SASKATOON -- Justine Abigail Yu was taken aback but sadly unsurprised when a complete stranger verbally assaulted her while she was sitting in a Toronto park.
“She yelled out loud that ‘all Chinese people should go to jail,’” the Filipina woman recalled to CTV News.
While she has firsthand experience being the victim of a racist attack, she has the tools to cope with it, and shares them with Asian Canadians who’ve been experiencing a mental toll from wall-to-wall news coverage of anti-Asian hate.
Since last year, Yu, a Toronto-based magazine editor, has been running various writing workshops for people from racialized communities to share their varied experiences, which includes venting about racist attacks they’ve experienced, as well as the vicarious trauma they feel from others being targetted.
And mental health experts told CTVNews.ca, journaling and venting can be therapeutic for many who feel their concerns are finally being taken seriously.
“I think it’s important that when we finally vocalize those things that we are received in a safe way, especially since so many of these things have been internalized for so long,” Carmen Huang, a British-Columbia-based registered clinical counsellor, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
For years and in too many cases, she said racist experiences or microaggressions have been downplayed or dismissed. So it’s very welcome to see more and more people finding others to publically have their feelings and experiences validated.
“If you are feeling angry, name it. If you are feeling sad, name that and do not feel you need to suppress that,” Huang said.
Huang is also encouraged by more people online sharing how they’re not OK or seeking therapy, because it normalizes talking about the mental trauma from racism.
Another mental health expert, Lin Fang, echoed that.
“There is a community supporting me, where people not only have shared experiences but also shared interests where people want to do things together,” said Fang, associate professor of at the Factor-Inwentash Chair in Children’s Mental Health at the University of Toronto.
Meanwhile, mental health experts are praising the Facebook group venting space in Quebec, “Groupe d’Entraide contre le racisme envers les asiatiques au Québec,” for being a sounding board for people.
“It’s helpful but it also brings hope in a time like this,” Fang said, adding that she too felt there was a collective relief of not needing to justify their feelings regarding anti-Asian racism.
But the concept of vicarious trauma is not lost on for other racialized groups, particularly Black people fighting against police brutality and anti-Black racism.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO TAKE TIME FOR THEMSELVES
“We know that trauma leads to forms of despair, hopelessness, nihilism, aspects of depression, anxiousness, your palms are sweating,” Chad Dion Lassiter, a licensed clinical social worker, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
He said even people like him, who work to tackle racial injustice, need to take breaks too.
Lassiter strongly urged racialized people, especially Asian people now who may be struggling, to consider going to therapy, either through social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, or even talking to trained people of faith.
Doing so can equip them with the language to articulate what they’re feeling and learn mental health tips when they’re triggered, said Lassiter, the co-founder of Black Men at Penn School of Social Work, Inc. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice.
He also urged people to turn to journaling, meditating or praying, instead of slipping into bad habits such as oversleeping or self-medicating.
Fang agreed, saying some may feel guilty taking time for themselves, but that the guilt isn’t warranted.
“It’s okay, we don’t have to be combating it all the time, we need to take care of ourselves first and when we have the energy, then we can re-join,” she said. “Having some self-care is always helpful to maintain that wellness and well-being.”
Huang said people should do things which recharge them, like reading, turning to art, singing, enjoying a walk or simply writing down your feelings.
Lassiter also encouraged people from non-Asian groups to check in on their Asian friends and colleagues and ask what they need.
“The moment that we find ourselves in is that we’re interwoven, we should be supporting one another because of the fundamental basis of who we are that we’re all human,” he said, noting support between racialized groups has to be reciprocal and ongoing – something he’s seen happening lately in many younger generations of Black and Asian people.
