HELLO JI!

A WORD (OR TWO HUNDRED) FROM THE EDITOR

The suck-it-up-and-carry-on training is so ingrained in us, it has become our default setting. Image credit: ALAN GARZON on Pexels..

Toronto Foundation’s report on isolation and mental health in Toronto gives a whole new meaning to six degrees of separation.  According to it, the number of people in Toronto with six close friends and six family members has dropped significantly from 2018 to 2022.  You have to ask, how many newcomers have six family members or six close friends here in the first place?

More and more people are dealing with depression and anxiety. Mental health is a major challenge for youth, newcomers and women, and finding culturally appropriate mental health services can be difficult.

Her own brush with mental health issues compelled Rana Khan to gather mental health narratives of South Asian women in Canada. The result is a slim but powerful volume, The Stories Around Us, that she contributed to and also edited.

She partnered with the York Centre for Asian Research and the Office of Women’s Health Research in Mental Health to launch the anthology with an online panel discussion on mental health.

Namrta Mohan was a speaker at the webinar. She is a registered psychotherapist, speaker and clinical supervisor, with more than 15 years of experience in the field of mental health.

Kripa Sekhar, another speaker, is the Executive Director of the South Asian Women’s Centre and former co-chair for the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children.

The webinar was a fabulous initiative in the South Asian context with all the taboos around mental health, particularly for South Asian women.

The suck-it-up-and-carry-on training is so ingrained in us, it has become our default setting. It’s also a double-whammy.

We don’t recognize the signs. I can think of at least a couple of members of my extended family who were likely depressed, but everyone thought of them as “difficult” or “thin-skinned”. I was a child then, but looking back, I think, if only...

When we do recognize the signs, we feel guilty about taking the time to focus on ourselves. Asking for help or sharing our stories is a big no-no. These stories really are all around us and thanks to Rana and the brave contributors who bared their struggles, now among us.

It’s a collective responsibility to combat the stigma and silence around mental health, as Rana said. To unlearn false belief systems that glorify the problematic depiction of a “good woman” in countless Indian soap operas, said Namrta. “We have to look at mental health from a community perspective and support women,” urged Kripa.

The Stories Around Us is available by emailing anthology20rf@gmail.com or ranafk@hotmail.com.

Latchman Narain shows us one of the many ways we can take charge of mental health in our cover feature this month.

I wish you and yours a happy, healthy New Year!

Shagorika Easwar