A whole field of study is dedicated to how cultural norms and institutions impact a person’s mental health. Your culture and ethnicity play a large role in physical illness and mental health. Depending on how open your family and friends’ discussions about mental health are, you may not have a great understanding or outlet for addressing yours. Depression is one of the most common disorders, and it does not discriminate one culture from another.
Limited Knowledge Of Overwhelm And Despair
If you have never discussed depression before, you may not even know what it is. Even if you know what depression is in the broad sense, you may not fully understand what it entails and how deep it goes. Specific terms may not be a part of your vocabulary. Certain cultural norms teach you that you work hard, you reach your goals, and maybe you don’t complain when things go awry. There might not be room for the feelings that come with failure, hardships of life, and negative emotions. When you don’t know what you don’t know, it is hard to ask for help. If standards are too high, it can create this unachievable bar which then leads to feelings of despair. Not knowing what they are or how to address them causes a downward spiral.
Mislabelling Of Mental Health
Going back to those high standards, in some cultures, strict guidelines are often set on what success looks like. Lazy or misguided might be terms thrown around. And that could be the farthest thing from the truth! Falling short of those expectations or changing course altogether can cause mixed feelings among family members. Depression can impact your ability to want to do things and make reaching goals significantly harder. You may feel exhausted and have no idea why.
Isolation
When you’re dealing with depression, certain activities can become very taxing. Depending on your culture and relationships, interactions with certain people can also become taxing. If your friends and family fall into that category, you may find yourself distancing from them. Pulling away from those close to you can cause this sense of isolation.
Process Of Healing
Some cultures acknowledge depression to some degree, but may have rigid thoughts on how long the depressive episode will last. Depression is the farthest thing from a black-and-white issue, so placing a cookie-cutter timeline on it is incorrect. You may require more (or less) time than what is considered normal in your culture. Mental health disorders may be common, but their symptoms shouldn’t be viewed as a normal response. There is also an assumption in some cultures that depressive symptoms are a normal response to any emotional situation. Help may be needed.
Gender Roles
In some cultures, there are pretty rigid roles that males and females are supposed to fulfill. If some event occurs that alters these roles, there can be new stressors that result in depression. Challenges to these roles can be a husband losing his job and no longer being able to provide financially in the same manner, or a spouse passing away, resulting in the wife having to take on the stereotypical male role for her family. The status quo gets interrupted, and difficulty can ensue.
Culture and ethnicity can significantly impact the awareness, understanding, discussion, and problem-solving of matters concerning depression. Certain cultures can place rigid standards, but when it comes to mental health, there isn’t a right or wrong way. If you are struggling with depression and don’t know how to overcome the cultural barriers, contact us for a free consultation to discuss this further.
Learn more about our Depression Therapy. Serving Boulder, Longmont, Denver.
