Topic Tuesday// Home Away From Home// Tuesday 28th February 2023 5:30-7PM AEDT

It's hard to be constantly seen from a stereotypical lens- I respect curiosity about my culture and love answering questions.. but it can often be hard to be the sole person representing an entire culture & country- that emotional labour is sometimes draining.

Welcome @Shaz51 🙂 good to see you here!

Just reading back , interesting @Former-Member , @TideisTurning , @amber22

I can relate to that feeling in other ways @Former-Member and it can definitely be draining! It's so hard being the only one, or feeling like you are. That's a lot of weight for one person to carry. And also, in my experience at least, there's a lot of difference in experiences that aren't captured if you're only hearing the experiences of one person.

Hello @OscarJones

Hello @Shaz51 🌼 !

How has immigrating to a new country and integrating into a new culture affected your mental health & recovery? @Former-Member @amber22

@Shaz51 @Prosperity feel free to jump in too if you'd like 😊

I come from a culture where growing up, the norm was often to ‘suck it up’ and carry on as there were people who had it much worse than I did. The biggest barrier was having adequate mental health support services that would cater to individuals from all socio-economic backgrounds. For me, it has been a privilege to be able to have access to services and resources that I could only dream of back home. Anxiety and depression sort of came as a package as I struggled to cope with homesickness and isolation due to COVID-19, but I was able to get support from my University's wellbeing office wherein I was provided referral pathways as I was relatively unaware. It took a while to find a culturally respectful and compatible mental health practioner, but that has been a big protective factor for me to be able to support my recovery. I think stigma and discrimination are something individuals with mental ill health deal with throughout the world- however I feel grateful to be in a developed progressive country where there is more awareness and acceptance.

Australia is a lot more accepting when it comes to mental health than the country I was in before, and there are a lot more services and government grants that can help when it comes to mental health. Recovering from my mental health journey has been a lot better here as I have had a lot more access than I would have had beforehand, and the rising acceptance of complex mental health has made me feel a lot more comfortable to share how I feel with others 😊

For me , too imagine moving to another country would be very different as I was born in Australia

But to think of my ancestors who travelled here and what they went through