Tag: Culture

Asian Cultures and Mental Health

Posted on by Ness Gale

Judith Suryanto (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

This is just part of growing up. 

You’re overreacting.

You should be more grateful! 

Behave well in front of others. 

You’ll be fine by tomorrow, I’m sure!

 

Sound familiar? Chances are, if you’re from an Asian family, you recognize these phrases all too well.

 

Coming from an Asian family myself, I grew up in a culture that essentially doesn’t believe mental health exists. Or, even if it did, that it didn’t matter. Funny thing is though, being the happy-go-lucky pre-teen I was, I didn’t even see how this was an issue at the time. I mean, not really anyway. It wasn’t until I turned 16 that I really started to feel the negative effects of neglecting my mental health. 

 

I started to develop disruptive mood swings, intense irritability, frequent bouts of low-energy and a pattern of harmful negative self-talk. As I stepped into high school, a new chapter of my life with courses that were more difficult, teachers who were increasingly strict, and life challenges that were significantly more overwhelming, I found myself completely and utterly defeated. I felt like a fish out of water – flailing about trying to make sense of why discomfort and unhappiness were now the background music to my life. 

 

After years of poor coping mechanisms and inflicting pain on others and myself, I slowly learned how to be more mindful of my thoughts and engaged in healthier coping mechanisms, such as doing more positive self-talk, asserting healthy boundaries, and practicing self-acceptance. 

 

Taking care of my mental health is an on-going, daily process. I still have to keep myself in check even every day. But, looking back now, I realized that I could’ve started taking care of my mental health much earlier in my life had I had access to the tools, information and support I needed. At the very least, I could’ve lessened the negative toll it had on myself and those around me when I was going through the thick of it as a teenager. 

 

Barriers to Mental Health Care in the Asian Community

 

So, this brought me to the question: why? Why did it have to take me years of trial and error, suffering and resilience, to receive appropriate mental health help and resources?  

 

My Asian upbringing was a big part of why. It was found that in 2019, 15% out of 19 million people who identified as Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders reported having a mental illness in the past year. Yet, Asian Americans were three times less likely to seek help compared to other racial groups in America. 

 

How can this be? Here’s four major reasons why I believe Asian families tend to have poor mental health.

 

  1. Traditional cultural values and upbringing 

 

Asian families are more inclined to hold on to cultural values and upbringing. This includes choosing traditional medicine or remedies over modern day therapy. For many Asian families, almost all types of suffering, including mental illness, can be treated through the knowledge that has been passed on from previous generations. In particular, Asian families with strong religious beliefs tend to rely on spirituality as the main source of healing. In this sense, it’s believed that mental illness can be cured through prayer and repentance of sins alone. Hence, seeking help in any other form tends to be discouraged. 

 

      2. Collectivism and taboos

 

Studies have found that Asian cultures have a stronger sense of collectivism in comparison to Western cultures. This means that many Asians and those raised in Asian cultures have a deep obligation to their family and community to be honorable, righteous, and benevolent. 

 

 Asian Americans/pacific islanders. Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders | Anxiety and. (n.d.). Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://adaa.org/find-help/by-demographics/asian-pacific-islanders

Asian American / Pacific Islander communities and Mental Health (n.d.) Mental Health America. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://www.mhanational.org/issues/asian-american-pacific-islander-communities-and-mental-health

 

Unfortunately, this perpetuates a harmful taboo around mental illness. Many choose to hide their suffering and disregard their mental health altogether, in order to avoid shame and public rejection.

 

      3. Lack of access to mental health resources and education 

 

In the United States alone, Asian Americans have only half the access to mental health treatment as compared to other racial-ethnic groups. Unsurprisingly, this is mainly due to the lower perceived need for mental health treatment among Asian cultures – yes, this goes back to the collective feeling of shame and guilt over the stigmatization of mental health. 

 

However, another reason why Asian Americans don’t have access to mental health treatment is due to practical barriers as well, such as cost of treatment, language barriers, and generally lack of available knowledge and resources about Asian mental health in the United States. 

