The mental health of Argentines is more compromised than before the coronavirus pandemic was declared in 2020. To put it graphically, one in 10 Argentines is currently at risk of suffering from mental disorders, according to a survey by the Social Psychology Observatory Applied from the University of Buenos Aires, carried out in the main urban centers of the country at the end of 2022, with more than two thousand interviewees.
The exact result was that 12 percent of the participants detected risks associated with three symptoms: anxiety, depression, and suicidal risk. It is a percentage similar to that of 2021, much higher than those registered before the start of the pandemic.
The risk is increased in younger people and people with lower socioeconomic status. Due to the characterization made of the population under study, the report emphasizes that mental health requires monitoring, early detection and intervention policies. In other words, the State should implement policies for the area that allow greater visibility of the issue, the consequent awareness on the part of those affected and finally access to treatment according to their problem.
It is that, among those surveyed, more than 50 percent of those who do not undergo psychological treatment admitted to needing it, but 35 percent justified themselves by the impossibility of financially paying for therapy.
By the way, there are very few who, upon acknowledging the discomfort, confront their approach with a psychologist or psychiatrist: almost 40 percent declared talking with friends, 22% clung to prayer and another 22% opted for medication. Only the rest (regarding 20%) were in therapy.
However, perhaps the most striking data from the study is that 50% of those surveyed declared that they were going through a crisis. When inquiring regarding the characteristics of this crisis, almost all of them mentioned an economic crisis, and to a lesser extent they referred to a couple, family or vocational crisis.
Here’s a logic. Faced with the economic disaster suffered by the average Argentine – high inflation, low wages, poor quality jobs, uncertainty and general instability – anguish and unease grow. One may be aware of this, but how to allocate a part of the already meager income to consult a professional? In addition, there should not be few who, in this situation, tell themselves that, following all, if all Argentines are having the same bad time, why go to the psychologist?
One possible answer is that, although we are immersed in the economic crisis or feeling that we will fall into it, each person processes this experience according to particular determinants that can save us from a mental disorder or precipitate us into a specific pathology.
Consequently, Argentines not only urgently need an economic stabilization plan, but also mental health policies capable of repairing the psychological damage that the economic turmoil caused in many of us.
