Our community faces an opportunity we can no longer afford to ignore: caring for our mental health with the same seriousness we give to every other part of our well-being. The emotional weight of recent years has left many Modesto residents quietly struggling.
The truth is that our mental health is not optional. It shapes the way we love, work, parent, dream and relate to one another.
As a clinical psychologist practicing in Modesto — and as an immigrant who understands what it means to carry both visible and invisible burdens — I see how courage often looks nothing like what the world celebrates. Some of the bravest people I know are those who whisper their pain, not shout it. Their strength echoes the insight of Mahatma Gandhi, who reminded us that “strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from an indomitable will.”…