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Roots & Resilience – Mental Health through Cultural Lens
Hello fellow forumites! 👋
As a daughter to first gen immigrants, I've found it difficult (and still do at times) to find my identity and navigate what it means to be brought up in a western world while also being ethnically South Asian. And then you throw mental health into the mix, and sometimes there's different challenges to face (i.e. language barriers, lack of cultural understanding, intergenerational trauma, religious and cultural stereotypes/discrimination, etc).
From the discussions I’ve had with others from multicultural backgrounds, a lot of us tend to share this feeling of ‘conflict’, where something in the western world may be viewed in one way but culturally, it may be the opposite – and sometimes dealing with cultural clashes on our own can be difficult. So, this thread here is a space for us to feel less alone and share things that have helped us feel more empowered in our mental health journeys. Even if you yourself haven't experienced any cultural clashes or challenges, feel free to engage - maybe there's a media representation that opened your eyes to mental health from a multicultural lens? or maybe you know someone who's overcome some cultural hurdles in their journey?
You’re all welcome to share any thoughts you have but in case you're stuck, here's a few prompts to get you started:
What’s helped you deal with cultural stigmas when reaching out for support and/or talking about mental health?
Share a quote/piece of advice/story that’s been impactful in your recovery journey.
What are some books/movies/tv shows/celebrity stories/any other type of CALD representation that’s helped you feel seen or inspired?
Re: Roots & Resilience – Mental Health through Multicultural Lens
I'm 3rd-generation white Australian and I often find the dominant culture around me completely alien and incomprehensible.
It often gets me wondering, when people talk about cultural rifts between non-white 'mentally ill' citizens who don't seem to gel with our western society and/or it's mental health practices, whether we are really talking about a cultural rift, or something on a more individual level.
Do we, the aliens to 'normal' society have more in common then we give ourselves credit for? Do we overemphasize the role that ethnicity/background plays in the rifts between us and others?
I'm not trying to downplay or cast sceticism on the unfavorable experiances of non-white people. I know that there is racism, prejudice and inconsidderateness out there in the world and mental health system.
But I can state from experiance that feeling like an alien; being utterly confused by the reigning culture; feeling descriminated against and judged are not problems that are solely confined to non-white people. I'm white and I find it hard to imagine how the world around me could possibly be any more alien or incompatable with me.
EDIT: Sorry. I hope I'm not intruding, or whitesplaining, or anything like that. I'll bow out if I'm not wanted here.🙂
Re: Roots & Resilience – Mental Health through Multicultural Lens
hey there @chibam those are some interesting points. i am a bit confused though- are you suggesting that discussing the cultural aspect of mental health isn't important? please correct me if i'm wrong!!
But I can state from experiance that feeling like an alien; being utterly confused by the reigning culture; feeling descriminated against and judged are not problems that are solely confined to non-white people. I'm white and I find it hard to imagine how the world around me could possibly be any more alien or incompatable with me.
this thread doesn't imply that white people have not faced judgement or discrimination at all, this thread is more about discussing how people overcame culture-based stigmas and challenges. i know that i'm not alone in finding it hard to balance my culture views and mental health, and i want to share/learn from others how they approached things. i am a bit confused about your last line - do mind clarifying what you mean?
Re: Roots & Resilience – Mental Health through Multicultural Lens
Not to diminish the experiences of immigrants and their offspring, Some people have always lived in this place now called Australia @rav3n but they have different cultures and sometimes languages and different countries. Unfortunately these First Nations people usually have the worst problems with the dominant culture’s authorities, including health and mental health. We need to Close The Gap for them as well.
Re: Roots & Resilience – Mental Health through Multicultural Lens
@Till23 100% agree! and when i referred to culture and roots, I meant First Nations included! I didn't realise the post didn't come off that way, apologies for that - let me try edit it to make it more clear.
I was sure from your inclusiveness that you were aware of that. However, some people are still not as informed. At approximately 3 percent of Australia’s population, First Nations people are often overlooked, also of course people consider First Nations people as “Australian”
As we know there is much diversity in life even amongst so called groups. You are well aware that “South Asian” people are diverse and not an homogeneous group, even though in talking about groups it can be easier to put them in a group.
Re: Roots & Resilience – Mental Health through Cultural Lens
I'm considered half of English heritage, though my mother and grandmother were both born in Australia.
I can't say that I have language difficulties as much as I have cultural difficulties...
Every state has those areas where you don't want to be from, they have a bad rep, I'm from one of those.
I learned not to mention where I was from at university where in class they would say "oh you're from there?!?" and judged based on that, I was one of those lot. I found my lot to be a lot more approachable and friendly because all we really had was each other in class.
Even in church I learned not to mention it, that they treated me like I had cooties.
