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The drive to end my life was a persistent voice continuously whispering, “You have no value.”

A barrier to look for help early on was the cultural concern as a Latino man and the stigma associated with mental health and suicide specifically. In many Latino families, mental health is not commonly a topic of conversation at the kitchen table. It’s only now that I’ve shared my story with extended family.

Culturally, topics considered taboo like mental health (and suicide even more so) aren’t discussed — it’s left to be a private matter. The impact of staying quiet is profound as it adds to the isolation and feeling abnormal. Latino men are expected to not show emotion, as it’s perceived as a sign of weakness.

As noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2018, “Suicide behaviors have grown among Hispanics in the last decade, especially for females and for youth” — 1 in 4 Latina and Hispanic girls and 1 in 4 Hispanic and Latino boys have considered suicide. The rates are even higher for Latino/a and Hispanic lesbian, gay or bisexual individuals.

After dozens of phone calls, I finally found a psychiatric doctor who eventually prescribed anti-depression and anti-anxiety medications. I saw a therapist regularly and expressed my feelings that were imbued with tortuous blackness; I created goals to level my mental health. Taking sedatives continued as a means to handle life’s slings and arrows. We all struggle. Many experience anxiety and depression, and that the percentage has jumped alarmingly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I survived because I talked to someone who listened and cared, saw a therapist who helped me put challenges in perspective and the love of my wife and family. The dark thoughts are gone, the monster exorcised.

Read more at AZCentral.com.

For too many Americans, and for those in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, the past year has presented serious challenges: a global pandemic that caused suffering at home and abroad, political and social unrest, and economic struggles. Add to all that, there has been an ongoing series of violent attacks on Asian Americans including horrific shootings in Atlanta and Indianapolis.

For many in the Asian American community—and among communities of color—the hostility is not necessarily something new but rather reflective of underlying issues that the pandemic has exacerbated. These factors concern us as advocates for the health and well-being of the AAPI community, as well as communities of color writ large and our nation’s public health. Americans have increasingly negative views about China as it becomes more of an economic competitor. On top of that, there has been scapegoating of Asian-owned businesses with regard to COVID-19.

Some health experts warn that the COVID-19 pandemic will be followed by widespread mental health issues caused by the stressors that the pandemic has caused—social isolation, economic anxiety, and political and social unrest that have engulfed our collective psyche. For many communities of color, these stressors have already brought to light disparities in our health care system, particularly our mental health system.

As policymakers and stakeholders envision a new system, particularly for mental health, in a post-pandemic world, we should add our voices for a more equitable system by calling out the circumstances facing the Asian American community. This is a pivotal time to not only address the coming “second pandemic” of mental health issues brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic but also to rebuild the health care system and address systemic changes that have long needed attention.

Read more at HealthAffairs.com.

It is easy to be overwhelmed with the remarkably complex circumstances when considering American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities across the United States and the mental health issues and needs of these tribes and/or individuals. Each tribe has a specific history, traditions, customs, and culture, and knowing something of these will help build an understanding of how mental health problems develop and how they are expressed. In addition to learning about a patient’s tribe, gathering a personal history takes time and effort. Issues of poverty, violence, survival, family morbidity and mortality, alcoholism and drug problems, suicide, racism, and historical trauma are often a part of their story.

It might be tempting to start a problem list and then formulate a treatment plan, as has been done so many times before in Western medicine, but what are the issues in need of treatment? What are the odds of a treatment plan resolving the problems? What is the patient’s home environment? It is important to take time to think about the AI/AN communities and why chronic illnesses beset their lives. A historical review sheds light on the causes of behavioral health issues and other chronic medical problems.

Although vast improvements have been made over the past 20 years, including as part of federal agency efforts, AI/AN people still have a high prevalence of behavioral health problems and limited access to care relative to the overall US population.

Read more at PsychiatricTimes.com.

There’s no denying the mental health benefits of religion and spirituality.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness states that “spirituality also incorporates healthy practices for the mind and body, which positively influences mental health and emotional well-being.”

