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Sikhs within the Bay Space who search psychological well being care generally face disapproval from different members of the Sikh neighborhood, who might regard psychological well being issues as fabricated or as a personality failing.
Noor Khera of Livermore mentioned she has struggled with psychological well being points however was hesitant to get assist, out of concern about being perceived as weak.
”I’ve heard it a number of instances: ‘Be strong,’” she mentioned. “One day I started wondering, why am I so weak? My husband said to me, ‘You’re not weak, you’re sick.’ It allowed me to accept what’s wrong with me and to work on that.”
She mentioned her determination to take a physician’s recommendation and begin antidepressants has made her really feel significantly better.
Dr. Ravinder Randhawa, a Sikh psychiatrist at Kaiser Permanente Fremont Medical Heart, mentioned sufferers she’s seen have talked about this reluctance “many, many times. They’re scared of (being) judged by family and friends.”
She herself confronted judgment when she selected her occupation. “My own father, he was extremely disappointed. He questioned the field I was choosing. He would tell people I am a doctor, but what kind of doctor? So I had to take that disappointment in, and it did bother me a bit.”
However finally she mentioned, “I was able to educate all my family and encourage them to be more open to seek help.”
This concern will not be unique to Sikhs, after all. “A lot of Asian communities struggle with emotional expression,” Randhawa mentioned.
Naz Khera of Tracy mentioned her efforts to confide about psychological well being points to household and mates have been “shut down immediately.” She added that solely made the issue worse, with disapproval from others piling onto psychological well being issues.
“It would get so bad I would crash…but that is also where rebuilding comes in.”
She added that the problem may be particularly troublesome for girls and ladies. “We have to appear a certain way, which is not ourselves, in front of any community member that we meet.”
As dated as it might sound, there’s nonetheless a robust sense amongst some that well being points are “all in your head,” Randhawa mentioned. “But I can say the same thing about habits and hypertension. You can control these by eating well, running and exercising.” However with regards to psychological well being, she added, “for some reason, people just don’t understand.”
Some youthful Sikhs observe there’s a hole discovered between them and older generations. Many Sikh households within the Bay Space embody immigrant mother and father, who might have come from an surroundings the place psychological well being was downplayed.
Kamalpreet Kaur is the Sikh Pupil Affiliation president at Sacramento State. “A lot of men are sent out of Punjab to work and save money,” he mentioned. “They have to end up keeping their struggles buried inside them.”
Potential solutions lie inside Sikhism itself. “There is a lot of meditation in our religion,” mentioned Arsh Kaur Sidhu, president of a well being assist group at Sacramento State College, “as well as peacefulness and acceptance.”
Agamjot Aulakh is a member of the category of 2027 at James Logan Excessive Faculty in Union Metropolis.
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