From self-help to benzodiazepines: the lucrative business of dissatisfaction in Spain

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Marta (Madrid, 41 years old) went to

when her mother was diagnosed with a

The (public) hospital had offered her and her family a

which he finally decided to make use of.

"I was disgusted, naturally," she explains.

In the session with the psychologist, she continues, "she asked me how I was feeling, how I was coping with the situation, what my fears were and my possible questions in the face of my mother's future absence... Although I left there calmly, and with another closed appointment, after a few hours I realized that everything I had discussed with the psychologist I had already verbalized before with my inner circle, and I decided that, for me, continuing to do the latter was a much more effective path. That feeling

by my

and friends was much more important than feeling supported by a stranger.The next day I called to

I have never been back to a psychologist."

In the antipodes of Marta, to María (figurative name, Madrid, 56 years old), a teacher, her psychoanalyst told her, four years after she started going to therapy, that she should never come back, that she could do nothing more for her.

"A shock," she says.

"I was left as an orphan.

was in my

, an hour that I looked forward to all week."

Come on, instead of a means, it had become an end, something that her therapist probably detected.

Of course: financially speaking, María came out earning, specifically,

those that each consultation cost him (in Spain the average in 2020 was 51.00 euros/hour, between the lowest rate, 45.25 euros/hour in Andalusia and 62.00 euros/hour in the Balearic Islands, according to an investigation by mundopsicologos.com).

It's not that Maria's salary was anything to go by, but she had no choice but to

out of her own pocket.

According to data from the

in the Spanish public health system there are six of these professionals for every 100,000 inhabitants, a real joke, especially when we compare it with

, where the

In total there are

according to the INE, of which only 3,000 work in the public sector.

So few, that everyone who can afford it goes directly to a private one.

Who goes to the psychologist?

According to the CIS barometer on

carried out in 2021, those who self-identified as belonging to

were the ones who went to a psychologist or psychiatrist to a greater extent, specifically, since the start of the pandemic, 8.3%, compared to to 5.9% of those who aligned themselves with the most modest classes.

Of course, if we are to believe the

(SNS) 2020-2021, few were, since, according to said document,

suffer from some

What happens to us?

74.6% of that percentage would suffer from anxiety, 60.7% insomnia and 41.9% depression.

But not only that.

We also go to the psychologist, like Elena (figurative name, Madrid, 35 years old) to solve issues that are not as important as the previous ones: "It's not that I was in a very critical moment, let's say I needed

But I started to have the impression that the solutions to my problems could be found by myself, or by talking to a friend. There was also the stigma of defeat. It was a problem for me to admit to myself that I was going to a psychologist, so leaving him, after six sessions, it was a relief. In a way it was disappointing. I was hoping for more advice, not having to be the one to open up. Also, I think opening up doesn't always help..."

And if not, you can always pill

If you cannot afford a professional to help you, you can always pay 1.72 euros per month, which is what it costs, with a prescription (normal contribution), a box of the famous Orfidal (50 tablets), the

best-selling brand of

in Spain .

Here we have become so fond of benzodiazepines (a psychotropic with many variants and dozens of commercial brands) that the International Narcotics Control Board has designated

as

where they are

legally

And so, a medicine whose use is recommended for short periods of time -two, three weeks- in our country is taken, and with a prescription, often uninterruptedly and for years!

And look, Orfidal can be scary, but it has some side effects that make you laugh at some illegal drugs: it generates

, can induce

, worsen

mask suicidal tendencies... Or so its own prospectus says.

Is all of the above justified, the alleged epidemic of mental health disorders, the alarming figures for the consumption of diazepams, lorazepams, clonazepams...?

Or is it that we have forgotten how to deal with ourselves without external help (as a study carried out by Aegon seems to point out, according to which !nine out of 10 Spaniards! consider that in the last year they have suffered some symptom of depression and anxiety)?

For

an eminence in the matter, professor of Psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid, president of the Spanish Society for the Study of Anxiety and Stress, what these data indicate "is that

when Benzodiazepines are discouraged in the clinical practice guidelines that summarize the scientific evidence, countries like

help consumers of these drugs to

by applying drug addiction detoxification techniques, while in Spain it is the most widely used psychoactive drug, and

every year.

"Of course," he adds, one of the mistakes we're making "is

from school and in other stages of life to

and

life

and other emotions, so that when emotional discomfort arises, people feel sick, they go to their health center where there are normally no psychologists, and doctors, who are overwhelmed and have only a few minutes to talk, prescribe benzodiazepines

The disturbing medicalization of normality

Further still, with a best-seller dimension, we could say, the controversial psychiatrist, researcher and writer

In 2018 he published his book 'Are we all mentally ill?'

