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