On Asian Mental Health, Advocacy, and Family Relationships: An Interview with Jennifer Tran
We are aiming to share the voices and experiences from Asian mental health advocates! If you are interested in submitting your responses to these interview questions, please email us at contact@fauna-npo.org - we would love to hear from you!
Please introduce yourself!
My name is Jennifer Tran (aka my pen name, Jennn). I'm a first generation Chinese and Vietnamese American that recently graduated from UW. I take pride in my Cantonese heritage, but also want to learn more about my Vietnamese culture as I didn’t have many opportunities to connect with that part of me growing up. I am neurodivergent (Autism & ADHD) and have lived experiences with the struggles of having C-PTSD and anxiety.
What are your experiences with mental health, and why does mental health advocacy matter to you?
Mental health started off as a passion project for me to understand more about my own and my friends’ asian family systems. Growing up, I Googled a lot of my problems because it helped me better socialize and understand family abuse.
Mental health advocacy matters to me because I want to give voice to my lived experiences. After all, if I don’t speak up about my story, then who will? There are at least 8 billion people on the planet, and a lot of people with mental health challenges, so I’m sure there is at least one person that’s going through something similar to what I have gone through. Online communities, like Discord, Reddit and 7Cup, are some of the few spaces where people can freely and authentically share about these types of experiences. My goal in speaking up is to make those resources more easily accessible for everyone.
What has your personal experience been about mental health stigma and shame?
I grew up in a constantly stressful household. My parents worked a lot, even during vacations or when they had “time off”. Parenting was pretty hard for them to balance on top of struggling with their own addiction and mental health issues. I was often called lazy or a “couch potato” throughout my childhood whenever I put things off. After a while, I began to internalize these messages no matter how much praise I received. My family is supposed to know me better than anyone else. Their words carried a much heavier weight.
Early in my childhood, I struggled a lot with advocating for myself and setting boundaries. I had internalized my family’s messaging that I should be putting their needs above all else, even when they had often been the people that hurt me. I learned early on that how I feel and what I want doesn’t matter as much as someone else’s needs.
There has historically been a lot of societal stigma associated with mental health, and over time that stigma has evolved. There were many times where I masked how I was actually doing because I didn’t think it was the right time and place to burden other people with my pain. And yet, seeking therapy brought its own set of complications for me.
When I began going to therapy, I definitely felt a lot of shame about getting professional help. I also felt an additional layer of shame thinking about how much privilege I had to even be able to afford therapy, and that I was lucky to have great experiences during it. Over time, I have come to appreciate how nice it feels to have someone from the outside understand what you’re going through, and that getting professional help is my personal decision, not my parents’, friends’, or anyone else’s.
What has taking care of your own mental health looked like, and how has it evolved through your lifetime?
Taking care of my mental health varies depending on where I am in life and what I have access to at that moment. I’ll list a few here.
Gaming: I try to be mindful when playing video games, as I can put in a lot of hours into it, especially if I get immersed into the experience. At the same time, video games are an effective coping mechanism for me, especially when I reach a depressive phase in my life. It gives me an objective to complete and a sense of mastery when I reach it, even though the objective doesn’t do much in my practical life (networking, school, etc.).
Exercise: Exercise is a way to get out of my own head sometimes. My favorite way of exercising is walking and hiking. It is one of the few instances in my daily life where I was forced to focus on my body and what’s in front of me.
Family & Community: Spending time with family and community sometimes naturally takes care of my mental health. I like that I don’t necessarily have to talk about how I’m actually doing. Instead, I can use that energy to help my neighbors, volunteer and spend time with the people that matter to me. With family, just being present with them, helping them cook, and so on feels like enough. Everyone deserves to be in a community where they can feel safe and call it home.
Writing/Journaling: I have been writing/journaling consistently for about 10 years now. There are a lot of benefits to writing. One of the biggest benefits to writing for me is that it slows my hyperactive brain down.
What do you think are some of the biggest barriers preventing Asian and BIPOC individuals from seeking mental health resources, and how can we work to address these barriers?
In my family, only me and maybe 1-2 others in my entire family have ever professional help. All of us have been within the millennial or Gen Z generations. My parents never grew up learning Western therapy techniques, probably because they were too busy trying to survive day to day, and information around mental health was hard to access outside of Western countries. For my parents' generation and older, barriers to utilizing mental health care include a mix of thinking they don’t need to, stigma, pride, and not enough therapists that specialize in BIPOC elder clients.
I think for younger folx, barriers can include cost, long waitlists, and challenges finding the right therapist. In terms of accessibility, many Asian Americans still live in areas where they don’t have direct access to Asian or BIPOC therapists. Financially, paying out of pocket for a therapist can be very expensive, and not all therapists have sliding scale spots or take insurance. Even when using insurance, the cost of each session adds up over time. Finally, within and outside of the U.S., mental health is still stigmatized, which continues to make it challenging for people to feel motivated to seek help..
How can we, as individuals in the Asian community, support each other on a day-to-day basis?
If you don’t know where to start, start small. Check-in with anyone you care about, whether that is friends, family, loved-ones, online connections, or even acquaintances. Breaking the ice with simply a, “How are you doing?” can start a meaningful conversation and connection. Quality time or acts of service is my main way of supporting my loved ones. Sometimes I offer my time and a helping hand. Sometimes, I ask if they need a body double in a co-studying space. Even when I hit a low point, I feel better knowing I’m taking initiative in potentially making someone’s day or life a little bit better.
What advice do you have for someone seeking mental health support? Any specific advice for those in marginalized communities?
Google or find support groups, resources specific to your relevant identities. For example, looking up Asian support groups or Neurodivergent support groups. This will help narrow down your search much faster. It’s also important to keep in mind that sometimes resources are geared more towards people that are White and heteronormative, and leave out the needs and nuances of minoritized groups.
Lean in to your support group. If there are individuals or groups of people that make you grow and feel safe, try to reach out and ask for help.
Finally, especially for younger BIPOC folx: Build up on your skills to help you feel and become more resilient and independent. Try to take initiative in being someone that you can also rely on!
About the Author
Jennifer Tran is neurodivergent (AuDHD) contributor and volunteer for FAUNA Mental Health. She hopes to apply what she learns from her anthropological and interdisciplinary university courses to uplift people to open more discussions about mental health. In her free time, she enjoys going on walks, cafes and collecting stickers.
Positionality: Asian American, neurodivergent heterosexual women in her early twenties
