"The best anxiolytic is having a circle of friends"

BarcelonaA quarter of the world's population will suffer from a mental disorder during their lifetime, according to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), which considers mental health one of the major challenges for improving care. There is more data that explains this concern: 15% of adolescents will also experience distress; suicide is the second leading cause of unnatural death among minors. No one escapes falling into a state of anguish, depression, anxiety, or an eating disorder, although there are individual factors (low self-esteem, illness, or addiction) and socioeconomic factors (stress, unemployment, discrimination, injustice, or unwanted loneliness) that can contribute to suffering.

With this data on the table, Josefina Castro, a psychiatrist at Hospital Clínic, and Guillem Feixas, a clinical psychologist at the University of Barcelona (UB), debated at a conference organized by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) in collaboration with the newspaper ARA about where the limits lie between being interconnected and the existence of greater complexity. Fortunately, if mental health was a matter treated in the privacy of families and medical consultations a few years ago, today it has come out of the closet and is being talked about more than ever.

So, to break the ice and set the scene for the audience, the debate moderator, ARA journalist Lara Bonilla, raised the question of when to seek help and where the line lies between simple distress and a disorder. The two experts, members of the IEC, point out that there are objective diagnostic criteria, and Castro adds that the intensity and frequency of pain are taken into account, but above all the degree of suffering and interference in daily life. From there comes the diagnosis, which, although often accompanied by "stigma," is vital for the psychiatrist: "It's good to put labels on to be able to move towards medical treatment" and to be able to overcome or reduce suffering.

Antidotes

Against fatalism, Feixas has pointed out the importance of having "trustworthy and quality relationships", people to whom one can confide doubts and discomforts, to vent and not be isolated. In this regard, the psychologist has stressed that a social network of friends or family to unload feelings, fears, and hopelessness is a good "antidote against suicide" and against unwanted loneliness, another of the great evils of current society. "The oldest and most important anxiolytic is a secure relationship," he asserted, adding that having people to turn to in moments of anguish is also harmless to health. "Having quality relationships is not addictive," he assured.

In the debate, it was also highlighted that the great challenge is the increase in investments to be able to reduce waiting lists in psychological and psychiatric care, for both adults and the child population. The confinement and subsequent restrictions imposed during the pandemic years caused great distress among children, who suffered from the lack of socialization during a basic stage of their development and exchanged in-person encounters for virtual ones through screens.