May 2, 2024; New York – “Every time someone stands up and shares their story about mental health — however young, old, or well-known they are — they are giving permission for others around them to say ‘hey, maybe I can share my story too, maybe my struggles aren’t so unusual’”, said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy as he unpacked his journey with mental health during a conversation with Dr. Sue Varma, author of Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being, and NBC News Senior Correspondent Vicky Nguyen at Asia Society New York. 

To kick off Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage month and Mental Health Awareness Month, Dr. Varma, Dr. Murthy, and Nguyen gathered to discuss the often-stigmatized topic of mental health among the AANHPI community. "A lot of the times in the AAPI community, people think as emotions as inconvenient. Whereas people in the Western world often see emotions as expressive and artistic, among Asian Americans, emotions are often seen as being barriers to getting things done," shared Dr. Varma, explaining why mental health can sometimes be brushed over as an inconvenience.

Mental health struggles often manifest differently in non-Western bodies, which current diagnostic standards don’t often take into account. While depression is typically associated with low mood and insomnia among Caucasians, in Asians it might manifest through more psychosomatic symptoms like bile complaints and headaches.

On top of this, the diversity of the AANHPI community’s experience with mental health is something that is often overlooked when conducting clinical research. “We know that 78% of Filipino Americans say that they enjoy good mental health as compared to 46% of Chinese Americans. We also know that one third of Korean Americans experience depression as compared to 16% of Chinese -Americans. So there really is a big difference,” said Dr. Varma.

During the panel, Dr. Murthy and Dr. Varma shared several strategies to enhance mental wellness within AANHPI communities and in general. We’ve consolidated them below.

1. Opening the Dialogue about Mental Health

“One of the cultural shifts that have often found myself feeling that we need to make in the Asian -American community — and more broadly — is to go from seeing mental health struggles as a weakness to recognizing it as a first step towards mental strength,” said Dr. Murthy. “That is part of the broader work that we have to do in our community: making mental health part of health and no less important than physical health. It doesn’t happen because you write an article or a bulletin. It happens when people hear people like them speaking openly about their journey of getting help.”

2. Remembering the Importance of Relationships 

According to Dr. Murthy, the lasting and sustainable sources of happiness and fulfillment in our lives comes from relationships: “Most people don’t realize that loneliness and isolation are actually associated with pretty significant physical and mental health harms. But it is more than that, it is a major contributor to so much of the sadness and despair that people feel today.”

3. Giving Community Members a Sense of Purpose 

“We know that people who have a sense of purpose live on average eight and a half years longer,” said Dr. Varma. “People who don’t have a sense of belonging or don’t feel a sense of mattering end up feeling like they are a burden and then those are the thoughts that lead to suicidal thinking.”

4. Showcasing the Science Behind Journaling

“There is so much science behind 15 minutes of journaling a day. People who journal have better recovery after stage four breast cancer in terms of quality of life,” said Dr. Varma. “Journaling is not going to cure your medical disorders, but it will certainly help in coping with them.” 

5. Teaching People how to Reframe Emotions

When processing emotions, Dr. Varma says you have to name the feeling, claim the feeling, tame the feeling, and reframe it. This strategy is the backbone behind Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and can be helpful when unpacking the trauma that often comes as part of the immigrant experience. 

“We have found that 75% of a population of South Asian refugees had PTSD, and it is very common for the immigration experience itself to be traumatic, even if you are not a refugee. The reframing is very important in these cases,” said Dr. Varma.

6. Normalizing Therapy

"A lot of what we have in our mind about Western psychotherapy is this idea that you have to bash your parents, and that is not something that is done in Indian culture,” Dr. Varma said when discussing misperceptions of therapy in AANHPI communities. Helping people find “culturally sensitive care in their language with someone that looks like them and sounds like them” is the first step in starting the conversation about therapy among older members of the AANHPI community.

7. Understanding the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media 

One of the most common questions Dr. Murthy has received from parents during his tenure as surgeon general is whether or not social media is safe for kids. However, “there weren't readily available answers, so we set about putting this advisory together and in doing so we found two things: there wasn’t actually enough data to say that this was safe for our kids...and that there was growing evidence of harm. Kids who spent on average three hours or more on social media faced double the risk for anxiety and depression symptoms. We were also finding in nearly half of adolescents were telling us on surveys that using social media was making them feel worse about their body.”

8. Keeping Youth off Social Media Until Middle School

“The ideal thing to do is to actually delay the use of social media until after middle school, because that is the critical phase of brain development and social development in early adolescence, said Dr. Murthy. “If your child is already using social media, protect critical zones in their life for development by making them tech free zones. This includes sleep, in-person interaction, physical activity, and learning.”

Watch Dr. Murthy, Dr. Varma, and Vicky Nguyen’s full conversation here.