Around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide.

Though treatments are widely available to those suffering from mental illnesses, two-thirds of people who have been diagnosed with mental disorders never seek out help from health professionals.

Why is that? One would imagine that with treatments so readily available for disorders, those facing these illnesses would seek help to ease their pain right?

Well, not necessarily. And here’s why.

Today, I want to take some time to explore what we do as members of the South Asian community to perpetuate the stigma, and what we can do to change the way we see, help, and treat mental illness. To do so, I asked a friend, and member of our church community, Diya Antony, to help me out. Diya is a 20 year old student studying Sociology and Public Health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Diya is a huge advocate of breaking the stigma particularly in the Indian community. Her journey to becoming an advocate began while reflecting on adverse childhood experiences, particularly related to the death of her baby brother, Vikas. “I began to realize the importance of speaking up about pain after seeing how Vikas couldn’t vocalize his own suffering because he was so young. As I got older, I also noticed there are cultural factors within the South Asian community that can make it so much harder to embrace vulnerability and express any pain and suffering you’re experiencing without being judged or gossiped about.” Diya’s points are so incredibly valid - stigma often stems from the desire to maintain normalcy, reputations, and status, no matter what the cost may be. This is especially true for South Asians, and oftentimes, it prevents individuals and their families from openly discussing their mental health. After all,

This mentality is dangerous, it keeps people from being vulnerable, and in turn leads to a subconscious idea that mental illness is a personal weakness that must be swept under the rug so no one knows.

Diya also spoke to me about how, in addition to the stigma, a lack of awareness also contributes to the staggeringly low number of individuals who seek out help. She told me about how often illness is perceived to be something physical. When you say you’re in pain, the first thing you’re asked is “what hurts?” or “what happened?” There are so many layers to pain and suffering and it is so important to note that illness can go far beyond physical manifestations. “Mental illnesses do not need to stem from some crazy dramatic event,” Diya said. “Oftentimes, it can be as simple as understanding that though you may be where you want to be in life, something is holding you down, something is causing deep unhappiness and you don’t know what.” Additionally Diya said, people often forget that mental illness is genetic and can be transmitted during pregnancy. Trauma can be easily passed down to the next generation through the uterine environment. During this extremely sensitive period for the offspring, exposure to harmful stimuli can have long-lasting detrimental effects in a child's physiology and psychology. Not many people are aware of these facets of mental illness, and that is why it is even more important to educate people on the signs of mental illness, and how to go about helping individuals who are suffering, no matter what the source of their trauma is. Diya touched a lot on the fact that many people respond to individuals with mental illness by minimizing their pain. Do any of these responses sound familiar?

“There is a tendency in our South Asian communities to feel entitled to dictate how other people should process and persevere through hardship. We shouldn’t be complacent with these mental health trends in South Asian communities. We must focus on creating spaces that allow for our communities to empower one another and not minimize other people’s experiences,” she said. It is important to understand that pain and suffering are relative. I’ve heard the following analogy a million times, but I think it illustrates this concept beautifully: Just because the person next to you is in a full-body cast, doesn’t mean your broken arm doesn’t hurt. What this is trying to point out is that there may be people who are suffering more than you, but that doesn’t mean that your pain is not valid. Minimizing someone’s struggles is not productive, but rather detrimental.

Now that we have taken a look at the most common reasons mental health is ignored in the South Asian community, and addressed helpful and unhelpful responses, where do we go from here? What are the next steps that each of us can take in order to help end the stigma? Diya told me about an incredible organization she is a part of, through which she works to shatter the stigma everyday. Diya is part of an organization called MannMukti, a mental health organization geared towards the South Asian community. The organization is a digital platform that spreads awareness about mental health in the context of the South Asian diaspora. By definition, “MannMukti” means mental liberation. The organization was founded in 2017 by Abhijith Ravinutala and its mission is, “to encourage healthy, open dialogue of South Asian mental health issues in an effort to remove stigma, improve awareness and promote self-care.” According to the organization’s website, they hope that “by highlighting the many different forms mental illness takes within our community, we can reduce the collectivist pressure to sweep these issues under the rug.”

Breaking the stigma that surrounds mental illness in our community will not be easy, and it cannot be done overnight. However, being an active participant in this important conversation is an amazing first step. This can mean getting involved in organizations like MannMukti, but it can also mean parents being involved in your children’s lives and being aware of their mental health. It can mean as a sibling, checking in on your brothers and sisters, and as a friend, being a pillar of support to someone in your life who may be struggling. If you take anything away from this piece, I hope that it was to get up, and get involved. Together we can end this stigma and we can do so by starting the conversation in our own communities. So, next time someone you know is down, struggling, in pain, or just needs someone to talk to - approach them with empathy, stay away from judgments, and go forth with an open mind to help our brothers and sisters.