This year exhaustion, burnout, stress, distress, and depression have appeared across the life of most people. Not to mention other mental health conditions that have deepened or developed in this context. These are times of challenge and adaptation, and that is not without consequences. Sometimes we move forward and face problems as we can without realizing what this generates in our mental health.
It is important that this is visible.
Working in a hospital in times of pandemic, living with the fear of infecting our loved ones, adapting to taking classes from a distance, feeling the frustration of not having the technological means to be able to do everything, readjusting businesses, suffering unemployment, grieving for projects that couldn't be done, not being able to see family and friends, increasing poverty, and so on.
It doesn't take a pandemic to see what's important in mental health, but for many it does. On this World Mental Health Day, we call for more community health practices, more mental health budgets, no more stigma and social exclusion, and no more undervaluing mental health.