of bad luck

and chinese believe that it is caused by

evil spirits

but bear in mind those such as in a

traditional belief system

now in a survey conducted in malaysia 38

of the respondents were concerned about

embarrassment

or social stigma as their reasons for

not seeking professional help

that is incredible

now i want you to take a look around

you may not know what people are going

through or what they’re suffering from

and we might not be able to change our

societal perspective on mental health

but

you have the decision to encourage

positivity

and help people in your communities to

understand the struggles of mental

health illnesses

because small changes can create

a huge impact now

raise your hand if you think that

parents

play a part in that social stigma

raise your hand if you have supportive

parents who talk about mental health

and are open about seeking medical help

from a psychologist or a psychiatrist

now every household has a different set

of traditional beliefs

and a research by the western journal of

medicine

some traditional belief system include

mental illnesses

as a result caused by a lack of harmony

of emotions

or sometimes by evil spirits my point is

if parents refuse to acknowledge that

mental health issues

is a psychological problem it is often

because they were taught to think that

way when they were younger

now there’s this famous phrase that

i find quite interesting because it

directly

translates to do not throw my face

or in other words saving face now saving

face is the ability to preserve the

public’s appearance of an individual

for the sake of the community’s

propriety and most importantly

it is used to avoid humiliation

now if you’re a chinese or asian chances

are you’ve heard of

confucius teaching or also known as

konzu

now confucius teaching represents part

of our traditions

but it is also one of the traditions

which actually discourages us to display

our feelings in order to maintain a

so-called harmonious relationship with

others

but when we’re put into a broader

perspective

stanford university studies found that

western culture

tends to be more individualist whereas

eastern culture tends to be more

collective and focuses

on fitting in now we have to remember

that there is no right or wrong in this

it is just how we were taught to be

but the real question is is suppressing

our emotions

really for the better now i want to

share with you

an experience i had as a child so

whenever

my parents gave me life lesson they

would expect me not to cry

and if i did cry the life lesson would

turn into

a physical lesson which is funny now

that i think about it because

crying is our natural response whenever

we’re feeling hurt or

sad but why is it common for people to

see emotions

as a sign of weakness we

humans are born and made to feel more so

than

any other species on earth and yet we

are expected by societal standards

to not express any emotions or

just the positive ones so why do some

believe that emotions

are a sign of weakness and i think that

the answer

lies in stereotype now

emotions aren’t a topic that are openly

discussed in many asian communities

moreover the traditional belief system

has taught many that emotion should be

controlled and hidden however

did you know that emotional suppression

and bothering up your feelings actually

damages not only your mental health

but also your physical health

but i understand that often expressing

your emotions

is not an option because somehow they

always have an easy solution to fix the

problem

let me give you an example so you go up

to your parents

and you tell them that you’re feeling a

little sad and a little depressed

their response you’re on your phone too

much

or you should start sleeping earlier or

you should drink more water now

what they failed to consider is the

possible reasons behind these behaviors

you could have been stressed out which

makes sleeping

so much harder and there’s so many

possibilities out there and yet

at times all parents seem to always have

an

easy solution for most of our problems

and after giving an easy solution comes

another lecture

all right putting the jokes aside

though it is clearly stated in the

constitution of who that mental health

is of equal importance as physical

health

but mental health has yet to be

prioritized in most

asian countries and we can see that

through the limited facilities and

services

available for mentally ill patients

quick fun

fact did you know that asian patients

are more likely to link their negative

emotions to

physical pain i believe that the reason

behind is that the knowledge concerning

mental health

that we currently possess is

insufficient

generation after generation

the mindset in which mental health is

not real

persists perhaps some grandparents turn

a cold shoulder to some parents whenever

they were trying to express something as

complex as mental health problems and

thus

some parents are doing the same who is

to say that

we don’t do the same to our kids this

mindset

is rooted in our subconscious your

feeling don’t just get some rest

i myself have said this multiple times

before i

acknowledge the fact that mental health

should indeed

be constantly reinforced we need to know

that mental health issues do

not and will never mean that you will

never have good days again

but how many of us recognize that

tell me if you are a child who grew up

in a traditional asian household

do you think that mental health is real

or perhaps

when did you realize that mental health

is important

now we’re so obsessed with the idea of

being yourself

let’s not talk about how many of us

truly know who we

are as a human let’s talk about how many

of us has put in

effort to actually know ourselves

sit down and give this a thought

what gives you satisfaction what are

your boundaries

how are you taking care of yourself how

are you feeling

right at this moment and no don’t shake

it off with that i don’t know or

i don’t care life goes on either way

this time

why do we keep avoiding conversations

with ourselves

we enjoy interaction we crave people to

understand us

we love the care that others give to us

but

what about from you to yourself

from me to me

it is so easy to shut off your thoughts

and hop on a call with your best friend

to talk about some random tea you just

picked up but trust me

when i say that those little emotions

you try to bury

can build up one at a time

i’m not a psychologist however

i believe that you can relate to a

certain extent as i’m saying this

some mornings we just wake up with a

negative stream of thoughts

and some days those streams turn into

reverse

sound familiar well face

those streams as they are and i hope

that you’re at least a little surprised

of how accurately i described the

feeling

now when big feelings don’t go away

then they can become mental health

issues

give your mental health priority for

once

and start letting lose when you need to

you see for yourself

how much difference it makes start

asking yourself

if pushing yourself this one time will

make a difference in a long run

or would letting yourself off the hook

this time make

a bigger difference i never knew how

much better i would have felt

if i’ve just given myself a little bit

more time to simply take a breather

lying on my couch watching some netflix

whenever i’m feeling overwhelmed

help me come back stronger

way stronger because i’ve been in that

stream

and i’ve been in that river and

sometimes

i do go back but we have to embrace it

because we might even find hidden

treasures

in those rivers now

my last question for you is

are you feeding into this culture and

are we

part of the problem think of it this way

the stigma related to mental health is

because

of how we were taught to view it

but we should never be afraid of mental

health the prejudice we hold

is towards the image or meaning of

mental health that is rooted in our

heads one change

will butterfly into another

if we change the negative meaning in our

own

hearts we will change the meaning itself

and at the end of the day there is

nobody to blame

and there is no one to point a finger at

because

we are part of this we are part of the

decision

on whether this stigma continues its

cycle

now believing in mental health does not

and will never

mean abandoning our traditions it is

common to apply the usage of western

medicine in asian countries

but does that indicate that we’ve lost

our core value

as asians no but i understand

because change sounds so

overwhelming and it’s complicated

but we can look at it step by step

and acknowledgement is the first step

i want to congratulate you here if you

have acknowledged the fact that stigma

exists in our very own household

community or culture

now what can we do after this seemingly

new mindset that

hits us like a sack of bricks

start talking yes

as simple as that be the one to initiate

conversations with your parents and help

them understand you might not be able to

convince them the first time

or second time but what is stopping you

what is stopping you from trying

state your thoughts and show that you

care

show that you want the connection and

show your love

we want the butterfly effect to

magically occur

in our homes but we need to bear in mind

that every butterfly evolves from a

cocoon

break through the cocoon then the

butterfly effect would start

thank you