 

     4. Minimal culturally appropriate treatment 

 

Many mental health treatments that are available today are a result of evidence-based science founded from a Western majority population. Although some of the findings can be generalized, in more cases than not, many of these methods may not be applicable for Asian populations. 

 

The lack of culturally appropriate treatment toward Asian cultures is a significant problem that perpetuates the inability for Asians to access proper mental health care. 

 

Be the Change

 

Although there are many barriers to mental health within the Asian community, this shouldn’t mean we should get discouraged. Instead, we should be the change we want to see within our community. After all, we have to start somewhere! 

 Yang, K.G. et al. (2019) Disparities in mental health care utilization and perceived need among Asian Americans: 2012–2016, Psychiatric Services. Available at: https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.201900126 (Accessed: December 28, 2022).

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Judith has a background in psychology and statistics. Her deep interest in human behavior and affinity for self-reflection motivates her passion for helping readers better understand mental health and personal growth. Visit her personal blog here for more of her work: https://medium.com/@judithsandras

Cultural Values: A Primer

Posted on by andrew

Alan He (he/him/his), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

A culture’s values are its conceptions of what is good, right, fair and just.

 

For example, 80% of India’s population believe that cows are sacred and should not be slaughtered. Allowing cows to die naturally is one of their values. From the outside, a group’s cultural values are often difficult to understand. Sometimes these values can be invisible, but for members inside the group, cultural values are the core principles and ideals upon which the entire community exists. They are the organizational backbone of the cultures to which they belong.

 

The Importance of Cultural Values

 

Cultural values unite people, making them stronger together. People learn tolerance, make economic improvements, and pave the way for social peace within and between communities. They offer people culturally-specific instruction, resulting in positive performance and behavior. They have an impact on people’s attitudes regarding life and how they allocate resources, and improve their life skills.

 

The Negative Side of Cultural Values

 

There are some harmful traditional practices. For example, child marriage is still an issue accross many countries due to cultural values. There are different reasons behind these marriages, but the negative effects produced by such cultural values cannot be ignored. They can lead to exploitative practices that can damage people’s mental health.

 

Cultural Change and Culture Shock

 

In daily life, we are surrounded by change, and cultural change can have a dramatic impact on our lives. There is no avoiding change, as it will find you, challenge you and force you to reconsider how to live your life. People always need to adapt to the environment, because the environment will not adapt to them.

 

Culture shock and being homesick is normal — students, for instance, often experience a period of adjustment during their first weeks and months of school. Be patient with yourself and understand that it is a process. You will be excited and intrigued about cultural differences, but there will also be times where you are frustrated or confused.

 

You might find it easy to focus on what is “missing,” like familiar foods and customs from back home. However, comparisons will not help you settle in when encountering culture shock abroad. Instead, focus on the good things around you. Remember the excitement of discovering and learning new things. Exploring new hobbies or joining a social group can help you overcome culture shock.

 

It is very important that you do not compare yourself to others when learning how to deal with culture shock. Everyone is different. While you do not want to overwhelm yourself, do things that make you a little nervous, like sampling unfamiliar food or practicing the local language with a native speaker. You only grow when you reach outside your comfort zone.

 

Respectfully Learning from Other Cultures

 

As you get older, you’ll meet a wider range of people from diverse cultures. One of the best ways to understand other people’s cultures is to first examine your own. Most of us take our backgrounds for granted, and don’t even realize that our customs and beliefs might seem strange to someone else. If you think of your own way of life as the default and everyone else’s as a strange variation, it’s hard to approach those differences with respect.

 

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My name is Alan, and I am from Canada. I love playing badminton and basketball, and I am hoping to share more interesting things with you!

