Aylin Gomez Melo tends to take a step back when facing challenges.
She faces college alone with no guidance, the first in her family to step foot on a college campus. Navigating academic hardships only increases her anxiety. Pushing herself has not helped in the past — she’s learned to back away from letting her mind wonder if she is meant to be there.
Melo, a 19-year-old UF graphic design freshman with Mexican and Guatemalan roots, said she’s never struggled with an identity crisis with her culture. Instead, she has become more aware of her changing attitude toward mental health. While she’ll usually ask for help when facing challenges, she said there are times when she doesn’t. Feeling overwhelmed about school only contributes to her imposter syndrome and self-doubt.
Melo’s experience reflects the challenges many low-income descendants of immigrants face when entering higher education. The stigma surrounding mental health makes many opt not to pursue higher education. Those like Melo, who choose to move forward in spite of it, often face stronger stigma in college.
Melo said many other first-generation students tend to develop this mentality from their life experiences, stressors they have faced and the way society perceives them.
“I have to be the example for my other sisters that I have and the rest of my family since I am the oldest,” she said. “If I reach out for help, I feel kind of dumb, or it’s like I can’t really reach out to anyone else because I don’t have older siblings or older cousins that would be able to help me.”
For Melo, the stigma around mental health grew stronger in college. She was diagnosed with anxiety and depression before college, but during her first semester, she stopped seeking help until her mental health worsened.
“There were a lot of instances where I didn’t reach out to anyone until my attendance was really bad and my grades were … not the best they could’ve been,” Melo said.
When she was diagnosed with mental health conditions, Melo said her family wasn’t very supportive of the diagnosis. They didn’t accept the idea of therapy and medications as treatment for her mental well-being, she added.
When the topic of therapy first came up in Melo’s family, it was viewed as something “crazy.” Therapy is not normalized and often frowned upon in many Hispanic communities, she said.
When she tried to have an open dialogue with family members about mental health, the conversation was quickly shut down because her parents saw it as an excuse for laziness.
Melo’s parents view mental health differently because they grew up in survival mode, she said, focusing on working from a young age rather than addressing mental health concerns.
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She said her personal stigmatization of mental health stems from how she was raised, and speaking about mental health with her peers makes her feel like a burden.
“It just seems like everyone knows what they are doing, but I’m over here worried about anxiety, about depression and things like that,” Melo said. “If I don’t see anyone else talking about it, then I shouldn’t talk about it either.”
Mental health stigma among Hispanics is more prevalent foramong recent immigrants, said Andreas Keil, a UF psychology professor.
“They want to be perceived as strong, as fitting in, as somebody who wants to make a contribution, get ahead in society,” Keil said.
Many immigrants often escape difficult situations, he said, which can contribute to mental health problems. He remarked on how many are reluctant to share their feelings or thoughts with friends because they may feel inadequate, rejected by society and disadvantaged in professional, social or personal interactions.
When mental health challenges intersect with other identities such as being Hispanic or an immigrant, Keil said the experience can intensify.
Stigma can be experienced differently depending on those identities, he said. Any factor increasing a person’s vulnerability is called a stressor and raises the risk of experiencing stigma, he said. Documentation status and language barriers can add additional stressors to immigrants.
“Every little obstacle, every little hassle, every little thing that makes you question that you are appropriate for the role that you are trying to fill in –– that adds up, and it adds to mental health problems,” Keil said.
However, he said stigma is decreasing in society as people become more open and accepting of mental health problems.
Interacting within a community and accepting the culture of the country they are in can lower and prevent stigma in immigrants, Keil said.
Rafel Ramirez Solórzano, an assistant professor at UF’s Center for Latin American Studies, said stigma stems from the disparity in access to healthcare — whether physical or mental — and society’s view of bilingual and multicultural individuals as a deficit to society. Hispanic immigrants have lived in the United States since before the civil rights movement, he said, but it’s a common misconception they’ve only begun to immigrate recently. Additionally, he pointed out that Latinos have historically lacked access to mental health care .
The stigma and shame also stem from portrayal of Latinos in media, Solórzano said, in which they’re often depicted as “locos,” or “crazy,” being overly emotional or dramatic.
“We see how women are depicted as ‘la loca,’ the hot-headed Latina,” he said.
He continued with how stereotypes and healthcare providers who lack cultural competence, language access and effective communication contribute to distrust among the Hispanic community. “Machista,” or sexist remarks and name-calling, can cause misdiagnoses. This can lead people to drop out of treatment — even if their mental health conditions are severe — because they don’t feel understood.
Asking for help is often difficult, Solórzano said, because Hispanics were told previous generations experienced worse hardships.
“I understand what it means to come from a marginalized community,” Solórzano said. “I understand what it means to deal with growing up and listening to negative remarks about my culture and having to deal with being excluded.”
The gap in stigma and mental health awareness in the Hispanic community is generational and cultural, he added. Conversations with parents about issues affecting mental health can become complicated when someone brings up issues that are traumatic or complicated in Hispanic society, such as trauma after immigration.
“They don’t want to talk about it because of all the trauma they have faced,” Solórzano said. “Mom didn’t talk to you about the history of El Salvador because she escaped the Civil War that caused so much harm and death in the family, and that is trauma.”
He said he has seen a peak in stigma in college because of the expectations placed on first-generation and minority students since childhood, as well as the strain financial challenges can cause on their mental health.
“When you are thinking about that young Latino who is entering college or whose parents are immigrants and don’t have papers, they are going to have more stress than those American white students who are attending UF,” Solórzano said.
Societal and political climates continue to widen the gap for immigrants, he added.
“We have been stereotyped,” Solórzano said, “Made to believe that we are less than if we seek help, if we seek resources.”
Contact Dulce Rodriguez-Escamilla at drodriguez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @DulceRodrigueze.
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Dulce Rodriguez-Escamilla
Dulce Rodriguez is a sophomore Journalism Major with a Public Relations minor in her first semester at The Alligator, working as El Caimán’s general assignment reporter. She loves to dance and bake in her free time, and she also enjoys watching murder mysteries and documentaries.