I have dealt with Anxiety and Depression for years and my Latino parents have always had some interesting responses to it. Unfortunately, the Latino culture doesn’t really address mental health or let alone mental illnesses. When I started going to therapy in 6th grade, I remember some of my uncles and other extended family members calling it the “locero.” Pretty much calling me a crazy person for going to therapy. Of course, this mentality is held by many people across different communities, but my experience with having mental illness’ and being Mexican has shown me that the community is severely lacking conversations and actual knowledge on the aspect.
My parents’ reactions to my sister and I going to therapy was pretty supportive. But, there was still the occasional comment about us being overdramatic and jokes about being crazy for needing a therapist to help us with our mental health. Their reactions are pretty common across the Latinx community as I have had friends who wanted to go to therapy, but their Latino parents claimed that there was nothing wrong with them. They said that it was ‘all in their head’ and that their problems would be solved if they just prayed and asked for god to help them. I had another friend whose mom wouldn’t let them attend therapy because they claimed that they were fine and were just doing it for attention.
All of this made me realize that it’s a common belief in the Latinx community that mental illnesses are not real, or that they aren’t serious. This mentality is not only damaging to any member of the community who is struggling with a mental illness, but also can even be damaging to relationships within the community.
When I started going to therapy again a couple years ago, my dad made jokes about how he had heard me crying almost every night and that hopefully a trip to the “crazy doctor” would help. I would hear comments about how I was weak for not being able to deal with my problems and how I should know how to suck it up and deal with life. Hearing all this made the process even harder but thankfully my therapist was a real trooper and helped me through it. I learned that all the negative stigma in the Latinx community about mental health was just honestly bull. Having a mental illness doesn’t mean you’re crazy at all. Chemical imbalances are a thing. Mental illnesses are as serious as any physical illness or injury. And needing professional help does not make you weak at all.
Unfortunately, the Latinx community is a little too prideful and I think that adds to the negative stigma around mental health, we don’t want to admit that there is something affecting us, or that we need help. The Latinx culture is values family and the collective group, rather than other individualistic cultures and thus it has to live up to those values. By stigmatizing mental health further, it is making our community even smaller and weaker. Some may argue that the idea of mental health may be a western ideal, I think it’s more of just becoming aware of our own bodies and minds. There is nothing wrong with having a mental illness and I hope that the Latinx community steps up to the plate and addresses mental health better.