Simran Sethi, MBA, MSc, LHD

Asians are the fastest growing ethnoracial group in the United States and part of the largest and most diverse population on the planet. They are a group hailed as the so-called “model minority,” a descriptor developed over a half-century ago to describe the relative success, prosperity, and assimilation of Japanese-Americans in the wake of the population’s internment in the United States with attribution of said success to so-called Asian cultural values such as humility, discipline, and work ethic.

On the surface, the myth appears to flatter Asians. In actuality, it flattens: creating a devastating wedge between Asians and other communities of color and erasing individual lived experience, the rich diversity of Asian cultures, and recognition that Asians have suffered grievous harms including the direct and historical impacts of multiple wars, famine, forced displacement, enslavement, indentured servitude, racism, xenophobia, and the climate crisis. “The model minority lie,” clinical psychologist Shin Shin Tang explains, “has become such a dominant narrative that it has pervaded psychology and psychotherapy. Even when trauma is acknowledged, it is often dismissed.”  

Yet in recent years, amid a rising tide of anti-Asian sentiment and violence, mental health problems in the Asian community have increased at an alarming rate. Between 2008 and 2018, cases of serious mental illness among Asian Americans ages 18–25 doubled. Suicide is now the leading cause of death in Asian American young adults, and older Asian women suffer from higher rates of suicide than elders in any other ethnoracial group. This crisis is underreported, underdiagnosed, and—compounded by a reluctance to speak about challenges or seek help—largely untreated.

Data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (the first national study on Asian American mental health) found that nearly one in five Asian Americans suffer from mental illness during their lifetime, yet they are three times less likely to seek mental health services than their white counterparts. The reasons for this disparity are complex, rooted in systemic oppressions, cultural mores, and the internalized impacts of colonialism. 

In a series of multimedia features created for Asian Americans, mental health professionals, and the public at large, Simran will highlight these seldom-discussed issues, detailing cultural and social determinants that contribute to mental health challenges and sharing therapeutic approaches tied to Asian identity that can not only mitigate problematic outcomes, but foster resilience and support integrative well-being.