Q&A - Social Stigma around Mental Health Event w/ Nelson Szeto - June 4, 2022

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Hello everyone, we hope today's session helped some of us get some insights on how to tackle the stigma around mental health. We are aware that some of you still have questions for Nelson and would have loved to have more conversations if there was more time on hand. In light of that, we are creating this thread for you to post your questions here, and Nelson will address them.

1 answer1 reply

2 Comments

Saqib Ansari

Jun 05, 2022

Hello Nelson! The session was very insightful for me, I felt quite relatable with a few of the topics we touched upon. The thought that hit me the most is 'Why and how important it is to not isolate ourselves when we are facing issues'! However, as international students, we often isolate ourselves, because we don't have a good social circle in a new country, and we don't feel like sharing things back home as we prefer not to increase the worries of our parents. How should we tackle this situation?

connect

Jun 12, 2022

Replying to

@Saqib Ansari great question! Based on where you live, what your interests are, and what you do on a regular basis, is there a person or place who you can create your own “village” with? For example, I love fitness classes, so I joined a kickboxing class, and made many new friends there. It was awkward at first, I was somewhat shy, but after awhile, what started with just “hi”, adding a new sentence every few weeks turns into “Hey! Good to see you! I’ve been looking forward to class tonight because I’ve been really stressed at work. How was your day?“ and then “Hey, how was that presentation you were working on? Did you present today? How did it go?”

Creating connection requires 1) proximity - being at the same place at the same time, 2) progressively stepping out of your comfort zone a little bit at a time over a few weeks or few months, 3) sharing your own stories while listening intently when others talk, 4) be curious but not nosey about people, 5) be kind and caring.

This can happen at a work place, classroom, library, super market, coffee shop, at a park, school gym, etc. So find your village with what you’re already doing, or start doing something where there are other people around.

There are some individual differences based on whether you’re introverted, shy, or socially anxious which can sometimes make this hard. Step #2 (stepping out of your comfort zone a bit at time over weeks and months) is crucial for personal growth and happiness.