By Sravya Tadepalli, Hyphen, December 20, 2020
When mental health activist Shivani Nishar was in middle school, she began experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Growing up in what she describes as the “white suburban fairytale” of Palo Alto, California, Nishar, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India, found it difficult to fit in.
“I didn’t have a lot of people who looked like me or had parents like me, and that contributed to me feeling like I didn’t belong,” said Nishar.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, Asian Americans as a collective are three times less likely than others to use mental health services, and research shows that Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth are more than twice as likely to have unmet mental health needs compared to white children. The impact of this can be dire, as suicide is the leading cause of death for Asian American teenagers.
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