By Linh Huynh

What is Intergenerational Trauma?

Intergenerational trauma occurs when a parent or an older relative goes through an event that causes them to react negatively and this spills through multiple generations. The older relative(s) can go through war, extreme poverty, and/or abuse. Since they are traumatized by the event(s), their trauma can be passed down to their children, causing them to have anxiety, depression, PTSD, codependent tendencies, or any psychological disorders. 

The Asian American community is more likely to experience intergenerational trauma than any other community due to its collectivist core values, stigma against mental illness, and high educational standards. Specifically, Cambodian Americans are more likely to experience depression and have the highest levels of trauma, compared to Vietnamese, Chinese, Hmong, and Laotians. In the 1970s, many Southeast Asians endured the loss and destruction of their homes. For instance, the Cambodian Genocide left millions of Cambodian citizens’ lives lost. The Vietnam War resulted in thousands of South Vietnamese people relocating to the U.S. or in refugee camps. The Secret War of Laos left many Laotians distraught when their homes were destroyed by millions of bombs dropped by the U.S. Many Asian parents fled their home country due to the amount of communism and abusive government policies. The wars and trauma permanently scar millions of Southeast Asian immigrants. 

South Asian Intergenerational Trauma 

Individuals who are of South Asian descent may be affected by their ancestor’s trauma. For instance, British colonialism negatively impacted the lives of many South Asian families and drove them into poverty. Colonialism has a profound influence on the children of South Asian immigrants. This has some people questioning their cultural identity. While they are aware of their cultures’ past, it challenges them psychologically because it causes them to struggle with their culture and internal self. Any emotional responses can affect one’s behavior and/or biological responses, which in turn affects one’s physical and/or behavioral health. For instance, the Partition of India caused the disruption of social networks for a number of families, physical and psychological abuse, and economic destruction. An individual’s emotional responses can be maladaptive and cause massive amounts of distress, which is triggered by negative behavioral consequences, such as unhealthy diets and lack of sleep. Our behavioral responses can take a toll on our behavioral health, which has an effect on how we interact with our families and how we use substances. This cycle repeats itself through the next generations unless someone decides to stop it. 

AAPI Parenting Style

Traumatized parents have difficulty meeting their children’s emotional needs because they never grew up with love and reassurance, but with constantly being in danger. Therefore, their trauma becomes a part of their children, which leaves them to pick up the pieces of these events that did not directly affect them. Once a traumatized Asian immigrant becomes a parent, many of them may feel the need to adopt an authoritarian parenting style. The authoritarian parenting style focuses on making sure the child is being obedient, controlled, and placing impossibly high expectations, rather than being nurturing and understanding. This may leave the children of AAPI parents to feel emotionally neglected and stressed. Research studies have shown that there is an association between family conflict and usage of substance abuse. When it comes to alleviating their daily stressors and family issues, some Asian American teenagers may turn to alcohol or drugs. Once a child of Asian immigrants starts to rebel, the parents may feel a lack of control, which is what they felt when they were losing homes and the people they loved. 

If an individual decides to face their intergenerational trauma and understand their parent’s past and trauma, then it doesn’t mean that their trauma is belittled or ignored. Everyone has the opportunity to change and it doesn’t matter how old or young you are and how much life experience one has. You can decide whether or not you want your issues to be resolved or remain. 

