Approximately one in five Americans deal with some form of mental illness in a given year. Mental health advocacy has attained a whole new stage to spread the message of acceptance and removal of stigma. However, these platforms only represent a small portion of the audience suffering from mental illnesses. A majority of the resources depicted tend to portray certain mental health issues only affiliated with a specific population, such as depression among white males or eating disorders faced by skinny white females. The images that represent mental illnesses, without addressing people of color, leave individuals suffering with the doubt that their experiences and severity of mental health illness is not relevant. These constant reminders that we are not actually suffering are ingrained in us and cause a worsening of our mental state.
The refusal to acknowledge an issue in the first place is common among Asian-Americans, and as a first generation college student of immigrant parents, my subconscious telling me to get over my anxiety and toughen up only serves to strengthen the argument that refusal to acknowledge mental health only worsens the condition. Growing up with strict parents who have come to America with the only goal of achieving the American dream, first generation students of color start to believe their parents about overcoming depression by simply not being sad or lazy. Over time, the younger generation of people of color starts to excuse their mental illness as something they are responsible for because of the guilt caused by it. The guilt comes from the idea that their parents are working day and night to provide for the American dream so therefore we must overcome the anxiety and depression on our own as its considered a disability only for the privileged. However, most of us are in an environment that is almost identical to our peers, who have an easier time accessing resources, which causes decline in our mental health because of inequality in terms of mental health representation and invisibility of the severity of our mental illnesses.
In order to overcome the disparity and unequal representation of people of color in mental health community, many projects have been proposed to counter the stereotypical representation of mental illnesses in the media. The issue of mental health only being brought up when a white man goes on a shooting spree is the issue and the idea of mental illness ever being a problem when an academically driven first generation student of color spirals out of control. The cause of these students’ outbursts are blamed upon their cultural pressures and expectations, which is often true, however simply blaming their mental health on something that cannot be changed so easily is not a logical path to a solution. The most important change is the simple acknowledgement of the problem because if it is never addressed, how can it be solved? There must be some intersectionality with mental health that allows people of color to utilize their cultural context to reclaim their sense of belonging and begin to feel more comfortable in openly speaking up about their mental health.
Photos by Eleanor Ritzman