In an article in the Journal of Religion and Health, author Archie Smith Jr. argued that religion and spirituality are central to the Black experience.

“To ignore the religious nature of human beings while seeking to restore them to psychic health would not only trivialize a vital mental health resource in the Black experience,” Smith wrote. “It would further alienate Black people from awareness of the creative and spiritual depths in which their humanity participates and upon which their total well-being ultimately depends.”

For many Black people, and certainly for those passed, total wellness depends on the roles and rituals of spiritual practice.

This means that spiritual wellness is inextricably linked to mental wellness — the two practices work in tandem, not separately.

Whether you’ve grown up in organized religion, embraced spiritual practice, sought out mental health support, or not, it’s never too late to incorporate one or all of these practices for your well-being.

Read more at Healthline.com.

A recent pair of studies conducted by UCLA researchers found the mental health needs of the Latinx ethnic groups and Asian ethnic groups in California are not being met. The studies, published July 22, broke down the Latinx and Asian populations in California into respective ethnic groups to analyze their mental health needs using California Health Interview Survey data from 2015 to 2019.

The studies used two measures for expressing mental health needs, one being self-reported need and the other being symptoms of psychological distress, said Imelda Padilla-Frausto, one of the authors of the studies and a research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. According to the policy brief for the study on Asian ethnic groups, 68% of Asian adults with symptoms of serious or moderate psychological distress experienced unmet mental health care needs. When examining specific Asian ethnic groups, however, the percentage varied from 45% for Japanese adults to 78% for Vietnamese adults.

Similarly, the policy brief for the study on Latinx ethnic groups found that 61% of Latinx adults in serious or moderate psychological distress experienced unmet mental health needs, but that percentage dropped to 52% for South American adults and rose as high as 75% for non-Salvadoran Central American adults.

Both Latinx and Asian adults were also more likely to report experiencing symptoms of psychological distress than to report feeling like they need mental health care, according to the studies. The issue is that people are feeling distressed and are reporting symptoms of distress, but they are not connecting it to needing professional help, Padilla-Frausto said, adding that it is analogous to going undiagnosed with other medical conditions, such as diabetes.

Several factors can contribute to the variation between ethnic groups, including immigration experience, politics in one’s home country and how people are treated in the U.S., said Padilla-Frausto, who is also a commissioner for the Los Angeles County Mental Health Commission.

Another recommendation was to remove barriers to accessing mental health care by offering services in different languages and improving the ethnic and cultural diversity of providers available, said Susan Babey, another author of the studies and a senior research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Using culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate materials can help people who might have limited English proficiency and improve their mental health literacy, she added.

Read more at DailyBruin.com.

Ten years after the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell, former members of the military who were forced out of the service for being gay say they still face repercussions from the policy that one lawmaker called “a dark chapter in the history of our nation’s military.”

On Wednesday, members of a House subcommittee heard testimony about the lingering effects. Some ex-service members suffer from debilitating depression and trauma disorders. Others struggle to find work, and many don’t have access to the benefits other veterans receive — a discrepancy that leaves them at higher risk of mental health issues. Studies have found that 15 percent of LGBTQ veterans attempt suicide, compared with less than 1 percent for the entire veteran population.

Leaders at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have vowed to expand access and made a new push this week to encourage some veterans discharged under the policy to apply for benefits.

But the directive, which VA representatives called a “policy clarification,” doesn’t go far enough, advocates for LGBTQ veterans said. It doesn’t cover all veterans pushed out under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and because it’s not enshrined in law, a different administration could choose to abandon it. This fall, LGBTQ veterans and their advocates are pursuing legislation and lawsuits to mitigate the damage done by the policy.

“It’s an important milestone to recognize that it’s been 10 years since this harmful policy was lifted, but the trauma clearly continues for those who served under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) said in an interview. LGBTQ veterans “had to hide who they were, and that still weighs very heavily on them as they look for employment, and as they fight with the bureaucracy at the VA to get connected to the care and benefits that they earned.”

Read more at WashingtonPost.com.