The Disappearance of Rituals

Posted on by andrew

Raghavi (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

Growing up in a Hindu family, there were a lot of rituals. It was part and parcel of our religion and culture, and was embedded in our day to day life. They covered birth to death and everything in between. Most of them had been passed down for generations. There were also some more recent additions, like squishing limes under the tires of a new car before driving it for the first time, for good luck — I always wonder how that particular one came about. As a child I observed my parents as they carried these rituals out, making us participate along with them, and I put it down to one more thing they made us do. My younger, impatient self was not very interested in these things, favouring my western books and TV. We rarely discussed the meaning and significance behind them; I am not sure how much my parents knew or even understood themselves. Now, as an adult, I am no longer dismissive of these practices, and I am interested in learning and understanding more. It intrigues me how these rituals — not just the ones belonging to my culture, but rituals from all over the world — came into being and managed to survive the passage of time. 

 

When my father died unexpectedly, we had a traditional funeral for him. At that time, overcome by grief, I just wanted to grieve in private and not have to go through the very public process that is a Hindu funeral. Some of the rituals that involved my newly widowed mother were cruel, and watching grown men argue over my father’s dead body about the order in which certain rites were to be performed filled me with unspeakable anger. But looking back now, the many other rituals helped me achieve a sense of closure. Death, especially when it is sudden, is hard to grasp. With those rituals, we marked the end of his life and the passing of his soul, and moved a step further in our grieving process. 

 

Now having moved from the East to the West, I am far away from the culture I grew up in, and with the distance it is easy to forget the rituals of my childhood. It is not easy to carry out these rituals alone, without your elders to guide you. Some of them feel pointless in the absence of family and friends. However, while I have lost touch with some rituals, I have also gained some new ones. I have adopted rituals like putting up a tree and decorating the house with lights every year for Christmas. These help me celebrate the gloomy winter months, and embrace and settle into my home here. 

 

Rituals mark moments in our lives, both big and small. They are an opportunity to slow down and reflect. A way to say thank you, like our harvest festival growing up, and Thanksgiving here. A time to celebrate family and friends, like Diwali and Christmas.  As our lives become increasingly fast-paced, we have less time for our rituals. Some rituals are better off being forgotten; we can leave the not-so-nice ones and carry forward the better ones. 

 

Rituals are not just associated with religions and cultures. They can also be the things we do for ourselves. A warm bath at the end of a hard week of work. The tea I make myself every morning that is pure comfort in a mug. Journaling. It is so easy to forget them as we hurtle through life, trying to juggle everything on our to-do lists, but we must make sure to make time for these rituals. These are the most important ones, the ones that we must make time for in order to cherish ourselves, to celebrate ourselves, to recharge ourselves in order to keep going and to find the best version of ourselves.

 

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Leave your thoughts for Raghavi in the comments below — better yet, start up a dialogue with the Low Entropy community in person at a Conscious Connections meeting or online at our community site. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube to stay up-to-date with Low Entropy news!

Cultural Thing

Posted on by andrew

Olivia Callari (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

Does anyone truly know the meaning of culture? Surely, when asked about our own, the idea feels as familiar as the back of one’s hand. Culture surrounds us, it is us and it becomes us.

 

When culture is rooted within us, regardless of how we came to be immersed in it, it is appreciated and held with a high level of pride. With this pride can come infinite possibilities, both good and bad. A deep love for one’s culture and being connected through it can revive those who feel lost and disillusioned. It can mend the broken and help them carry on for years and years. But it can also be like asking a patriotic person what they think about their country. Their response might be “I love my country,“ but when questioned about the controversial issues about it, their response would simply remain that they love their country. 

 

Is it common for us to love our cultures without recognizing and holding them accountable for their negative aspects? This was a question I had lingering in my mind for years and years while growing up in a rather traditional Italian culture. I have so much love and pride for my community and my roots, but there were many things that made me itch my head and wonder how they could be played off as part of the culture and tradition.

 

The main thing I wondered about the most was the excusing of hurtful behaviour amongst members of my family. Time and time again I witnessed many fights and many hurtful things being said, as well as some physicality every once in a while. While re-reading this, I heard the little voice in my head say, “Yeah, but that’s how Italians are.”

 

As I began my path to healing, once and for all, it was time to face the parts of me and traumas that I had neglected because I was conditioned to believe the behaviours that caused them were just a “cultural thing.” It was so embedded in me to attribute those behaviours to my culture that I had, in fact, developed a resentment towards it. I wasn’t able to separate my relatives’ individual actions from my culture.

