Spread the light with Dr Devika B
Welcome! We feature first-person accounts of living with mental illness that aim to dispel stigma and stereotypes and instead, spread hope and light. Because stigma festers in the dark and scatters in the light. ||| I'm your host, Dr Devika Bhushan, a pediatrician, public health leader, and equity and health changemaker. In 2022, I served as the Acting Surgeon General for California. I also have lived experience as a woman of color, a parent, a person with bipolar disorder, and an Indian-American immigrant to the US by way of the Philippines. ||| Join our transformative well-being newsletter community — with written versions of interviews like this, along with deep dives into evidence-based trends in health, innovation, and culture: www.askdrdevikab.substack.com/about and watch video versions of our conversations here: www.youtube.com/@drdevikab
Spread the light with Dr Devika B
Pooja Mehta on mental illness advocacy as a South Asian American woman
Pooja Mehta serves with me on the National Board of Directors at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She’s been a powerful mental health advocate since she was 19 and lives with anxiety with auditory hallucinations, depression, and lost her brother Raj to suicide in 2020.
Hear from her on:
- How she centers being a South Asian woman in her advocacy
- What current suicide prevention efforts miss
- An annual tradition in honor of her brother, Raj, to foster kindness and connectedness
- How to craft a lived experience message to drive policy change
Trigger warning: In this episode, we talk about death by suicide, suicidal ideation, anxiety, auditory hallucinations, and depression.
Transcript here. Video conversation here.
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SPREAD THE LIGHT WITH DR DEVIKA B:
Because stigma festers in the dark and scatters in the light.
* Join our well-being newsletter community that examines evidence-based trends in health, innovation, and culture, and destigmatizes mental illness — centering lived experience, equity, justice, and cross-cultural nuances: askdrdevikab.substack.com
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If you or a loved one needs help for a mental health crisis in the US, don’t hesitate to call or text 988 — or reach them online here. Find other resources here, search for a treatment facility here, and find a therapist here. Here are resources specifically for LGBTQ people. If you’re a US-based clinician or health student dealing with “any issue, not just a crisis,” reach out to the Physicians Support ...
Transcript here: https://askdrdevikab.substack.com/p/pooja-mehta-on-mental-illness-recovery