My Personal Experience With Intergenerational Trauma

I am a second-generation Vietnamese-Chinese American who was born to Vietnamese immigrants. Growing up, I was taught to be grateful for my family. “Family is number one. No one else will help you, except your family,” is what I grew up hearing constantly. Not many people have a supportive and loving family. But similar to everything, there is the good and the evil. When it came to our education, my parents were strict with my siblings and me. Anything lower than a B was considered failing or close to it. We were left with lectures filled with how we couldn’t do better than the rest of our cousins. Being compared to our cousins wasn’t a rare thing in our household. Everything felt like a competition, but the prize was just our parents bragging about how their child had gotten this amount of awards and had been on the honor roll for the last year. If you couldn’t do better than someone else, you were left with disappointment from your parents, which is the last thing you wanted. So you tried your best to push yourself to the limit, but then you would get burnt out from working too hard. My parents reasoned that they wanted us to have the life they only dreamed of having. They didn’t grow up with new clothes, expansive career opportunities, running water, and fresh food on the table. Although it seems fair on paper, it puts us under a set of expectations and if we don’t meet these expectations, then we feel inadequate and guilty. I don’t know too much about my parent’s history from moving to this country, but I have been told bits and pieces. Whether my parents have acknowledged it or not, they have been physically and/or emotionally abused. Their trauma sticks to them like glue and has an effect on their children. My siblings and I may have not grown up with physical abuse, but we grew up with their emotional manipulation tactics. The constant guilt-tripping, shame, and playing with our physical insecurities was something that my siblings and I lived and continue to live for their validation. 

As much as I don’t agree with the way my parents raised us, I understand my parent’s perspective whether I know their whole lives or not because they were taught one way and the only way. They didn’t grow up with the idea of prioritizing a healthy mental health, but working to provide for your family until your last breath. Many parents have this image of their children that they are emotionally healthy and are ambitious to their goals with no issues. Unfortunately, they are breaking down because they live for their parents’ validation and without it, they feel like they are no longer good enough. In my experience, it took a lot of self-reflection and a year of therapy to fully understand where my parents were coming from in terms of pushing us to our limits. The journey to self-awareness is an ongoing process and will never end. People underestimate what immigrant children go through mentally because they are dealing with the continuous pains of what their parents went through. But it is them who have to end the traumatic cycle, so that future generations don’t go through the same psychological repercussions as their parents and ancestors. 

How Norooz Can Help

According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (California), 23.3% of AAPI adults agreed to receive mental health treatment in 2019. It is clear that Asian Americans are less likely to go through mental health treatment and some may see emotions as a sign of weakness. The Norooz Clinic Foundation offers numerous types of therapy: individual, family, couples, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), and VR (Virtual Reality) Therapy with languages in English, Spanish, Farsi, and Tagalog. 

Depending on the service provided, each session is 50-90 minutes and clients can meet their therapist via TeleHealth (online) or in-person at the NCF office in Santa Ana. Norooz Clinic is currently accepting the insurance companies, Blue Shield of CA, Magellan, and Cigna. As well as, NCF is offering a sliding scale fee that applies to regular therapy and psychological testing. NCF provides a weekly peer support group every Wednesday at 12:00-1:30 PM via Zoom where individuals can freely share their challenges, learn how to cope, and discuss a number of mental health topics. 

Contact (714) 386-9171 or go to www.noroozclinic.com to book your appointment today! 

References

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Expectations and Family Pressure. Retrieved August 28, 2023, from https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Identity-and-Cultural-Dimensions/Asian-American-and-Pacific-Islander/Expectations-and-Family-Pressure

Cai, J. (2017, April). Intergenerational Trauma and Mental Health in Asian American Immigrant Families. Retrieved August 28, 2023, from https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:697859/PDF/

Choi, L. (2022, October). Intergenerational family conflict among Asian American families; an exploration of its dynamics, effects, and therapeutic interventions. Retrieved August 28, 2023, from https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2274&context=etd

Khuu, B. P. (2020, December). Exploring the Effects of Intergenerational Trauma and Parenting Strategies Among Second-Generation Vietnamese Americans. Retrieved August 28, 2023, from https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/252536/Khuu_umn_0130E_22013.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Zong, J., & Batalova, J. (2016, January 6). Immigrants from Asia in the United States. Retrieved August 29, 2023, from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/asian-immigrants-united-states-2014

Qureshi, F., Misra, S., & Poshni, A. (2023, July 20). The partition of India through the lens of historical trauma: Intergenerational effects on immigrant health in the South Asian diaspora. Retrieved September 8, 2023, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666560323000610

Lamba, R. (2020, May 20). Intergenerational Trauma in the South Asian Diaspora, Part 1. Retrieved September 8, 2023, from https://www.therightscollective.com/post/intergenerational-trauma-in-the-south-asian-diaspora-part-1