Zayas said he saw cultural attitudes influencing the therapy approach firsthand in Philadelphia. “In my practice, as a mental health provider, they would come in and they didn’t want therapy, qua que erían eran consejos (what they wanted was advice). That way, he said, they could still feel like they weren’t getting therapy — just a few words of advice.
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“My cultural heritage plays a part of why I ignore my mental health,” says Yazdani Trujillo, a 17-year-old Latino from Brooklyn with Mexican and Brazilian roots. “That’s because in Latino communities, mental health isn’t really talked about, which is why we often struggle to find ways to cope.”
Zoie Guity, a 19-year-old Afro-Latina from Brooklyn with Honduran Garifuna roots, has faced the silence surrounding mental health herself. Zoie says her mental health struggles have been present for much of her life since her twin sister was diagnosed with cancer.
“Since my sister was in the hospital, everyone was so focused on her, but they had to be. They basically left me to deal with everything on my own,” she says. Despite trying to keep up, Zoie’s symptoms eventually worsened. “At one point, the depression prevented me from enjoying the daily activities I usually enjoyed. I considered quitting the dance team and step team because of how intense my down days were. I felt like I had no one to talk to about what I was feeling because it was hard for me to put it into words.”
When mental health is accepted, our cultural values, especially as descendants of immigrants, often tell us to work harder and focus on something else. Jailani Marie Guzman, a 16-year-old Afro-Latina from the Bronx with Dominican roots, says, “I joined a bunch of clubs and a lot of volunteer activities so I wouldn’t have to feel like I wasn’t doing anything. or think too much about emotions. I feel like if I’m distracted, I wouldn’t focus on the negative emotions.”
Jailani says her sadness peaked when she had to worry about the living conditions in her neighborhood and inside her home. “Being from the Bronx means I constantly have to worry about my safety. I had to constantly make sure everything was working in the apartment,” says Jailani. “It didn’t matter how much time we spent cleaning … rats and cockroaches would still find their way into the apartment.”
An analytical review published in 2016 noted that, “Black [Latines] have lower median household income, higher unemployment, and higher poverty rates than white Latinos.” Surprisingly, this can affect health and well-being, according to the review.
In addition to poor living conditions and the stress of discrimination, your access to the community can also affect your mental health.
“Discrimination was so prevalent for me because of the lack of representation for the queer community in my town,” says Ve’ondre Mitchell, an 18-year-old Afro-Latino from Washington state. “For most people in my town, I was the first trans person they met, and being a racial minority in a predominantly white populated area didn’t help either. Because of this, although my teenage years are precious and should be cherished, they are tinged with sadness.”
Of course, Latino and Black adolescents face many of the same pressures to exacerbate anxiety that their peers do, but these may be compounded by cultural expectations.
