Mental health is an uncomfortable topic for many Asian Americans.
Whether it’s cultural or otherwise, it’s an issue the community needs to confront the same way it might attack racism and discrimination.
One story that sheds light on this darkness is unfortunately one of tragedy. It’s a story of a dying mother, a schizophrenic son and two lives lost.
It’s a story superbly told by reporter Frank Shyong in the Los Angeles Times.
Lai Hang had four months to live in 2015. She was dying of cancer. She had grown up in Laos, moved to Hong Kong as a teenager and came to the U.S. in the 1990’s.
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Her husband had also died of cancer a few years earlier when their son George was just a freshman at Gabrielino High School in Rosemead, California.
The loss of his father hit George hard. His grades plummeted and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Hang dealt with her son alone, afraid to reach out for help. Her subsequent diagnosis for cancer took her over the edge.
“If there was something wrong with George,” Hang’s best friend Ping Chong says now, “only she knew.”
“When people don’t understand that people with serious diagnoses can lead fulfilling lives, they hit the panic button,” said DJ Ida, director of the National Asian Pacific Islander Mental Health Assn.
How this tragedy played out is a revealing story that should be known. I strongly encourage you to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.
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