 

With the need to separate from the people who made me feel unsafe, sad and afraid around them came great backlash. I was made to seem unfit to ever be a proper “Italian woman.” I was seen as weak because I chose to appreciate my culture in my own way after healing. 

 

The only regret I had was not knowing sooner that I could be happy in my culture by allowing myself to interpret it my own way. By detaching myself from a cycle of excusing my emotions in the name of culture, I found myself appreciating it even more.

 

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Olivia is a film and television certificate student at NYU Tisch and a recent graduate from Dawson College in cinema and communications. Having grown up in Montreal, Quebec, Olivia has surrounded herself with different cultures and means of creative expression, with hopes to one day incorporate it into her film and television work. Through writing and other forms of artistic expression, Olivia has a natural desire to help others overcome their inhibitions and reach their fullest potential.

New Again: Overcoming Culture Shock

Posted on by andrew

Grace Cheng (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

Coming to a new country is daunting and overwhelming. It is normal to experience culture shock, because suddenly you are confronted with a different culture, language, customs, gestures, signs and symbols. People who are not afraid of change have an easier time adjusting to it.

 

In the beginning, it may be difficult for newcomers who must establish new support systems. How long culture shock lasts depends on how well the person can adjust to the new country.

 

Having immigrated to Canada, I had to adjust to paying sales taxes and tips, as neither were required in Hong Kong. My biggest cultural adjustment at school was learning to speak up, because it counted for participation marks. In my hometown, students were not encouraged to speak as often, and there was more deference to authority. In Canada, I was expected to speak up and contribute a lot. My teachers told me they hoped to hear me speak more frequently in class. This was challenging for me since I was an introvert, in addition to being raised with that aspect of Chinese culture.

 

Initially, I was also unaccustomed to small talk, since it was not common for people to converse with strangers on the streets of Hong Kong. I learned that because small-talk topics were light and uncontroversial, they provided a safe environment for people to assess your comfort level and find common ground for conversations.

 

Tips to overcome culture shock:

 

  1. Remember that culture shock is normal

 

Keep in mind that most newcomers and immigrants will experience culture shock. As soon as you get over your culture shock, you will be able to look back with fond memories of your new culture and country. You will be glad that you can live in a different country and experience a different custom and culture.

 

  1. Be open-minded

 

Embracing new experiences is one of the most effective ways to overcome culture shock. By learning and respecting a new culture, you will grow and appreciate new perspectives on life. If you converse with people from different cultures and backgrounds, you will broaden your horizons. Consider attending parties and events, eating food from other cultures, making new friends and inviting friends to your home.

 

  1. Learn the language

 

When you learn the local language and understand what the locals are saying, you will experience less culture shocks.  Your efforts in speaking the local language will make your life easier and will make the locals appreciate your efforts.

 

  1. Learn how the locals live 

 

You will be able to adjust to a new country and overcome culture shock more quickly if you familiarize yourself with local customs and behaviors.

 

  1. Expand your social circle

 

Make new friends from different cultures and backgrounds to broaden your social circle. Taking part in neighborhood activities, community events and meetup groups are good ways to meet new people.

 

  1. Explore the city

 

See what your new city has to offer. Take public transportation to visit different places every day and act like a tourist. When you visit new places, bring your camera with you and take pictures. During this process, you might discover a faster route to take home from work, learn about a new relaxing spot or capture an interesting photo that can be shared with your family and friends.

 

  1. Find a new hobby

 

Consider finding a new hobby, such as hiking, walking in the park, visiting art galleries and museums, or taking recreational courses. When life becomes stressful and difficult, these activities will help you cope with culture shock and cheer you up.

 

Remember that culture shock is a normal reaction newcomers experience when arriving in a foreign country. It can serve as an opportunity for you to become more aware of your own culture, as well as the new culture that you have accepted.

 

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Grace has an accounting and finance background. She enjoys reading, writing, listening to music, watching movies and playing sports.

