Reflections on Mental Health in Vietnam: Lessons from Southeast Asia
Travel offers more than new sights and tastes. It offers perspective. Recently, I chose to travel to Vietnam, with the intention to observe how mental health is perceived and experienced in Southeast Asia as well as to understand how spirituality and religion interacted with mental health. The experience highlighted cultural differences, coping strategies, and the ways spiritual life shapes emotional well-being.
Mental Health in Southeast Asia: A Cultural Lens
In many parts of Southeast Asia, mental health is often framed differently than in Western contexts. While Western culture may emphasize individual therapy and self-awareness, in Vietnam, emotional struggles are often seen through the lens of family, community, and social harmony.
In general, I found that feelings like sadness, anxiety, or grief are commonly understood as part of life’s natural flow rather than as disorders requiring medical intervention. Seeking help from a professional is not common, and when it happens, it is often in combination with other traditional or community-based approaches.
Handling Overwhelm, Grief, and Stress
People in Vietnam and much of Southeast Asia have cultivated their own ways to navigate stress and emotional challenges:
Community and family support: Families often provide the first line of emotional guidance. Conversations with trusted relatives, neighbors, or elders may help normalize difficult feelings.
Daily rituals and nature: Many people integrate routines that calm the mind—gardening, cooking, walking along rivers, or participating in community activities. These small, repeated actions provide a sense of stability and grounding.
Acceptance and perspective: There is often a focus on accepting impermanence, acknowledging that difficulties pass with time. This approach can make grief and stress feel more manageable and less isolating.
When I asked people about their experience with these harder emotions, I received a variety of responses. Most people (very politely) told me that these were simply parts of life. Some days bring stress and other days bring calm. One man likened these emotions to the shifting of weather. “Why only focus on the rain when tomorrow may bring sun?”
Others shared a more bleak outlook, sharing that they often felt like they didn’t have a space to talk about or share their harder emotions. They spoke of high levels of stress to succeed, work hard, and strive for perfection. When I asked about mental health supports in community or professionals, I more often than not found myself needing to explain what mental health therapy meant.
I was taught that, if professional help is sought, it is most commonly more of a spiritual guide or healer rather than the Western version of psychological support I am familiar with.
The Role of Religion and Spirituality
Religion and spiritual practice play a meaningful role in mental and emotional health in Vietnam. Buddhism, which is the most widely practiced major world religion in the area, encourages mindfulness, meditation, and reflection as ways to cultivate inner calm and resilience. Temples and spiritual gatherings also provide social support and a structured way to process emotions. Beyond Buddhism, the majority of Vietnamese people I interacted with shared their own flavor of spirituality and religion, often describing tenets of ancestor-worship and a deep connection with and worship of the spirits of nature.
For many, prayer, meditation, or ritual is not just a religious practice but a method of emotional regulation. These practices encourage individuals to observe feelings without judgment, release attachment to outcomes, and cultivate compassion—for themselves and others.
Insights and Takeaways
Traveling to Vietnam offered reminders that mental health is deeply cultural. While Western approaches often focus on therapy, medication, and diagnosis, Southeast Asian practices highlight connection, spirituality, and daily habits as essential to emotional well-being.
For those of us in Western contexts, these observations can inspire ways to integrate mindfulness, community support, and ritual into daily life—tools that complement therapy and modern mental health practices.
Ultimately, mental health care is not one-size-fits-all. Observing different cultural perspectives encourages us to consider diverse ways to nurture resilience, process grief, and maintain balance in our lives.
