No one ever explicitly told me not to talk about my mental health, as an Asian American, but the omission was enough.
The statistics indicate the urgency that these "talks" need to happen: aggregated, suicide is the first leading cause of death among AA and NHPI youth (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). Even before the world reeled from COVID-19, AA and NHPI mental health disparities were evident. When broken down by race, suicide is the leading cause of death among Asian American young adults aged 15-24 in a 2017 CDC report. This is true of no other racial group in this age range in America (CDC, 2017).
It took me a beleaguered and uncomfortable month to share my story; the sixteen strings that represent my mental health journey at this point and signs of what's to come.
