Written by Ruthie Suarez Growing up in a Filipino household, mental health wasn’t something we really talked about. When I felt anxious or overwhelmed, I was told to pray, distract myself, or just push through it. My family cared about me deeply, but mental health was seen as something you handled privately, not something you openly discussed. Because of that, I learned to hide what I was feeling. When I started noticing how easily I got distracted, how hard it was to focus, and how often I felt tense or on edge, I started wondering if something deeper was going on. I finally decided to bring up the idea of…