(ed. Ariel) where he coined and analyzed the 'medicalization of normality' based, in his opinion, on

which he accused of generating a

systematic

"Not all sadness is a major depressive disorder as they want us to believe. Not all worries are a generalized anxiety disorder," he complained, in an interview with 'CuerpoMente', where, as in his book, he blamed

of being an interested party in the dizzying rise of diagnoses of depression or anxiety.

Beware, he accused the pharmaceutical companies, but not only them.

He also assured Frances that the redefinition, as a mental disorder, of experiences that were part of daily life "has been very useful for some people who feel

by having a

and stop feeling confused, alone and condemned to suffering".

And she warned that many of them "are diagnosed by

that would probably improve on their own without the need for drugs."

The (new) self-help boom... that doesn't help

Those 'instruction manuals for yourself' that are today self-

books move, in Spain alone, around

10% of the business of the non-fiction book category.

With the pandemic, sales of this type of literature skyrocketed, as expected.

In fact, according to a study by Idealo, the demand for self-help books

during that time.

Blessed are the gurus.

Cano Vindel believes that self-help is part of an explosion of

businesses that, from his point of view, arise as a response to neglect of mental health, "in the form of self-help books, therapists without qualifications, youtubers , coaching specialists, sellers of permanent happiness, etc., as an alternative to the treatment of emotional and mental health problems".

For

psychologist, researcher at the Camilo José Cela University and at the Center for the History of Emotions of the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, author together with

of 'Happycracy: How the science and industry of happiness control our lives ' (Paidós), the obsession with the analysis and constant scrutiny of oneself that characterize our current society "is symptomatic of a widespread discourse on

that promotes the

that

-being and

,

or

, Health and disease

mainly

of will power, personal choice, individual effort and individual change.

We direct the focus to our interior because we believe that it is where the cause of our problems is found, as well as its solution.

However, this is wrong, and although in principle it seems that making our happiness depend on ourselves is a way of empowering ourselves, the irony is that it makes us more

, since it leaves us no other option than

for all forms of

. ,

or

".

's apocalyptic speech

in 'Manifesto against self-help' (Cúpula) is developed.

"Problems have been privatized," she tells us.

And he explains that "what the self-

industry offers is nothing more than a lot of

,

and

that teach you to endure more. All so that you participate better in this game and forget how incomprehensible it is." it is the world in reality. So that you learn to manage your anger and your fears while enduring the unbearable".

Cheap courses and expensive retreats to learn happiness

"For only 180 euros. Learn the techniques of meditation and conscious movement to reduce stress, anxiety, improve mood and manage emotions" (let's see, if it's true that you learn all these things for so little money, the psychologists and psychiatrists should all be unemployed now).

Another of the great trends in terms of remedies against dissatisfaction is to fill free time with

-face-to-face or online- of neuro-linguistic programming,

,

, personal growth or kundalini yoga... And if you really handle pasta you will see yourself without a doubt seduced by the fabulous universe of

where you will do

when you arrive at your destination they will keep your mobile, and instead of Wi-Fi, as in the Mandarin Oriental in New York, you will undergo meditation sessions, massages, relaxing baths with shungite (a mineral that supposedly protects against radiation electromagnetic)...

All this network of

against

that ranges from Orfidal at 1.75 euros a box to

that can cost you a week of retreat in a well-known

has ended up becoming an industry that, explains Edgar Cabanas, "feeds on widespread malaise and offers us simple and individual solutions to problems that in reality are neither one nor the other. In the immediate society, we don't just want quick solutions to our discomfort, but we believe that such solutions exist.

However, in the best of cases, explains the expert, the only thing that this industry offers us are "patches for those problems", and in the worst, "they divert our attention from where we really need to focus: on the conditions that generate and maintain these problems.However, if despite all the studies, data and knowledge we have on the matter we continue to believe that there are easy solutions,

Are we looking in the wrong direction?

Of course many psychological problems need treatment, who could deny that.

What the experts consulted suggest is, simply, that what should be acted upon is not being acted upon.

Where Cano Vindel sees the

imperative

and

Edgar Cabanas focuses not on the individual, but on the social: "Mental health is mainly a

Social in at least two senses: that the mental health of each individual is a problem that affects society as a whole and that mental health problems (such as anxiety, depression or stress) have a cause social rather than individual.

It is no coincidence that the increase in aspects such as job insecurity (whose relationship is well established) or economic uncertainty have been accompanied by an increase in depressive symptoms and a decrease in well-being at a general level.

The increased attention we currently pay to mental health should make us focus on these social determinants, explains Cabanas, because otherwise "we will fall into the trap of

,

and individualizing

in favor of a

that in practice stigmatizes and makes people responsible for their suffering, which is counterproductive".

In the end, maybe what we need to do is agree with the groundbreaking Marian Donner that "what we need is not pills, yoga or gratitude journals, but to realize that we are not the problem. If you feel like you don't fit in in the world, said

maybe you shouldn't ask yourself what's wrong with you, but what's wrong with the world." Well, what's wrong with you, son?

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