Emily: My parents both immigrated from different
countries in different parts of Asia
and in their culture, like
expressing emotion isn't really a thing.

There's not really an individual person
in the family unit.
You're just a part of a bigger thing
and so everyone's saving face,
everyone's
pretending like everything's ok.

And when I started struggling
with a lot of stuff,
it wasn't okay for me to say
anything about that because I was bringing
shame to the family
and I felt like I was disappointing,
not just me, but like everyone else
that was related to me.

It's really hard
for me to remember my parents saying that,
they were proud of me.

And like I am proud of myself for coming this far.
But I'm really proud
of them, too, because they've
they've grown so much with me.

Coming from a background
where you know, mental health doesn't
exist to them and they were not allowed
to talk about their emotions at all,
whereas for me, like I had certain circles
where I was allowed to.

I remember the first time
that my mum just like,
asked me if I was doing ok,
and I said that I wasn't,
and I just cried with her and she didn't
try to, like, tell me to go for a run
or to eat an apple or anything because I told her
that, like, that doesn't work for me.
She just let me cry.

And like that
would have been really difficult for her
because, you know,
she's trying to fix things.

And my dad,
who is like,
possibly the least
emotionally intelligent person
That I know, he really tries his best.

My mum messaged me.
At like 2:00 a.m.
one point being like, dad is still up,
like watching YouTube
videos about depression
and trying to like understand what it's like.

And the next day he like sent me a YouTube link
to like a video of bipolar,
which I don't have.
And he's like,
Is this what you what you go through?
And I'm like, not quite.
But like, it's so nice that you're trying.

Yeah, I just.
I'm really grateful for them.