292. Toxic Desi Culture - Aradhana KH

Are you happy with where you’re at in life?  Are you comfortable in your own skin?  Did you feel pressured to get married or to marry within your faith?  Living up to others standards doesn’t work!  Aradhana is 32 years old, born and raised in Southern California.  She's a Clinical Social Worker by day and mental health/ lifestyle influencer by night. She struggles with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She was raised in a strict South Asian household and because of that her anxiety was often disregarded as “being a cry baby or uninterested”. Her parents tried hard to mold her into the “Typical Indian Child”, however each time they did it would cause her Anxiety to worsen. It wasn’t until she got to college that she got any form of validation for her Anxiety. She started to take basic Psychology courses and learned about Anxiety and what it looked like. That was when she realized she struggled with a mental illness and that she wasn’t a “failure of an Indian”. She realized that a lot of her Anxiety came from the Desi Culture and the expectations that are placed on them.   She went on to become a Social Worker in the hopes of shedding light on Mental Health in the South Asian community. That was how Aradhana’s World came about, she created this platform where she talks about the “Toxic Desi Culture” that so many of us have been raised in. She will be starting a podcast called Di NOT Aunty where she sheds light on different toxic traits from the Desi Community. She's hoping by having a platform like this she will provide South Asian’s a place where they are validated and where they know that they are not “disobedient/bad Indians” where they can see that their differences are celebrated and welcomed.  She's a daddy’s girl. Her dad has been a huge advocate of her Anxiety and though he struggled with coping with her Anxiety at times he helped her empower herself and remind herself that though she's not the “perfect Indian child” she's someone who has proven at each adversity that she's worth fighting for.  Better Call Daddy: The Safe Space For Controversy. Shout to the Dearsis Podcast for the introduction! Connect with Aradhana https://www.instagram.com/aradhanasworld/ https://aradhanasworld.bio.link/   Connect with Reena  bettercalldaddy.com linkedin.com/in/reenafriedmanwatts instagram.com/reenafriedmanwatts twitter.com/reenareena My dad and I would love to hear from you podchaser.com/bettercalldaddy ratethispodcast.com/bettercalldaddy