Wednesday 4 April 2018

Mental health problems aren’t really discussed in the Asian community

an article by Rohan Banerjee published in the New Statesman

Paul Chowdhry
                                       Paul Chowdhry

The stand-up on stereotypes, grief and taking the piss out of ignorance.

Paul Chowdhry, born Tajpaul Singh Chowdhry in 1974, says the decision to anglicise his first name shouldn’t be overhyped. “When I got to school at five years old,” he explains, “my dad told them my name was Tajpaul. The teacher asked if they could call me Paul – obviously that extra syllable was a bit too difficult for them – and it just sort of stuck.”



Depression, with which Chowdhry has experienced “an on and off battle” for many years, is something he says that Asian families tend to struggle to understand. “Mental health problems aren’t discussed in the Asian community really. We don’t even have a word for it. Across all those Indian languages, there isn’t one that actually has a word for depression or anxiety. You’re seen as a mad man, really.”

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