Mental Health Initiative for South Asians

Spice Up Your Mind

Stories that
break the silence.

The MHISA magazine — exploring mental health through South Asian voices, research, and lived experience.

Vol. 1 · Issue 1 · January 2025

Breaking the Silence

Our founding issue — where it all began.

Vol. 1

The MHISA Magazine

Spice
Up Your
Mind

Breaking the Silence in South Asian Communities

MHISA · Founded 2021

FOUNDERS' LETTER

Why We Started Spice Up Your Mind

On April 5th of 2021, we lost our close friend and roommate Farhan Towhid. His parents — like so many in our community — lacked the tools and education needed for the care he needed. That tragedy became our purpose.

— Ravi Parekh & Aaron Pandian→

Research & Development

RESEARCH

Catch Up with Research & Development

South Asian mental health data has long been buried inside broad "Asian" categories. Our R&D team built a disaggregation method that reaches 94% accuracy — and is using it to study how South Asians uniquely experience mental illness.

— MHISA R&D Team

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Intervention Development

INNOVATION

The Think Tank: Intervention Development

From a culturally tailored suicide prevention training to a national South Asian provider database, MHISA's ID committee is building the solutions our community has never had.

Catch Up with SACEO

It takes one first conversation for a cascade to open up. From a temple in Austin to a Syrian Orthodox church, our community engagement team is making that first conversation happen.

Tending the Garden: Growing Through Mental Health in a South Asian Home

Growing up as a South Asian woman, I didn't know mental illness even existed until middle school. What happened during the pandemic cracked everything open — and began my real healing.

— Gargi Rakhade

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Climbing & Mental Strength

PERSONAL ESSAY

Climbing: The Key to Physical and Mental Strength

As a South Asian male, vulnerability felt like betrayal. Rock climbing gave me a place to confront my anxieties — one hold, one breath at a time.

Finding Peace on the Court

Basketball became my safe haven — a place where the unspoken pressure to excel academically faded away, and I could simply breathe.

Shiva's Third Eye

A young South Asian patient at a psychiatric inpatient unit. Her parents' glances toward the only brown face on the treatment team. Within duality lies connection.

The Context Machine

I love Instagram reels. I also know something is missing. On the neuroscience of escapism, the loneliness underneath it, and what it actually takes to reclaim your attention.

— Aneesh Viswatmula

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From India to Boston

IMMIGRATION & MENTAL HEALTH

From India to Boston

December 2, 2000. A new bride arrives in Boston with wide eyes and a blank canvas. Twenty-four years later, she reflects on what building a life in a new country really costs — and gives.

The Chai Chat: Affirmations

Self-affirmations aren't just feel-good statements. They tap into neuroplasticity — literally rewiring the neural pathways that shape how you see yourself.

— Noni Seth

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"It takes one first conversation for a cascade of mental health conversations to open up."

Vol. 1

The MHISA Magazine

Spice
Up Your
Mind

Breaking Barriers in South Asian Communities

Vol. 1 · Issue 2 · 2025

Breaking Barriers

Going deeper — into identity, systems, and what healing actually looks like.

Letter from MHISA

FOUNDERS' NOTE

A Letter from MHISA: Issue 2

We started with silence. Now we're confronting the systems that created it — in medicine, in data, in the stories we're never told to tell.

— Ravi Parekh & Aaron Pandian

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Disaggregating the Data

RESEARCH

What the Data Won't Show You

When South Asians are folded into broad "Asian" categories in health data, our unique risk factors disappear. MHISA's ML disaggregation work is changing that.

— MHISA Research Team

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Chapters Across America

COMMUNITY

Building Bridges Across Campuses

From UT Austin to Stanford to UC Berkeley, MHISA's university chapters are carrying the mission into dorm rooms, student centers, and late-night conversations.

— MHISA Chapter Network

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One Small Step

PERSONAL ESSAY

One Small Step

Moving to a new country for a graduate degree, the loneliness arrived before anything else. I learned that mental strength, like physical strength, is built through small, consistent steps.

The Model Minority and the Mind

The expectation to be exceptional doesn't leave room for struggle. For South Asians, the model minority myth isn't just a stereotype — it's a barrier to care.

— MHISA Magazine Team

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The Chai Chat

WELLNESS