Ongoing ethnographic fieldwork by anthropologist Lisa Dikomitis demonstrate that mental health can be a ‘taboo’ subject for many Sikhs. This is explicitly the case for older Sikhs – the generation that migrated to the UK, but also for their children. Despite the acculturation of UK-born Sikhs, such perceptions of mental health and help seeking behaviours are reiterated through the generation. However, the concept of ‘taboo’ must be understood in the Sikh community’s socio-cultural-religious context. Our ethnographic research identified nuanced differences by gender, education, adherence to religious practice, generational status, and socio-economic circumstances in relation to knowledge and attitudes around mental health. Sikhs’ gendered socialisation patterns can either facilitate talking about mental health (for Sikh female youth) or present a barrier (for Sikh male youth), in both orthodox and secular Sikh families. Indeed, the same factors perceived as positive in one setting can also be negative in another, for example Sikhs are prominently family- and community-oriented, which provides supports during adversity but may lead to limited help seeking and fear of ‘community gossip’ – as one Sikh youth coined it – that serves as a barrier to help seeking for mental health problems. As reflected in our ongoing ethnographic fieldwork, there are often barriers to consult healthcare professionals, general practitioners in the first instance, and consistent adherence to treatment, especially medication, is perceived as generating a risk of dependence.  

This audio documentary was created with recordings made during ethnographic fieldwork in 2022-23. Several Sikh community members listened to different versions of the documentary and we thank them for their input and suggestions. It was published on the Anthropology News website