Your Low-Stress Guide to Leveling-Up Your Bedtime Routine
Are You Burnt Out or Depressed?
Does anyone in your family have a mental illness?
That summer that I was officially diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder.
Growing up, my Latinx family discouraged any talk about mental health.
Unfortunately, that la loca narrative is a common one.
Using that term continues to reflect defensiveness and stigma.
April Mayorga is a Latina Bilingual licensed therapist, mental health advocate, and speaker.
Latinx culture has many different layers to family dynamics that work against seeking out therapy.
Latinx culture has many different layers to family dynamics that work against seeking out therapy.
Our culture has suffered an incredible amount of trauma, Mayorga says.
Attempting to utilize avoidance as a coping mechanism has become an embedded means of survival.
Not being able to talk to my family about my mental health struggles had consequences early on.
Self-harm became my primary coping mechanism for my then-undiagnosed mental illness.
Unfortunately, harmful coping mechanisms are not uncommon for Latinx young peopleespecially Latinas.
Some other common coping mechanisms are substance use addictions, aggression, and isolation.
After my years of self-harm as a teen, I threw myself into overworking as a young adult.
April Mayorga is a Latina Bilingual licensed therapist, mental health advocate, and speaker.
Sadly, drinking was like pouring gasoline on the fire of my anxiety.
(After all, ignoring mental illness was common for us.)
Already, I have heard my papi tell my not-yet-six-month-old baby that boys dont cry.
The machismo stereotypes begin early, but its a cycle I plan to break.
Something simple that can help is simply talking about our feelings around our family, says Gomez Serrano.
The more you share feelings, the more it allows others to share theirs.
Of course, its not necessarily as easy as all that.
We need to start talking about mental health the same way we discuss our physical health, says Solarte-Erlacher.
As parents, we can start simply by making it okay to have feelings.
Help them start to feel safe about sharing feelings.
Normalizing mental health at a young age can be impactful in positive ways, she says.
And theres nothing loca about that.
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