Mental Illness In Asian American Culture Essay

Lack of medical care may not be the ultimate factor in the low number of treatment for depressive disorders in this culture, a social-cultural script may also be of substantial significance in this matter.

Locura is a culture bound syndrome that affects Latin Americans and Hispanics, regardless of where they are born, in the United States or South America (Jilek 2001:5,9). Locura has also been documented in immigrants from the Caribbean Islands (Razzouk 2011:517). In Columbia, Locura is also known as “ataques de locura” madness attacks, it is attributed to a spell known as “maleficio”. Locura is commonly associated with other culture bound syndromes thru out Central and South America, such as ataques de nervious (nervios) and possession syndromes (Piñeros 1998:1425).

Another important theme shown throughout Crazy Like Us is the effect of family on mental illness. As a general trend throughout the book, the more supportive the client’s family was, the less negative emotions the client felt toward their own condition. In some cases, there is also evidence to suggest that family dysfunction can be a trigger for symptoms.

Mental illnesses have a high prevalence amongst the United States population. Each year, tens of millions of individuals suffer and are affected by mental illnesses (National Institute of Mental Health, 1). These illnesses range from anxiety disorder, eating disorders, major depression, personality disorder, and many more. Yet, with the existing knowledge, mental providers and professionals, and the DSM-5, mental illness remains a growing mystery to the public. Literature has played a significant role in how mental illnesses are defined, their characteristics, and the portrayal of those who are mentally ill to the public eye. From memoirs on mental illness such as Susanna Kaysen 's Girl, Interrupted to Daphne 's Scholinksi 's The Last Time I

I will introduce the culture clash by first describing the Hmong point of view on health and illness. Then, I will proceed my analysis by comparing it with the Western perspectives and practices on healing. Social stigma will also be emphasized as another negative factor

The birth of hip hop took place in the Bronx, New York , during a time of poverty , Initially when Hip Hop first came about no one would have imagined how vastly and quickly it grew nor would they have predicted the influence on society it has today. This particular enriched and animated, genre of music went from the local backwoods of the projects to a multi millionaire industry. If you ask most people today their definition of Hip Hop , generally they would say a cool rhyming scheme with a hook and a catchy tune, which is not too far off. But it is much deeper than that .Hip hop is a form of expression like a factory , if you may . You take the reality of the world or the “ bad,” you ball it around with the latest slang, trends and

psychotic diagnosis is more prevalent than in other countries who are unfamiliar with western medicine. “With Lia it was good to do a little medicine and a little neeb, but not too much medicine because the medicine cuts the beeb's effect. If we did a little of each she didn't get sick as much, but the doctors wouldn't let us give just a little medicine because they didn't understand about the soul.” - (Fou Yang, 95) One culture that has been noted to oppose western medicine is the Hmong culture. The Hmong culture does not have a word for mental health , poor mental health meant that you had an unhappy spirit. In the book “When the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” the Hmong trusted the shaman and other community members to heal Lia of epilepsy before they trust western doctors Epilepsy is a common neurological treatment that involved a general doctor and psychiatrist. In the novel there was a cultural clash between that of Hmong beliefs and western medicine, so much that the Hmong (Lia’s family) believed the medicine Lia was consuming was harming her soul. If Lia's doctors had took to the time to better understand why her parents wanted to limit the medication she took, they could have supported her parents efforts to seek spiritual and medical treatment while assuring the Lee's the medicine would do no harm to Lia’s soul. This is a classic example of the lack of cultural competency in psychiatric medicine that has led to the distrust of its treatments around the globe. Physicians are often so caught up in their course of treatment they forget to consider the

Mental illness has been around since the days of recorded history. People such as Aristotle, Thomas Overbury, and Jean de la Bruyere have studied the personality disorders. However, through history, people with personality disorders have been shunned and feared because of who they are.

