Mind Over Stigma: How 3 Asian Americans Cope With Anxiety
Key takeaways:
Stigma around mental health may prevent some Asian Americans from seeking help.
Some say cultural gaps and societal pressure contribute to their anxiety.
Here are coping strategies three people say have helped them deal with anxiety in the Asian American community.
Everyone experiences feelings of nervousness or worry sometimes. When those feelings seem uncontrollable, it could be a sign of something deeper — such as an anxiety disorder.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 31% of U.S. adults experience any anxiety disorder at some time in their lives. But in the Asian American community, it’s underreported. Asian Americans are three times less likely than whites to seek out mental health care.
These health disparities can have devastating impacts. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, suicide was the leading cause of death for Asian Americans ages 15 to 24 in 2017.
A few people in the East Asian American community who talked to GoodRx say figuring out how to cope with anxiety is more difficult in an environment where it isn’t talked about. Here is how three of them deal with anxiety.
Sometimes, there’s a cultural gap within the family
Genne Liu, a 28-year-old skincare company co-founder from Las Vegas, says her job compiling accurate information about skincare ingredients stems from her journey with anxiety.
Search and compare options
“For me, as an Asian American growing up, people don’t talk about mental health, especially not in my family,” she says. “There’s definitely a stigma. I remember trying to talk about it, and they kind of brushed it off.”
When Genne was 21 and feeling panicky at the idea of socializing with others at school, “I was constantly on edge,” she says. “And I was like, ‘This is not normal.’”
She went to a doctor, who diagnosed her with anxiety. But it took a while for Genne to process her diagnosis. At first, she tried taking an anxiety medication. She also tried therapy.
In 2022, she cut back on her medication. Now, she uses meditation and practices mindfulness to address her anxiety.
But it still wasn’t something openly discussed in her family.
“My family likes to go the route of, ‘You’re making it a bigger deal than it is,’” Genne says. “I think there’s a huge language and cultural gap that kind of prevents [my parents] from really understanding what I’m going through.”
These gaps can create a divide within families. They also can be a barrier for Asian Americans trying to access mental health services.
Genne has dealt with it by keeping open communication with her parents and building a support system outside her family, as well. She says it helps to know she’s not alone.
“No one should be ashamed of having anxiety,” she says.
Being the first in her family to talk about mental health
Kathy Mou, a 34-year-old certified health and life coach from San Jose, California, is a first-generation Chinese American who was diagnosed with anxiety at age 21.
While her job involves helping others work through life challenges, opening up about her own experiences has been tough.
When she was trying to conceive in 2019, she says, she struggled in silence.
“When you’re trying to conceive, you put yourself in this little box,” she says. “And being Asian, you know we don’t talk about our fertility issues. We don’t talk about our mental issues.”
Kathy says she felt that she couldn’t really talk to her parents about it.
“Because growing up Asian, parents want you to be perfect,” she says. “They compare you to other kids, other people all the time. And so, I couldn’t talk about it.”
That pressure led to anxiety attacks.
“I thought that no one understood, and I thought this was just a ‘me’ thing,” she says.
A few years ago, Kathy started researching mental health and learned about anxiety and coping skills.
“I was the first in my family to do therapy,” she says. She also tried breath work and acupuncture. She found that meditation seemed most beneficial to quiet her mind.
“Once I started practicing it more and more, I noticed a shift in my anxiety and my mental health,” she says.
Now a mother of a toddler, Kathy continues to navigate life with anxiety.
“I’m sure a lot of Asian Americans have anxiety,” she says. “They just don’t talk about it.”
Kathy says she’s learned that sometimes it helps to talk it out.
Some days are better than others
Gigi Chow, a 36-year-old content creator from San Francisco, built a business on helping people find ways to travel with their pets. She chronicles her adventures with her dog, Roger Wellington.
In a roundabout way, that venture introduced Gigi to her own anxiety. Eight years ago, Gigi decided to leave her conventional office job. She planned to travel for 18 months as a version of a gap year, then come back to the Bay Area to find another job.
But she was stressed about it. One day while driving to work, she started to have trouble breathing.
“I would try to breathe, but my breaths suddenly became really short,” she says.
She made it to work, but her heart was still pounding. So she left early to see her doctor. After her blood tests came back normal, she continued talking to her doctor. She was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).
“I worry a lot in general, so I didn’t know that anxiety is an actual medical condition,” Gigi says.
She did therapy for a year but did not always have positive experiences. Gigi didn’t want to take medication. So she returned to her doctor to go over alternative anxiety treatments.
Gigi had always done yoga. She incorporated that back into her daily practice, with a focus on meditation. She says having a dog as a companion also helps.
“The touch, the feel helped me bring down my anxiety level,” she says. “He has also helped me control my panic attacks, or lessen them.”
Gigi continues to find a balance between work and life — and in talking about her anxiety.
“Culturally, it’s not something we even talked about” growing up, she says. She’s ready to start talking about it and taking each day as it comes.
“Recognize that every day may be different,” she says. “It’s not going to be perfect. Coming to that realization helps a lot.”
Why trust our experts?
