Personal Experience says Yeah, this is a fucking huge problem.

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

A Fatal Cultural Gap: Depression Among Minorities

Editor’s Note: Trained mental health professionals find it difficult to diagnose depression in minorities, most of whom are already reluctant to seek psychiatric care, because the psychiatric framework for evaluating behavior is Euro-centric. National Depression Screening Day is October 8.



Major depressive disorder is a common disease, occurring in approximately three out of every 20 people in the United States.

However, members of minority communities, especially first-generation immigrants, often express their illness in a manner that is different from their white counterparts, which makes it more difficult to diagnose depression in them, said Dr. Russell Lim, who teaches cultural psychiatry at UC Davis School of Medicine.

“We (who are trained in Western medical schools) are defining depression though our cultural lenses,” said U.S.-born Lim. “A cultural psychiatrist, on the other hand, looks for less specific signs” than those outlined in medical textbooks.

For example, a “markedly diminished interest in pleasure” is one of the signs Western-trained psychiatrists are asked to look for in a patient.

“But if you’re a Buddhist, your belief is you don’t seek pleasure,” Lim said. “You don’t ask that patient what do you do for fun?”

Or, if you are an immigrant who has come to the U.S. from a refugee camp, like many Hmong and Vietnamese have, their concept of “the pursuit of happiness” would likely differ from their white counterparts, he said.

Lim pointed out that in some Asian languages, there is no word for depression. A Hmong patient, for instance, would come in and say, “‘I have a troubled liver.’ And the interpreter would tell me the patient is depressed.”

“I’ve never had an Asian immigrant patient tell me that he or she is depressed, unless they’re second or third generation Asian,” said Lim, who practices at the multi-lingual Sacramento-based Adult Psychiatric Support Services, where the patients are mostly indigent.MORE

My Dad was all about, i don't discuss my problems with other people. Mom was like, only Americans have time to get depressed. There is stuff that is unique to culture that white Americans are unlikely to understand, unless they have really done the cultural competency stuff. I had one lady who got me, cause she and I shared same culture. Its amazing how much more freer I felt with her than with the person that I have now.

Comments

[the-willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

My new therapist is Italian. My other therapist, of almost 10 years? Jewish and a woman. There definitely were some things that I'm sure she understood much better because she's Jewish and that specifically has experience with 'our stuff' and 'their stuff'.

Meanwhile my new therapist is very very American, but has at least recognized that our first three years (at least) or so working together will involve him getting a clue.

This cultural stuff though? Is not just about American/Euro-centric vs Minority Ethnicity Diaspora, it's generational too. For years my therapist did not understand that the internet for me is social, and not isolationist the way all her conference courses were teaching her about how being on the internet is a sign of major depression or addiction. Apparently those lectures had no clue for many years about social networking.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

This cultural stuff though? Is not just about American/Euro-centric vs Minority Ethnicity Diaspora, it's generational too. For years my therapist did not understand that the internet for me is social, and not isolationist the way all her conference courses were teaching her about how being on the internet is a sign of major depression or addiction. Apparently those lectures had no clue for many years about social networking. oh dear. As an adult? I do solemnly swear to try to keep up with the times.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

have you seen 'willow weep for me' by danquah?

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

No...*goes to look that up*

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[parlance.livejournal.com]

I got to the point where I refuse to see a white therapist. I just can't deal anymore.

Thanks for the post.