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This post is specifically about how
to find help outside of your family members. I understand for most of you that
it could be hard telling people outside of your family, if even your family
members, that you are suffering from a mental disorder because you may worry
about the way that people will perceive you and your family. This especially
holds true for people who identify as Asian American. One person talks about
his experience with mental disorders as an Asian American male in college:
Another Asian American female in
college said, “The general idea why Asian Americans don’t admit that they have
problems is because when you admit that you have issues it makes you weak. The
outlook of your family in Asian culture is really important, and as one person
you represent the entire family. So if there is something wrong with you, then
people think that your family didn’t teach you well and it looks bad for your
entire family. If you’re depressed some families assume that it is because you
aren’t grateful for what you have, and they get mad at you.”
Another issue in America and in
many other cultures is that mental disorder is stigmatized. People in general
don’t like to tell others that they have a mental disorder because of the fear
that those people will think that they are “crazy”.
All of these factors listed above
are barriers for a lot of Asian Americans to getting help outside of their
close family members. The help that we are referring to is therapy and opening
up to close peers. There are other factors as well that contribute to Asian
Americans resisting help from outside of their family. Those factors have to do
with the ethnicity of the therapist or if the therapist understands Asian
culture. According to Effects of
counselor race and counseling approach on Asian Americans' perceptions of
counselor credibility and utility”, Asian Americans preferred a directive
counseling style which is characterized by logical, rational, and structured
approach, as opposed to a more ambiguous nondirective counseling style. They
also found that Asian Americans assigned more credibility to counselors who
were ethnically similar to them.
Taking all of these factors into
consideration, we would like to give you some advice on how to seek help
outside of your family.
Try:
1. Realize that mental illness is not
something that you are completely in control of, but something that takes a lot
of work to overcome.
2. Come to terms with the fact that you
have problems and that all human beings have problems as well, even if it doesn’t
appear that way.
3. When looking for a therapist, try to
find someone who you would be comfortable talking to. That may be someone who
is of the same gender or same ethnicity as you, or uses a certain kind of
therapy style (nondirective vs. directive).
4. Don’t give up looking for a therapist
even if the first one isn’t right for you. Therapists are like finding a
significant other, they have to meet your criteria and they have to work with
you.
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