Diaspora Dreams

We are all one

hardships

  • Feeling Invisible in Mental Health Spaces

    I entered my first mental health space out of survival, not choice. It was late in high school. My essays had turned grim—soaked with suicidal undertones that, to me, felt like casual honesty but to others flagged danger. My English teacher, Ms. Singh, stepped in. I will never forget her. She quite literally saved my Read more

  • Depression Does Not Look the Same in Every Culture

    For much of my life, I didn’t believe I was allowed to call myself depressed. The image I held of depression had been shaped by media, school, and Western portrayals: someone lying in bed all day, unshowered, crying, unable to function. That version of depression was extreme, visible, and loud—and because I didn’t match it, Read more

  • Why Mental Health Conversations are So Hard in African Families

    Growing up in my African household, emotions were never acknowledged in any meaningful way. They were treated like background noise — irrelevant, messy, and ultimately useless in the grand scheme of survival. Life was hard. That was the understanding. The expectation was clear: tough it out, push through, and survive. Mental health did not exist Read more