I may not have a language barrier, but I have a cultural barrier of sorts, that I got treated differently just because of where I'm from, where I grew up.
Someone once said to me that if someone can't or won't accept you, they're not worth your time or your friendship.
Where I grew up is part of my story, part of me, that's not going to change. Hiding it doesn't help me find my people, because they're only accepting of what I show them, so I need to show them all of me, that's where I find true and honest friendship and community.
hey there @chibam those are some interesting points. i am a bit confused though- are you suggesting that discussing the cultural aspect of mental health isn't important? please correct me if i'm wrong!!
No, I'm not suggesting that the cultural aspect isn't important; I'm just wondering whether a lot of the presumed 'cultural rifts' we see in mental health situations (ect.) are actually really more about a rift between the individual and the world around them, rather then a rift between the two cultures involved.
Say you have a hispanic patient and a white therapist, and their both speaking clear english - they can both clearly understand the individual words they are saying to one another - but they aren't understanding one another; it's as if they ideas they are each putting forward are coming from some foreign dimension, from the other person's point of view.
It would be easy to attribute this inability to comprehend one another to the two differant cultures involved; the therapist can't comprehend the hispanic patient, because they lack an understanding of the nuances of hispanic culture and vice-versa. But is it possible that that's not the problem at all?
What if the hispanic patient seems just as alien and incomprehensible to her own family, and own hispanic community, as she does to the white people she encounters? What if having an intimate understanding of traditional hispanic culture would have no effect on the therapist's ability to relate to his patient?
I'm not denying that there are cultural rifts in mental health care - instances where the therapist is inconsidderate of cultural factors, and the other members of the patients' cultural community would be in agreement with the patient that these factors ought to be taken in to account.
But I also worry that, in many other cases, it may be wishful thinking to believe that the communication breakdowns between the patient and the system - or society - are as simple as a mere cultural rift. This is especially true in situations where the patient doesn't have a huge pool of their own ethnic community around to really test their relationship with their own birth culture.
Say the hispanic patient I mention before belonged to the only hispanic family in a mostly-white town. How are they meant to discern what parts of their upbringing and personality are rooted in traditional hispanic culture, and which parts stem from the eccentricities of their own family group?
I get the impression that a lot of people searching for their true home cling to the idea that it will be as simple as just surrounding themselves with the culture they were born from - only to discover when they do so they they can no better relate to the culture of their heritage then they can to the white Australian culture they've grown up in.
I went to school with a couple of asians adopted into white families, who never really connected with said families. Nor did they seem to connect well with the student body or teachers, although the school had plenty of other asians who had plenty of white friends, and were well-liked by the teachers. They seemed to cling to the hope that the connection they yearned for would be found with their ethnic communities. But my understanding is when they tried to venture in to these communities, they found them even less relatable then they found their mostly-white Australian community.
Well, I guess one of the core issues is about death and suicide. My values system holds that death is not a particularly bad thing - certainly a lot better then most living situations; and that suicide is a perfectly reasonable and acceptable practice. This is in stark contrast to the dominant culture around me (which is principally made up of my own ethnicity, white British), who holds that death is something "really bad", that suicide is "wrong" and/or "insane", and that people ought to fanatically devote themselves to prolonging their own lives, at the expense of virtually everything else. This belief system makes no sense to me whatsoever.
We - myself and my surrounding culture - just cannot relate to one another. And god knows I've tried to bridge that rift.
We cannot communicate or collaborate in any meaningful way, on pretty much any issue of any consequence, because we are in disagreement over these core base principals. We all speak clear English, but we cannot communicate with one another to achieve an understanding. I might as well be living on planet Zog.
I am not compatable with dominant Australian culture, but that has nothing to do with my ethnicity or heritage; my biological family are part of the culture I can't relate to! The sort of connection, convienience and/or improvement I'm seeking can't be achieved by anybody learning more about traditional white British culture, because the answers on how to relate to me aren't in there!
So, maybe I'm unfairly projecting here, but my situation just gets me wondering: how many of these supposed cultural rifts between "mentally ill" non-white Australians and the dominant white culture aren't really cultural rifts between the two cultures at all? How many of these situations are less a case of the person being incompatable with white Australian culture, and more a case of being incompatable with the world as a whole, including the culture of their heritage?
Do we overemphasize the wisdom of looking for answers in a person's heritage? Should we be making more of an effort to percieve people as self-formed individuals, rather then products that have been defined by whatever culture they've been biologically born from?
I can't speak for others, but my own experiance has lead me to believe that one should not be too quick to believe that there is a connection between a person and whatever culture they've been born from. Especially when we're talking about individuals who are dubbed "mentally ill". They may well be just as abnormal to the people of their own heritage as they are to our western society.
