EP4 MENTAL HEALTH IN THE LATINA COMMUNITY

In this video, the speaker discusses her experiences with mental health in the Latina community, particularly addressing the stigma and lack of support. She shares her personal story of struggling with ADHD and impulsivity during her high school years, leading to ditching school and engaging in risky behavior. She emphasizes the importance of seeking help and getting diagnosed, as well as the need for parents to support their children's mental health. The speaker also highlights the significance of compassion and understanding towards individuals with mental health issues and encourages viewers to reach out to friends who may be struggling. What's up Primas? Welcome back to my channel. Thank you for joining me. Hope you guys are having a great day like always. So today's episode is on mental health in the Latina community, addressing stigma and seeking support. I think it's really important that we talk about this because in our community, it's kind of like a hush hush conversation, mostly about ADHD, depression, anxiety, all that stuff that we weren't allowed to talk about or express about. So let's talk about it. You guys heard my story going to elementary and learning all that in my environment, all that good stuff. And junior high was no different, but my days of ditching started when I was in the 10th grade. 10th grade, I started noticing a lot of different changes in my mental state that I never addressed. So this is what would happen. I would be in class and the teacher would ask a question like, Oh, what's the answer to this? And I would blurt it out because I've always been a very smart, really fast thinker, quick thinker. And I would get in trouble for answering the right question, even though I gave him the right answer. I would get in trouble for speaking out of turn, of course, because of my impulsivity. I would get kicked out of class. My counselor would give me a pass. This was at Roosevelt High School, Boyle Heights area. He would give me a pass to go back to class or just to go to my next class. But one day, I just thought it was the best idea to just leave. He would give me a class and I would just like, you know, lie and just use that pass. Be like, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna go home, whatever. I would walk out. But yeah, I ended up not wanting to be in class because my teachers would just punish me for doing something right. But in my mind, I was right, even though I was wrong. Now I see it. But in my mind, I was right. So I didn't want to be around anybody that was going to make me feel that type of way. So I decided to just not go to the classes that they were just punishing me. So I ended up going to the park and meeting new friends and other ditchers. You know, you all kind of get to know each other who leaves at certain class period and all that stuff. My kids will never know what it's like. I could tell them about it, but they would never know what it's like. Yeah, so I would leave. I would go to the park, Hollenbeck Park, go hang out with my friends, go smoke pot, go to ditching parties, go hang out with random ass people because they were all ditchers. It was just a click. Like everybody that ditched kind of like knew each other. Like I said, we'd go eat, go eat and hang out at the local Tam's Burgers right there in the corner, or go get some donuts or pan, or go get some Cheetos with chamoy from the lady from the corner store. She already knew us. But yeah, that's what I would do and just kill time until it was time for me to go back to school and go and look for my dad's car and just pretend I went to class. That's what I would do guys. Like that's just a plain truth of what my 10th grade was like. So my mom, she's like, I'm not getting the report cards. Because I was getting home making sure I would get home, rush to the mailbox, get the my report card. Look at the grades. I knew I was flunking. I had FUUs, FUUs from like, my whole 10th grade basically. It went downhill real quick for me there. So I would get the report card. I would look at it, rip it up, throw it inside the toilet, and just pretend nothing happened. That's another part of my mental health right there. I'll tell you guys soon enough what I was diagnosed with. So I would, you know, do that. And then one day, this is how my mom caught me cheating. I mean, I'm not cheating, ditching. She went to the school because she hadn't received any report cards from the school. She's like, what's going on, you know? So she went to the school. And as I'm walking out, she used to drive an Explorer back then, you know, when the Explorers, the Ford Explorers, the four doors, you just thought you were like, it was like the excursion back then, if you had one of those. And I see her car. And I'm like, oh, shit, she's here. Tell me why. My crazy ass goes and runs to my fifth period, which was science or something. And there, I walk in there, I sit down, and they're looking at me like, does she even go here? As soon as I sit down, the phone rings. It's Ms. Garcia. She's from, was from Roosevelt High. She was our dean. Ms. Garcia calls, and she's like, you know, Sheila, hello, so-and-so to the dean's office. Oh, hell to the no. I was walking. I was like, shit, my mom. I already knew my intuition. Since I was little, my intuition has always been legit, y'all. That's a different episode I got for you guys. But let me finish y'all the story. So I go, and I, my mom's there with her face. Ya sabes, a Mexican mom face. Estaba una pinche