Tanaya Kollipara - Stigma: Breaking the Asian American Silence on Mental Health

The stories in this book are real.

They come from real people, who decided to share their lived experiences with the world. These individuals have revealed the most intimate details of their lives, in the hope of providing comfort (to those who may be struggling) and promoting empathy (within those hoping to understand mental health better). In doing so, they have provided us with a gift: an opportunity to learn, to understand, to connect, to grow.

The stories I write about in here come explicitly from what the person has decided to share with me; there is no fabrication or falsification. Doing so would be inauthentic, a disservice to the mission of this bookto share peoples truths, to remove the stigma around mental health. While these people and their experiences are real, there are many who werent quite ready to associate their names with their stories. In an effort to preserve their anonymity, some of the names, details, and identifiable information have been changed; in some instances, the events and scenarios of a few interviewed individuals have been culminated into one.

All of these changes were only made after long deliberation, with extreme care taken to ensure the hearts of these stories remained untouched. It is a terrifying place to be inknowing that the most personal aspects of your life will soon be revealed to the world. So, please understand their need to remain anonymous and my attempts to respect their wishes.

I must also make a note on my use of Asian American in the title and in this book.

Throughout the chapters, I will be using Asian, Asian American, AAPI, and API interchangeably to reference the Asian American and Pacific Islander racial groups. While doing so is most definitely a disservice to the unique and separate histories of these two groups, it is not without reason.

For one, the majority of research and data lump together Asians and Pacific Islanders into a single monolithic group. This makes it difficult to effectively communicate the findings for the Asian and Pacific Islander groups individually. However, where I can, I will try to reference them as separate entities and share their unique histories. But, ultimately, the focus of my book is on the actual mental health stories and experiences of the AAPI community; hence, the information I share about these respective communities will be limited. That is why I urge you to look to other sources to learn more.

Secondly, while this is a trivial reason, writing out Asian American and Pacific Islander every time will quickly make my writing quite cluttered. Nevertheless, in order to ensure I acknowledge both racial groups, I will prioritize using the terms AAPI and API.

With these explanations, I hope you, my dear reader, can come to understand why I made this decision. My intention is not to erase the distinction between the Asian and Pacific Islander racial groups. Rather, I aim to make the stories and information as digestible as possible. Only by making the writing clear-cut and accessible can we truly promote greater understanding among all members of all communities.