mental health among minorities
why a re mi no ri t i es mo re lo nely ? m ent a l hea lt h: t he Pa ki st a ni vi ew
loneliness
Poor mental health is caused by more than just a bad day or even trauma; it’s also caused by genetics and cultural perpetuation of repressive behaviors. Race and sexual orientation don’t just physically marginalize us minorities — it also affects our mental health. Minority stress stems from levels of high stress that stigmatized groups of people face. Minority stress factors
encompass race, ethnicity, sexuality, and disabled persons. According to a study conducted by Lisette Kuyper and Tineke Fokkema in “Archives of Sexual Behavior,” when they observed loneliness under the scope of five minoritiy stress factors, such as internalized homonegativity and concealment of LGBTQ+ identity, their “research has consistently found that aging lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals are more apt to suffer from loneliness” than heterosexuals.
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Mental Health & Loneliness The Pakistani View Mental-health awareness is finally getting the spotlight it deserves. Mental health involves more than just depression and anxiety; it also includes disorders that do not get the representation they need. Poor mental health is caused by more than just a bad day or even trauma; it’s also caused by genetics and cultural perpetuation of repressive behaviors. Each culture views mental health differently. Minorities in America have such a hard time accepting their mental burdens because their cultures dictate repressive or collectivistic social rules. My entire family comes from Pakistan. Despite having grown up in the U.S., I have always been surrounded by Pakistani culture whether it was here at home or whenever I managed a trip over to the motherland. While I was too young to recognize what it was, I had always noticed the lack of emotional expression in my family. I’d heard my father lecturing my brother about how crying was
useless, but that didn’t seem fair in my adolescent mind. Toxic masculinity causes a lot of problems: Men don’t express themselves due to fear of ostracization, and women and other genders suffer from the unequal distribution of power this mentality brings. Toxic masculinity, sexism and casual racism/colorism are the biggest factors that repress mental health’s prevalence in my culture. Men are meant to provide, so they don’t get to complain. Women are meant to care for the home and stay silent in the face of their inlaws, so they don’t have time to feel neglected. Darkerskinned people are constantly shamed for their complexions and are seen lower in the social caste. With all this divide, it’s hard for people to come together and find a strong support system. With my most recent visit, I was re-familiarized with these concepts. While I tried my best to teach my nieces and nephews the importance of emotional expression, it’s
going to take a lot more effort and manpower to change these toxic mindsets across the culture. The ways that racial/ethnic minorities experience loneliness can be two-fold: they feel alienated from their white counterparts or they have different values than the community they are a part of. I experienced both of these growing up. I lived in a white neighborhood, and I went to primarily white high school. My best friend and I were one of the handful South Asians. It was also during high school that I discovered I was bisexual. The subtle homophobia that radiated in my household was enough to alienate me from my parents and siblings. This was one of the hardest times in my life regarding my mental health. Had my either of my communities been more inclusive, I believe my high school experience would have been exponentially different.