calletada. So I was there, and she's like, so, you know, she hasn't been going to her class. She has, you know, she gives her the report card, and basically I flunked my whole 10th grade. So I get transferred to a different school, to Ramona High School. Who went to Ramona? Woo! I went to Ramona. You went to Ramona High School only if you were pregnant. The court sent you, because of ditching, and, but it didn't get that far for me. Like, I was caught before. I never got caught with, like, police, or I never got a ditching ticket. I never had to show up to court. None of that stuff. But you either were pregnant, or were sent by the court there, or the state sent you there. You know, it was a continuation school. So I'm there, and it's just all girls. All girls, bad, bad girls school, okay? But it's like, it's the worst thing that they could have done, I think, because you put all these girls, badass girls, in one school. Everybody learns more things, more bad shit, okay? But I made good friends there. I had a good time. I was in leadership. I had the best time at Ramona. I learned about photography, taking actual pictures with an actual camera. I learned how to develop them. I learned, and they gave us the best food, y'all. I don't even want to, like, the ladies at the kitchen, they were just the sweetest. They would cook and such good food for us, way better than regular school. Side note, okay? But yeah, it was yummy. I had a good time, made the most of it. I was able to finish, I was able to finish 10th and 11th grade, and then I got transferred to Johnson, another continuation. But this was COED, so I went there for the 11th and 12th grade. And check this out, guys. Like, the universe, it just, it knows what it's doing with your life. And even though when we're not in control, it's taking control for us. Because I ended up going there, and I ended up graduating six months early from the rest of my classmates, from the rest of my friends. I had to wait six months. I was able to go to college those six months that I still, I was done with high school. I was able to go to LA Trade Tech and do a few classes here and there. I just got the basics done, you know, nothing too crazy, just my general ed. And I did that. And then from there, I ended up going to East Los Angeles. This is where I'm telling you guys, I noticed that there was something wrong with me. But even though my parents never clinically got me diagnosed, I knew the symptoms and everything that I was feeling and everything that was happening to me. And the way that I was carrying myself was very not normal. And there's not another word for that. So I went to East LA College, I tried to go there for three years, three years, I, I just would quit. And three semesters, I'm sorry, not three years, three semesters, I would quit. And the only thing that I had finished was makeup artistry. When I went to straight out of high school, when I finished high school, I went to makeup designery in Burbank, and I finished my makeup artistry course. And that was in 2005. So I've been doing makeup on and off 2000 since 2005, you guys. And I've always loved beauty and like self care and all of that. But I want you guys to know my story before I start telling you guys more stuff that I've learned along my path and stuff. So yeah, so I noticed I'm like, what the hell is wrong with me? Why can I stick to something? So I started, you know, using the internet, we were the pioneers of the internet, we were coding on Myspace, and all that goodies. So I basically have ADD, guys, like not ADHD, because I'm not hyper. I'm more of an ADD. So like my focus is not there. Sometimes I have to write notes. But I never did that growing up, because I didn't think nothing of it. I didn't think that I even needed it. And you know, my impulsivity, smoking weed and ditching school and just being so impulsive. That's one of the main traits of ADD to being very impulsive. So I'm neurodivergent ADD. I was going out with the wrong crowds, I was getting easily influenced, doing stupid things. Being, you know, bad at home with my parents, talk back talking to my mom, you know, just the whole thing. And it just it spiraled me into a whole thing, guys. So check this out. My parents never even thought of getting me diagnosed, or taking me to a therapist, or they just thought that it was just a thing that I was going through just being a teenager and just being rebellious. But I'm here to tell you, please get that mental health help, because it is so it is so imperative that we get some type of help, because I wish my parents would have gave it put me on some Focalin, you know, I wish my parents would have took me some to some cognitive behavior therapy, or some behavioral therapy, something to help me because I literally struggled my whole life with my identity with my mental health. I literally figured it out on my own. And most of all of us who are listening have done the same, I'm pretty sure. So if you have children, please get them diagnosed, please get them the help that they need. Please apply for that 504 plan for their school. So they have extra help, you know, or extra tools to help them thrive in school. Because I think if I would have had that, I would have finished college, I would have actually had a career and what I really wanted to do. But I'm an artist, I have an artist brain. That's the only thing I finished makeup artistry. And I just I turned it into my passion, it became my passion, because I harness that artistry, and I owned it. And I am