Breaking the Silence Around Mental Health in South Asian Communities
In South Asian households, strength is often stitched into our very upbringing. We learn to endure, to persevere, to carry generations of sacrifice on our backs with quiet pride. But what happens when that silence becomes suffocating, or when we’re unaware of the load we’re actually carrying?
Recently, mental health programme Hope and Light held focus groups with South Asian Community members. A common thread emerged: the journey to mental wellbeing is anything but straightforward. Yes, this is something we already know. However, cultural barriers add another layer, complicating the journey and making it even harder to access support. Beneath our vibrant culture, tight-knit families, and deep-rooted traditions lie painful barriers that keep many from seeking the help they desperately need.
Here are some of the key themes that emerged, experiences shared by community members, and issues we must address:
1. Stigma Starts at Home
Many participants shared how mental health struggles are met not with compassion, but with criticism. Family members, including extended family and in-laws , often label those who speak up as ‘dramatic’, ‘attention-seeking’. or ‘overthinkers’. Men face even harsher judgment, sometimes being called ‘crazy’, ‘possessed’ or even ‘abusers’ simply for expressing vulnerability.
2. “Take these pills and you’ll be fine”
The healthcare system isn’t always a safe space either. Many feel services are quick to prescribe medication without addressing the cultural context or underlying emotional distress. Side effects follow but real healing doesn’t.
3. A Crisis-Only System
Mental health support often only becomes available when someone is in severe crisis. But what about those silently battling anxiety, stress, or trauma every day? Participants highlighted how the system often fails to catch people before they fall.
4. Language Lost in Translation
Even when someone finds the courage to ask for help, language can be a major barrier. A lack of interpreters or culturally aware practitioners leads to misdiagnosis, confusion, and disengagement. Many South Asian languages don’t even have a word for ‘mental health’, making it difficult to explain the concept or understand what support is available.
5. Isolation Within the Home
For many, the home is not a place of refuge. It’s often a space of control, expectation, and limited freedom. Saying ‘no.’ can be dangerous. Speaking up can mean family rejection. Emotional abuse is normalised and personal boundaries are taboo.
6. Men: Raised to Be Strong, Punished for Being Vulnerable
Men in our communities are raised to be stoic providers. Expressing emotion is seen as weakness. As a result, pain is bottled up, mistrust grows, and reaching out for help is percieved as a threat to their masculinity. The stigma around seeking support makes many feel like ‘less of a man’.
7. Trauma passed down, silence passed on
Generational trauma runs deep. Our parents and grandparents focused on survival, often pushing emotions aside. That mindset of ‘just get on with it’ has left many in the next generation feeling emotionally stuck and unseen. Many don’t even realise this because they’ve grown up with it as the norm, unaware that emotional neglect isn’t something we have to accept or repeat.
8. The Fear of Being Seen
In close-knit South Asian communities, privacy is rare. Just walking into a mental health or domestic abuse service can spark whispers. This fear of being ‘found out’ keeps many trapped in silence. In small cities like Bradford, where everyone knows everyone, the fear of judgment and exposure can stop people from seeking the help they need, especially when they don’t know who might be in the room.
What Does Our Community Say Needs to Change?
Healing in South Asian communities must start with listening; not fixing. By truly witnessing and not judging.
Mental health services need to reflect our cultural realities: offering interpreters, long-term support and community-based outreach. We need safe spaces, education, and honest conversations to break down stigma and build trust.
Hope and Light is different.
The Hope and Light programme is about creating those safe spaces, starting those conversations, and offering culturally responsive support for our communities.
Hope and Light is a joint project with Mind in Bradford Craven and District and Staying Put, a domestic abuse charity. It provides mental health support to the Black African, Black Caribbean, Central and Eastern European, and South Asian communities recognising the diversity within and beyond these groups through a range of culturally responsive services.
Honour our heritage and break cycles
We can honour our heritage not just by celebrating the strength of our ancestors , but by breaking the cycles that no longer serve us. Strength isn’t silence. Strength is saying, ‘I need help’, and being met with ‘I hear you’.
Find out about how Hope and Light can help you here
Ayesha is from the South Asian community and is a Community Engagement Worker on the Hope and Light Programme working both with Mind in Bradford District and Craven and Staying Put.