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The head of the schools of Psychology in Spain tells here what is happening in people's heads after 10 months of a medical, mental, economic and social pandemic.

Clinical psychologist,

Francisco Santolaya

also takes the mental pulse of the population in the first person from his consultation in the Psychiatry Service of the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia.

Between his experience and that of the thousands of psychologists in Spain, Santolaya comes to a disturbing conclusion: the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing anxiety, depression and hopelessness for the future.

What is the main mental impact of the pandemic on the general population?

Hopelessness.

Human beings have mechanisms of adaptation to traumatic events, but if the event is maintained, resistance falters.

And pictures of anxiety and depression appear, which are increasing in intensity.

In other people, this process causes them to ignore or ignore the protection measures as a means of denying what is happening.

You have published a disturbing study.

Almost half of the population sleeps less than before the pandemic, a third suffer from anxiety and a very high 40% report moderate or severe symptoms of depression.

It's a perception survey, but what does it indicate?

It indicates the reality of what the Spanish live or how they live it.

The psychological consequences of the pandemic are going to be aggravated by the economic crisis.

In China, anxiety problems have increased by 35%, in Iran by 60% and in the US by 40%.

A study by the Complutense speaks of 79% of the population with symptoms of anxiety, 21% high.

And 51% with depressive symptoms, 5.6% severe.

Depression is a capital word.

It is not a 'I have a depression'.

What are we talking about?

I would divide it into three population groups.

In those who have already been diagnosed with depression or anxiety, the symptoms are increasing: more sadness and hopelessness towards the future.

What does change is the patient's account of what is happening to him.

For example, a person with difficulties maintaining social relationships has it much more difficult now.

A second group that until now had no symptoms, but that presents psychopathological symptoms: a person who has never been depressed or under treatment begins to feel sadness, hopelessness, disorientation, sleeps badly or has strange sensations in the body such as tachycardias, knot in the stomach, palpitations ... And there is a third group that presents a general activation.

People who are uncomfortable in social relationships.

I would say that people are more restless.

There is more irritability in the responses and there are people who tend to isolate themselves and avoid contacts.

What are consulting psychologists hearing?

What we hear is fear.

Fear of 'My son goes out or has to travel, what if he comes home later or sees his grandparents?'

Fear of suffering the disease and being vectors of contagion.

There is a case of a 17-year-old adolescent who meets all the rules, but is upset by the anguish of his mother, who is hyper-worried and transmits that anguish to her daughter.

We see that the anguish of the parents increases the anguish of the children.

And fear of the economic future.

We are hearing hopelessness, which is more related to depression, and fear, more related to anxiety.

In Valencia, during the first two months of the pandemic, we followed up by telephone for support and we saw that 52% of complaints were related to anxiety and 60% to emotional difficulty, fear and sadness.

And right now in Spain, would you say there is more sadness, fear or anger?

Hopelessness

Based on the patients I see, people begin to perceive that getting the disease or not is a matter of chance.

I am lucky or not.

And that is a mistake, obviously.

Why do the 200 daily deaths of now impact less than the 200 in March?

Because we have an adaptation factor to circumstances.

One of the laws of psychology is habituation.

When information is repetitive, constant and systematic, people get used to it.

And that implies from denial and changing the channel to admitting that we are wrong but nothing more.

Some people express an informational saturation.

Can the constant presence of news cause distress?

There has been a satiation, a boredom.

Satiation is another law in psychology.

There are several problems in communication.

One is that the issuer must be reliable and throughout the pandemic process not only is there not a single issuer, but this issuer is not reliable.

The political dynamics in Spain mean that the reliability of the issuer is quickly lost.

Second, the information must be stable over time.

I understand that in a pandemic everything goes very fast, but one thing is to give rules and make modifications on them, and another is to set a rule and change it two days later.

And that produces confusion.

Is political conflict influencing the mood of the Spanish?

Forever.

Issuers are political entities.

For information to be reliable, it must have clear scientific bases.

It would have been interesting to give information every so often, and that is not every day.

In a pandemic, political interests cannot be mixed with health.

Has the 'all to one' sentiment changed in the first weeks of the pandemic?

Yes. There are phases in which people come together and generate group strength, which helps to face the crisis.

But there is also wear and tear and people begin to think of their own interests or more selfish feelings.

And that's not good.

The strength of our species is that of the group.

For this reason, in this pandemic, political leaders must combine criteria to give a vision of unity.

If there were a unity of political action, there would be more unity among citizens.

Anyone seeks refuge in the other.

If instead you generate distrust or disparity, it is more complicated.

There are studies that indicate a 20% increase in the consumption of psychotropic drugs.

What consequences does that have?

In the study of the Valencian Community, an increase in the consumption of alcohol and food is detected.

It's curious.

In a medicalized health system like ours, the first resource is medication.

Psychologists are missed in Mental Health and Primary Care.

There are none.

And psychologists are needed in social services, because the second or third wave is going to be the economic impact.

I ask the Government to put clinical and health psychologists in Primary, Specialized and Social Services.

Are mental problems being somatized?

Yes. There is an increase in psychosomatic symptoms.

Digestive and muscular problems, pain, paresthesia, that is, annoying sensations on the skin.

Is saving Christmas saving mental health but condemning physical health?

You have to save your health in order to save Christmas.

We have to arrive in good condition this Christmas ... Or next year.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

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