thriving, okay. Like I'm telling you, it has opened so many doors being an artist, a makeup artist. I've been able to work with women of all walks of life, rich, poor, traffic women, I've been able to pass on my skills to other women that are struggling financially to take care of their children and take care of their households. I've been able to influence other women to do the same, and to empower themselves and to get help. Because asking for help in our Latina community is so biased, like it's you can't like, and that's it. And that's a they don't go now or whatever, it's not that guys, you guys need to get that mental health help that we all need. We all we're all crazy. Okay, do not let nobody fool you. We're all a little crazy in some way or form. And it's okay. The people that don't think that this what a therapist told me, the people that don't think they're crazy, those are the real crazies, the people that think that they're okay, and everything's fine. But if you're questioning your mentality, your mental state, you're you're doing pretty good, like the rest of the humans out here struggling. But yeah, mental health is so important. Please get some help and get your children some help. It's not it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's nothing you guys should be able to talk about your feelings and, and cry about it, yell about it. Let it out because it really consumes you. If you just keep it inside forever, it just it'll kill you. It'll kill your organs. It'll kill your self esteem. It'll kill your friendships. It'll kill a lot of things when you're depressed, anxious, when you have ADD, like I literally blurted out to people like I got ADD people like sometimes I forget stuff. Sometimes I got to write things down. Sometimes you got to remind me because that's just the way I function. I don't take any medicine. But I do believe in medicine because my son takes medicine for his school. I gave it to him Monday through Friday. He's been diagnosed since he was eight. He's 13 right now. He's been taking on taking Focalan XR 10 milligrams if you guys are wondering what he's taking. And it's helped him thrive so much. It's helped him get straight A's. He's the star test. He's just top percentile. He helps his teachers even with their computers and stuff. He's just such an intelligent little human. And I want him to thrive in this world that we're living in. And it's not an easy one that we're living in now. It's even harder now for them. But I want to give him the tools that he needs to thrive. I want to give him the tools that he needs to be a man in this society, how to hold a job properly, how to get somewhere properly because our parents that's the way they grew up. Our parents in the ranch, they grew up like little animals just going day by day like little hermits. And it's sad that we live that way. And it's sad that we even have to talk about mental health and have to even voice it out. But it is so important. And I tell people mental health is so important because you never know when you're standing in front getting your little Starbucks or your little drink or whatever. You don't know the person in front of you or behind you. They're schizophrenic. They're bipolar. They have depression. They have anxiety. If they have a sensory issue like with loud noises. I have that. I have sensory issues too with loud noises. I can hear the fan going. I can hear the TV going. And I can hear the other clock going tick, tick, tick in my brain. And my brain is like too much sensory. And I'm trying to watch a movie, okay? So that's really hard for me. So I try to make my house, my home just real calm and peaceful just so it's not all too much sensory everywhere. But yeah, I do believe that we should support the next generation behind us. And if you see any of those qualities or any, you know, reach out to that person and be like, hey, I noticed this. Just be gentle about it. Don't go about, you know, attacking them because they're people with mental health issues. We all have mental health issues, guys. One, one, you know, nobody's perfect. These brains that we're carrying around, they're not perfect. We've been through some crazy stuff, okay? And we just got to be compassionate. That's the word that I want you guys to learn. Be compassionate, meaning have, feel for what the other person has been through. You don't have to go through it yourself to feel for that person. Compassion, okay? Help our parents because some of our moms, y'all, they have ADD. My mom, now that I look back on it and now that I know that I have that and my son has it, my mom would leave the beans and she would leave them there and just burn. The water just burned. She would start the, put the load, the dryer or the washer and not push start and just leave it there. Start doing something and leave it there. Start cleaning and leave it there. And it's like those things that you have to like check out and you're like, oh, that's where I get it from. That's where I got it from. My mom, like that lady got ADD. Ladies, if I tell you that lady got ADD, but you know, I try to put myself in her shoes and not get mad at her, but I'm human. I blow up sometimes. I'm not sitting here talking to y'all and saying, oh, I don't scream. I don't shout. I don't get mad. I don't get angry. Yeah, I scream. I shout. I get angry. I cuss. I, whatever. But yeah, going back to mental health, reach out to a friend. If you see her down, give her a hug and I hope you guys learned something and I will talk to you guys in the next one.