“CON QUÉ AYUDARÁ una counselor?” my mom said. “With literally everything you just mentioned,” I answered.
My response to her question (“What will a counselor help with?”) was yet another attempt of mine to suggest that counseling would help our family. After hearing her complain over the phone for more an hour about my brother’s relationship with his fiancé, I told her I had suggested my brother try pre-marital counseling, and that he was open to it. My mom on the other hand, could not possibly understand how something like that would help.
To my mom, doctors are the ones that put you back together. They’re the ones who give you the pill to make you feel better or administer the treatment to make the disease go away. In her mind, therapists are something else. A therapist, she says, is just there to put the blame on someone. If a therapist suggests you might play some role in the predicament you’re in, well, then they are just plain wrong.
Consider that only about one-third of Latinx people who experience mental health issues are treated, compared to the one-half of non-Latinx people who are treated, according to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. While language and financial barriers affect access to mental healthcare, stigma that surrounds anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues remains strong in our community, affecting the overall wellbeing of our loved ones.
The one bright light in all of this is the shift in perception in the upcoming generation of Latinx people.
Read more at HealthCentral.com.
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