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ASKING FOR HELP IN SPAIN





I had an accident at work, nothing too important. I just fell because a cleaner took a piece of a drainer from the floor leaving a hole and didn’t leave a sign, the joys.

So, I asked for the company’s doctor as in Spain when you have a working accident you have to go to the company’s insurance doctor, my boss didn’t know about it, so I was told to take a taxi and try different medical centres until finding out which one is covering the company I’m working for.

To sum up, it took me three hours since I had the accident and several calls to be seen by the doctor, luckily it's nothing serious, but this is going to leave a mark on me about how important I’m for the company I’m working for, I mean if I’m 5 minutes late they call me and they move earth and heaven to get to me, but if I injure myself, I’m on my own.

This little story helps to talk about how mental health works in Spain, if you are struggling, you go to the GP and they’ll prescribe you antidepressants and benzodiazepines on doses that are scary, and you don’t get to see a psychiatrist until you reach your lowest point, or go through a psychotic episode.

This could be justified, if everybody could have access to private medical coverage, but in Spain we have low salaries and a huge part of it is going to pay Seguridad Social, which is the state's organism that deals with medical coverage.

So, that’s almost the only option most of the Spanish population can afford. And it sucks, it’s overused and professionals are overworked and underpaid, everybody struggles, and I have enough empathy to see it, even though I still feel angry when I'm mistreated due to the lack of time when I go to the GP.

In Europe, people think that the Spanish medical system is amazing, even Barack Obama wanted to imitate it, well, everything is bullshit. It’s not that everybody uses the public medical system because is unreal, it’s that we can’t afford another option.

I'm not trying to victimise myself, I know that when it comes to mental health a GP can't go too far as the real professionals that can help you out are psychiatrists and psychologists and the high price per visit it's justified.

I'm just saying that there's no easy solution and taking care of the symptoms with pills that are highly addictive instead of getting to the root of the issues is a horrible solution. Now that I'm off medication anxiety is taking over my life for moments, but because I'm broke and I can't afford therapy, my option is going back to taking “zombie medication”, and that shit gets me into a loop.

Please, don't fall on believing that Spain is unique and people are happier than in the rest of the World, we just get prescribed benzodiazepines and antidepressants as if they were chewing gums.

Mental Health: Why Spain has become a Nation of Self-medicators


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Location: Spain

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