According Goal Auzeen Saedi, graduates of doctoral programs in counseling from Stanford University, the dominant perception of the Asian women

The author was trying to show how the difference between two cultures can influence in health care. The author showed how the difference between illness and disease also affects the forms of treatment. It is important to recognize the patient’s cultural beliefs because this may help us to recognize how effective the given treatment can be and in what ways we can enhance the treatment without sacrificing the patient’s cultural beliefs. The author also showed how both the parents and the doctors care about Lia but what they thought was best for Lia varied. The doctors thought that the parents were harming the treatment by not being compliant and the parents thought that the doctors were hurting Lia by giving her so much medicine.

Mental health is a state of psychological well-being. According to World Health Organization (WHO) mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others." (Organization, WHO 2001) However, cultural differences, race, ethnicity, personal background, subjective assessment, and socioeconomic status all affect how mental health is defined. This variation in definitions of mental health between different sects of our society further causes drift in methods of treatment, and may cause the burden of mental health to be greater on some cultures.

One reason that explains why immigrants do not seek help is the language barrier that immigrants struggle with. The fact that “mental health treatment relies on direct verbal communication rather than objective tests as for physical illness …” (Kim et al., 2011, p.104) makes it really difficult for immigrants with low English proficiency levels to accurately describe their symptoms to a doctor further isolating them without receiving professional help. Many cultures also consider mental health issues “taboo” and might not have direct translations for such issues. (Simich, 2010, p.20). Another factor is the stigma that many cultures attach to mental health issues. In some cultures, being open about mental health struggles can lead to “social isolation and social sanctions” (Chaze, Thomson, George, & Guruge, 2015, p.96) Many immigrants are also used to seeing mental health issues as a weakness and fear not being able to trust anyone with their issues (Chaze et al., 2015, p.96). Low levels of English proficiency and the stigma that is attached to mental health are two of the many causes of low levels of mental health literacy among the immigrant population. Mental health literacy can be defined as “the ability to seek information, learn, appraise, make decisions, communicate information, prevent diseases and promote individual, family and community health” (Simich, 2010, p.17). The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, as cited by Simich (2010) “has identified immigrants as a priority group for mental health literacy interventions”

Asian American parents see the future in the USA, so they decided to immigrate there. They raise their children and give them the best of essential things. Relatively they would hope they can depend on their children and expect their children to achieve the goals that they didn’t achieve, yet. But also, parents just want their children to be well in the future. However, it was tough for Asian parents to be immigrants because they spend lots of time and money to come to the USA without any support in the past. When children heard about their burdensome stories, that stimulated and encouraged them to succeed. However, they were getting tired to work on their degrees due to their parents’ expectations. Most Asian American parents expect their children to be successful in the future. This kind of culture related to their traditional education which is parents have to be good examples then let children to imitate. A famous proverb states, “ The apple never falls far from the tree. “ Many people think genetic features are not only just similar faces between parents and children, but also their talents. This concept caused children has to excel parents’ achievement, especially academic success in Asian American families. Moreover, when some students under pressure, the worst situation is they might have suicidal thoughts. In Jeff Yang’s article who is CNN reporter, he mentions that four students committed suicide in the US and three of them were Asian American. (Yang) Therefore, Asian American students are under pressure which is a serious problem in every

Thanks for the reply. I knew the LNA felt bad at first when the resident used the "N" word, and I talked and explained to her about the different factors involved with such behavior. The LNA was very understanding and forgiving because of the resident 's mental condition. It did not affect her performance at all. Yes, I agree that it could be the disease process that was responsible for such outbursts, or it could be their past experiences and that they are re-living it. There were incidents at work that I triggered the PTSD of my veteran residents, especially those who fought the Vietnam war. There was one time that one of my residents called me the Asian "b***", started screaming and cursing. I didn 't consider it as racism because he

This includes a person’s culture, family, socioeconomic status, and spirituality (p. 46). Western cultures consider the whole equal to its sum of the parts and stress the interrelationships amongst the parts; compared to the Eastern culture who believe healthcare teams must take into consideration all aspects of the patient to treat them.