Okay so gonna get a bit personal for #WorldMentalHealthDay about why it’s really important for 2nd generation Asians to talk about their mental health. Bit of a trigger warning about mental health and suicide and my family might be annoyed about talking about family stuff.

Had to take time off work last year for mental health reasons, and went home to my parents. Parents did the Asian parent thing to support (feed you lots) and was great, but my mum also get a bit freaked out when I went to the sea to swim (I wild swim for my mental health).

The reason being is that a few people on my mother’s side have committed suicide and she was worried that I was gonna do the same. Also worried about people knowing about it would ruin my career.

So I had to talk her through stuff. Things like triggers. What my symptoms are. How I deal with them. What sort of medication I take and their side effects. How other people I know have dealt with it.

Talking about it like any other illness rather than this mysterious thing that took members of her family away from her helped her process and understand what I’m going through, but also I hope makes it a bit easier to understand what happened with the others.

I’m lucky that I could get the help I need, but I’m sad that older generations in the Asian community don’t get the mental health support they need because of the perceived stigma attached. That’s why I’ll continue talking about my own situation to make it easier for the next.