With All Due Respect

Posted on by andrew

Julia Magsombol (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

“Youth are supposed to be society’s tomorrow, but that’s all gone now. Youth are horrible and disrespectful. You can never expect anything from them.” 

 

A shocking line, isn’t it? It’s a line that I hear from different elders at every family gathering. Many young people may have heard it as well. And let’s all admit it: it’s tiring. 

 

I grew up in a very conservative family. My family and relatives are all strong believers in our culture, and they strongly maintain traditions. Trust me, I have seen enough of our elders trying to judge and provoke younger people. It’s wonderful to listen to elders and to let them guide us, but their lectures can sometimes be difficult to handle. 

 

Depression? It’s because you don’t have religion.

 

Last two years ago, I suffered from severe depression and anxiety because of school and personal problems at home. My face completely changed from before, when I was mentally stable. In the middle of winter, I was with my mom and we both went to a small grocery store. I didn’t look good. I was wearing an old hoodie and jogging pants. My mom knew all the people there who loved to gossip. The moment I entered the store, I could feel all the elderly women staring at me and talking amongst themselves. They said one thing to me: “You’re probably not okay because you have no God to believe in.”

 

The moment when those women said that to me, I was confused. I was a very religious person then. How could they criticize my belief and religion, just because I didn’t look good during that time?

 

When things sometimes don’t work in our lives, we can’t expect our religion to remove all our problems. It works for some people, but not for everyone. That’s one of the things that some elders should understand.

 

Sometimes, weight matters all the time.

 

As an Asian woman, our weight matters all the time. We should never gain weight and become fat. We are told that being fat is ugly and that no man could ever like us. My grandma used to tell my cousin to never get fat because it’s wrong and ugly. I clearly remember how my cousin became very conscious of her weight then and started eating less. She was only nine then. Sometimes weight does indeed matter. But remember, while weight may matter to some, it doesn’t have to matter to us too. We should never judge someone by their weight. We can eat what we want. We can be healthy. We can be ourselves. We don’t need to be skinny or have a specific weight for people to like us. We can appreciate ourselves for whoever we are. 

 

Your dreams do not matter. Mine do. 

 

We often hear from elders or parents that art or degrees that do not involve a doctorate or engineering are worthless. I dropped my dreams once. I hope others won’t do that just because their elders said so. It may sound a cliché, but we only live once. Life is too short to live for somebody else. It may be hard to achieve our dreams, but we should never surrender them because of others. We should still pursue them.

 

Stop discriminating against women. 

 

“Women are a disgrace.” 

Growing up as a woman in Canada made me realize how we are oppressed because of our gender and sexuality, and opened my eyes to the toxicity of our culture and family hierarchies. 

 

When I was growing up, I noticed how my uncles used to brag about how their sons were doing things that involved their sexuality. My relatives took these comments as jokes, but there was no such open conversation for women. 

 

I realized that there’s this belief from elders that women should not lose their virginity, but men should lose it right away. Women are constantly shamed for having sex, but men are always rewarded. Do those things matter? The concept of virginity should be gone, both for men and women. We should never be treated as lesser or greater because of our gender or sexuality.

 

You can never answer back. 

 

Lastly, younger people can’t respond to elders. It’s considered rude to talk back to elders, because they know better. Elders assume that when younger people answer back, it is a sign of disrespect. It isn’t. We are only expressing our opinions. 

 

Final thoughts: what should we do? 

 

Those are some of the brutal experiences I have experienced with elders, and there are more. How do we handle this kind of dysfunction? The answer is left for us to decide, but we should remember that mutual respect must come first.

 

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Julia Magsombol is currently a journalism student from Edmonton, Canada, who desires to bring hope to people through her writing. When not writing or reading, you can catch her sewing clothes, painting nature and drinking instant coffee.

From Jamshedpur

Posted on by andrew

Low Entropy Volunteer Writer Prateek Sur shares details of his childhood and surroundings in Jamshedpur, a small city in India, and how they both shaped his life and career.

