Briefing the Interviewee

Hello, thank you for agreeing to be a part of this research interview. The initiative aims to better understand the experiences and needs of visible minority groups seeking care for mental health and well-being as well as their lifestyle, and mental health, and wellbeing self-care habits.

The information collected from this interview will remain anonymous. Please try to answer all of the questions fully, and if for some reason you do not want to answer a question please let me know.

Before starting do you have any questions for me?

Warm up questions:

  1. How’s your day been?
  2. What is your name, age, sex, race, ethnic background, religion, and sexual orientation? If you have any other aspects of your identity you would like to add please do so.
    1. 23, female (she/her), Persian (kurdish), Athesist, straight
  3. What are your pronouns?
    1. (she, her)
  4. Where are you from and where do you currently reside?
    1. Tehran Iran, raised and reside in Toronto Canada
  5. What economic class do you belong to (for example: middle class etc.)?
    1. Upper Middle Class
  6. Can you briefly describe your current occupation?
    1. full time student

General Questions:

  1. How would you describe your current lifestyle?
    1. I would say pretty balanced. I suppose I'm working on just being a student. It is not extremely rough but you know student life has its, its difficulties and its challenges because I’m in a pretty intense program and then on the side I'm a food blogger. So there is some work actually, sadly, unfortunately, that comes with that. So a lot of collaborations and stuff. So it's just like trying to balance everything but it's not too bad.
  2. In what ways do you think your current lifestyle affects your health and well-being?
    1. I definitely think like having school is a little intense like, and being able to like, do other stuff on top of school is just so difficult and then that takes a toll on your mental health because you're like, Wait, why can't I do it? Like everyone else can do it? And it's just like, I want to do better like them. Like, I know, like, there's only so much time and there's only one person which is me. So like, it's a constant battle of like, let me focus on my mental health. It's like, No, you have assignments, like go do them.
  3. Do you think you are touch with your emotions and mental headspace? If so why? (answered)
  4. Do you have a support network? If so why do you think it is important and how have they helped you?
    1. Yeah, so I have like, a few friends. I can talk to you about this. Not that much. I wouldn't say my friends are too good. With this. Just because like no one's in school. Everyone's like graduated full time jobs. My boyfriend's like pretty decent at like, being there for me. My dad’s not someone I go to. But my mom is pretty good. too. Like I told her I was struggling with having a full time job. And during school, she was like, quit like I was like, No, that's literally not an option mom. And she's like, why? Like, I'll pay for you, I'll give you money and I was fine. I just not in me to ask for my parents for money. Like because it's just like, that's not how I was. I started working, like I said when I was 16. So it was weird. At first I was like, oh, like maybe I can accept support, like during the time that I needed. And like I didn't even plan to quit my job until I was kind of like screwed over with the manager.
    2. My mom told me I know you have a whole year like I want to be here. And you know when you're an adult like I feel like I'm not there for you like because you've got it all figured out. So let me be a mom again. So she's great. And my sister obviously because like, she's very like, logical but also not in a way that's like do this right now. She like tries to understand you and then gives you like good advice. So it's pretty good. Like, it kind of allows me to rant but not keep it like super unfocused or I don't have anything like oh, it's like now I just feel like I have a bunch of shitty problems that I can't fix with my sister. It's like oh, there are ways to fix it like she'll give me links, she’ll tell me like go apply here like if you want money or like it's just a part time remote job, it's really super cool. Like you can do it from home or you know, just don't even apply... She also helps me with work sometimes if I get super busy.

Specific Questions: