Susana Santamarina Montila (Mieres, 1968) studied medicine at the University of Oviedo. She is a specialist in psychiatry, she has practiced this discipline for more than twenty years and another seven she has dedicated to health management. She is currently responsible for the psychiatric hospitalization unit of the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA). She is in possession of two master’s degrees in the field of management and another two in the clinical field. Two personal credentials: he loves challenges and “my family, my friends, sports and traveling give balance to my life”.
–What is happening to the mental health of our society?
–According to the indicators and data available to us, our society shows signs of being in a situation of poor mental health.
–Indicators that you consider most significant?
–Consumption of alcohol and toxic substances, number of people suffering from anxiety and depression, consumption of alcohol and psychotropic drugs, autolytic behaviors and self-harm… These are indicators that have been increasing systematically in recent years. At the present time, the mental health care system, especially in the most populated areas, shows signs of weariness and exhaustion.
– The origin of all this?
–I maintain that this epidemic of mental disorders is more the result of a complex social dynamic that has been brewing in recent decades, so we are not always going to find the remedies in the psychiatrist’s chair.
–What is the Achilles heel that makes us more vulnerable than before?
There are multiple causes that have led us to the current situation. In the first place, the successive economic crises and the progressive precariousness of employment lead many citizens to a situation of exclusion, being left out or within the limits of a society that assigns value to you to the extent that you are capable of producing. On the other hand, we observe a progressive loss of the protective value that the family has classically had.
-In what sense?
–We have changes both in quantitative terms, with fewer families and more people living alone and isolated, and in qualitative terms, with families that either have little time to provide quality care for their children and the elderly or are directly overwhelmed, disoriented and with little knowledge to manage the emotional and affective education of their children. The emotional balance of an adult is heir to these first parenting processes. A healthy family structure is the basis for developing healthy citizens.
The family has changed…
-There goes the third cause. There are several changes, with the substitution of values of transcendence for immediacy; of the temperance and the delay of the satisfaction for the search of the happiness; from solidarity and generosity to competitive individualism… All this generates vulnerability, existential emptiness and isolation. In this context, it is very easy for mental illness and disorders to make their way
What is happening to the youngest?
–It is estimated that up to 64 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are at risk of depression. Multiple external factors contribute to this situation, including the lack of employment, economic and educational prospects, as well as the loneliness and social isolation that, paradoxically, many of our young people suffer in the era of social networks.
–Educating children is now very complex.
–Their cognitive brain has grown powerfully due to the influence of education and constant stimulation, but emotional development is stubborn and the management of emotions grows at the same speed as that of our most remote ancestors. The result is that we have a baby driving a high-performance Ferrari. Therefore, the probability of affective shock is high.
-Social networks?
–Social networks have become a space for building interpersonal relationships and, therefore, they act by shaping our own identity, our emotional and psychosocial development and our scheme of the world. Being a teenager has always been difficult, but the pressures of young people connected to the networks are unparalleled. Social networks can bring benefits and advantages, but also adverse effects. Published studies show us that three out of five young people say that the use of networks causes them feelings of anxiety. The unrealistic images that we are offered can be a source of low self-esteem and hopelessness. Cyberbullying deserves a special mention. Some studies indicate that up to seven out of ten young people have suffered from it, and given these numbers we can only be very concerned and committed as a society to find solutions in the short term.
–How can it be understood that young people are so uncomfortable in a society that seems to be built to suit them?
–Our youngest citizens have been educated contemplating a wealthy society with high levels of well-being. But they have enjoyed it in a passive way, without participating in its construction and without their real needs having been taken into account. Above all, the needs that help build balanced and resilient people. It does not seem that our society has made a commitment to our young people to give them a world equal to or better than the one we receive. Our brain does not tolerate so much uncertainty in relation to the future and, secondarily, anguish and hopelessness appear and, at the other extreme, competitiveness and fierce individualism.
–Why does Asturias lead the consumption of psychotropic drugs at a national level?
–Spain leads the consumption of psychotropic drugs in Europe, and Asturias is not immune to this trend. Phenomena such as the growing medicalization of our society and, in Asturias, the higher rates of aging can explain part of this phenomenon. The consumption of psychotropic drugs has become the first addiction of our population. Although anxiety and depression rates may be somewhat higher in our autonomous community, our impression is that more than necessary are being prescribed and that this fact has worsened after the pandemic. In the absence of sufficient time to treat patients, the pharmacological resource becomes the first tool to resolve emotional pain. The use of anxiolytics in the elderly population is especially serious, to the point that the population over 65 years of age consumes more than a quarter of anxiolytics and relaxants. This high consumption of psychoactive drugs is behind a high percentage of falls that affect the geriatric population. To summarize, the pharmacological solution helps to make up the discomfort and emotional disorders derived from the lack of social support and loneliness.
–Are women more vulnerable or simply more likely to ask for help?
–While it is true that women are less prejudiced in requesting emotional help, the truth is that being a woman is associated with worse mental health. Anecdotally, it is known that marriage is a protective factor for men and a risk factor for women. Gender variables modify our profile of getting sick. From a biological point of view, the female gender does not have to condition worse mental health, but the social determinants of health can operate in a protective manner or as a risk, depending on gender.
What happens to men?
–They also suffer from mental disorders, sometimes more serious, but for which they usually ask for help late. They hide the discomfort for fear of being considered weak, often under the consumption of alcohol and drugs that amplify and aggravate the prognosis. In fact, the completed suicide rate is much higher in men than in women.
-As…