 

The place where I grew up had an enormous effect on the way I think today as a mature adult. I grew up in the city of Jamshedpur, which is in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It used to be in the state of Bihar, until November 15, 2000 when the state was divided in two.

 

Jamshedpur is one of the very few planned cities in India, and the reason for that is it’s an industrial town. Two of the biggest companies in India, Tata Steel, and Tata Motors, have their biggest plants in this city. The entire district is a goldmine for minerals like iron ore, coal, copper, bauxite, etc. That’s primarily the reason why numerous industries were established in Jamshedpur and the adjoining cities over the past 100-plus years.

 

Growing up in such an industrial district, you invariably end up knowing a lot about minerals that are hidden deep inside our earth. You end up having a fascination for geography and minerals. That was probably why I loved the subject the most when in school. Even though I didn’t end up pursuing it as a career, I still have a fascination for the geography of the varied places I visit and read about. My wife always asks me what I do with that unnecessary information about a place that I might never end up visiting in my entire life. But I find reading books and watching shows about the lifestyle of varied cities from across the world helps me understand how people from different places behave, and what good things I can pick from their culture, which I can then incorporate into my life. I find pleasure in that.  

 

Also, I am a Bengali by birth. Bengalis are known to be readers and thinkers. That’s probably why, when I am on the public transport traveling to work, I am the only one who’s reading a book to while away the time while the rest are all glued to their smartphones. I enjoy reading a lot more, and I credit that to the zillions of books that I’ve read growing up. My dad is a voracious reader, and all through my childhood, I saw him reading a lot of books, which inculcated in me the same habit. This also resulted in me having a better hold on the English language and its grammar than any of my friends in school and college. That’s why I ended up being a writer, while most of my friends are either engineers, doctors or businesspeople.

 

Bengalis are also known for their inclination towards creative arts. In every Bengali family you will likely find that the son or the daughter is either enrolled in a singing or a dance class, or learning how to paint or play some instrument. My mom was a great singer and has a bachelor’s degree in music. She got me into singing as well, and I completed a bachelor’s degree in music as well. To this day, I enjoy singing songs and playing the keyboard whenever I have time. Plus, it is a great way to add life to the crowd during house parties.

 

In Jamshedpur, I was Bengali growing up in a predominantly Hindi-speaking society. This resulted in my Hindi being impeccable. That, coupled with my flair for writing, has led to me composing numerous poems in Hindi.

 

My parents were both bankers. Thus the value and importance of money were always instilled in my psyche, right from my childhood. I knew that money was important, and that it was a driving force to having a good life. They instilled in me the sense of wanting to be independent and the urge to make it on my own, without any nepotistic favours. I managed to do that, and I am proud of that fact. Whatever I do, I try to never short-change myself or my work.

 

Also, apart from music, my parents had a huge love for movies. That was passed onto me as I watched numerous films a week right through my childhood. I was watching and re-watching films not just from India, but across the world. That helped me develop a taste for good cinema. I managed to couple that with my love for writing, and today I write movie reviews for a number of print and online publications in India.

 

Finally, my love for living in the big cities emerged as I was growing up in Jamshedpur. It’s a very lousy town, to be honest, and the city shuts down pretty much by 8 p.m. I couldn’t hang out with my friends late in the evening if I wanted to, as nothing was open. It was during those years that I made up my mind that I wanted to live in big cities. Starting from going to college in Chennai to living for almost 10 years in Mumbai, and now being in the process of shifting over to Vancouver – I have always preferred big city life. The germ of that infatuation began to grow during my childhood in Jamshedpur.

 

In closing, I would like to say that where someone grows up has an immense effect on the way they end up living life as an adult. Right from the society within which they grew up to their parents’ backgrounds, to the city they grew up in – everything contributes to that person’s overall growth. All these things from my childhood have slowly and steadily impacted my adult life. You are a sum total of all that you’ve seen, felt and learned in your childhood.

 

What has stuck with you from your childhood? What environmental factors have shaped your life? Share your journey with us at a Conscious Connections meeting or in the comments below!