Darkness to Dialogue: Living Well With Mental Illness

⏳  Estimated Read Time: 8 minutes Article Summary In many marginalized communities, identity is survival, and survival often depends on performance. This post explores how cultural, racial, and immigrant expectations to appear "strong," "grateful," or "high-achieving" lead to: deep emotional suppression misdiagnosed mental health issues Perfection becomes the armor, but it also becomes the prison. Healing requires giving ourselves permission to be flawed, visible, and real. When Identity Felt Like a Mask I Couldn’t Take Off For years, I believed that being composed was a way to earn respect. I stayed calm, high-achieving, and agreeable, even when I was unraveling internally. In a lot of ways, I didn’t even know how to talk about mental illness because I didn’t believe I was allowed to be struggling. I thought my job was to be the exception: to be strong, collected, and "better than my circumstances." The truth is that the mask almost destroyed me...

July Mental Health in the News 🕒  Estimated Read Time: 5–6 minutes Summary: A 2025 peer-reviewed study confirms that exposure to discrimination significantly increases the likelihood of anxiety and depression, especially for racially and ethnically minoritized groups. In honor of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, this post explores how these systemic experiences intersect with mental illness and why responsive, culturally competent care is critical. Navigating the Weight of Unseen Stressors For many BIPOC individuals, navigating the world often means managing not just daily responsibilities, but also unspoken forms of stress:  misrepresentation invisibility exclusion These experiences are rarely reflected in diagnostic checklists, yet they shape how emotional distress is experienced, processed, and treated. As someone who lives with mental illness and is part of a minority community, I understand the emotional complexity this creates. Still, the goal of this piece is no...

  Estimated read time: 5 minutes Summary Burnout is not just a personal failure or a lack of self-care, especially for BIPOC communities. It's often the cumulative result of navigating: historical trauma generational expectations systemic oppression This post explores how internalized productivity culture disproportionately affects BIPOC mental health and how reclaiming rest is a radical act of resistance and healing. Unlearning the Need to Be Twice as Good For much of my life, rest didn’t feel like an option. It felt like a weakness. Growing up, I learned, directly and indirectly,  that to survive, I had to keep going. There was no room for pause, softness, or asking for help.  There were times when I truly believed I had to earn my worth by staying busy, performing twice as hard, and never letting anyone see me struggle. I grew up thinking that constant motion was the norm,  that rest was something you did only at the end of the day, once everything else was d...

🕒 Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes Article Summary: What happens when you’re the first in your family or culture to name trauma , seek therapy, or talk about mental health out loud? This post explores the: emotional labor isolation resilience of being a cycle-breaker, especially for those living with mental illness  In honor of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month , we also look at how cultural stigma adds weight to the healing journey, and how healing anyway is a radical act. I didn’t realize I was “going first.” I just knew I couldn’t keep going like this. When I first started confronting my mental health struggles, I felt like I was betraying something sacred. My family never talked about emotions, at least, not the hard ones. We swallowed grief and masked pain with strength. Therapy was something “other people” did. I didn’t have the words for what I was carrying, but I knew I couldn’t keep carrying it silently. At first, I felt proud. I was choosing healing, choosing ...