This context has revealed a growing demand for psychological services, as well as the urgency of addressing the stigma that still surrounds mental disorders..
World Mental Health Day, observed on October 10, aims to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and promote a supportive environment for those suffering from psychological problems. In a world where emotional challenges and mental disorders affect millions of people, it is important to destigmatize them and facilitate access to their treatments.
Santiago Pérez, director of the Psychology service at HLA Clínica Montpellier and who has extensive experience in treatment and trauma psychology researchemphasizes the impact that this day has had on public consciousness in addition to talking about the most common disorders that he observes in his clinical practice and how mental health has evolved in recent years. In addition, the professional offers practical advice to take care of psychological well-being on a daily basis and explains the warning signs that indicate the need to seek professional help.
Q: What impact does World Mental Health Day have on public awareness and destigmatizing mental disorders?
Santiago Pérez: World Mental Health Day creates a symbolic space where what is repressed (mental illness) can be recognized and verbalized at a collective level. This visibility allows mental symptoms to stop being so stigmatized, making it easier to seek treatment. At an unconscious level, it helps reduce social resistance towards the recognition of psychic vulnerability.
Q: What is the central theme that is being promoted this year in relation to mental health?
Santiago Perez: This year focuses on equity in access to mental health services. From Psychology, this can be interpreted as an effort to universalize the right to introspection and the treatment of emotional and pathological conflicts, regardless of social class or cultural context. The possibility of accessing a therapeutic space is essential for the transformation of symptoms.
Q: How would you describe the current state of mental health in our society? Have you noticed an increase in mental health problems in recent years?
Santiago Perez: The current state of mental health reflects a fragmented society. The increase in anxiety and depression disorders can be seen as a manifestation of the unconscious conflicts that arise in a culture that privileges productivity and emotional disconnection. The increase in these disorders indicates a deep subjective crisis, where individuals struggle to find meaning in the midst of social unrest. Greater communication in this area has helped break down barriers of expression, which has allowed for greater and better diagnosis of psychopathologies.
Q: What are the most common mental disorders you are currently seeing in your clinical practice?
Santiago Perez: In our Psychology service we are specialized in psychotraumatology, which is the area dedicated to working on psychopathology derived from trauma, more specifically, those produced by sexual abuse. With this, we mainly care for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and personality disorders. We work on this from childhood to adulthood.
Q: What practical advice would you give to take care of mental health on a daily basis?
Santiago Perez: Fundamentally self-exploration as a way to maintain mental health. Listening to your own unconscious, maintaining a constant dialogue with your own affections and recognizing repetitive patterns in personal relationships are essential to taking care of your mind. Personal analysis, where you can speak without censorship, helps to integrate what is repressed and alleviate symptoms.
Q: What are warning signs that someone might need professional help?
Santiago Perez: The most common signs are the repetition of self-destructive patterns, such as failed relationships or compulsive behaviors, prolonged emotional distress or an inability to experience pleasure (anhedonia), as well as suicidal desires, picosomatizations, and self-harming behaviors.
Q: How can a psychologist help someone who is struggling with a mental disorder or emotional crisis?
Santiago Perez: The psychologist offers a space for the patient to explore their desires, fears and internal conflicts, allowing what is repressed to come to the surface. The professional acts as a symbolic mirror, helping the patient to confront his or her defenses and resistance, facilitating the work of psychic elaboration. Through transference, the patient can relive past conflicts and redefine them, which promotes healing. Therapy is based on words, and many times the simple act of speaking and being listened to without judgment can begin a healing process.
Q: Do you think access to mental health services has improved in recent years? What more can be done to facilitate access to treatment?
Santiago Perez: While access has improved, an unconscious stigma about seeking psychological help still persists. In many cases, the psychologist is still considered a luxury. To improve access, it is necessary to integrate effective and accessible treatments to the population. An interaction, not competition, between the private and public services, in addition to the creation of multidisciplinary teams of health professionals of any specialty that detect mental health problems. It is important to educate the population about the value of long-term therapeutic processes.
Q: Throughout your experience working in the Psychology service at HLA Clínica Montpellier, what have been the biggest challenges you have faced when dealing with patients? What has this experience taught you about mental health care?
Santiago Perez: First of all, I would like to say that the Montpellier Clinic was one of the first private hospitals to include a Psychology unit, which I also had the privilege of creating. Therefore, the growth during these three years has been extremely enriching. Mental health care is a job that requires a lot of dedication, expertise and effort.
Fountain: HLA Montpellier