The toll the crisis has taken on Greece’s mental health tends to be overshadowed by more urgent concerns about hunger or poverty. Nonetheless, there is increasing evidence of the psychological strain on Greek society – from increased diagnoses of depression to an increase in suicides – and the human wreckage it may leave behind long after the economy has been mended. The suicide rate rose 37 per cent from 2009 to 2011, according to the Greek ministry of public order. From a psychological perspective, one of the most corrosive problems is the duration of the crisis. It has produced five years of recession with no end in sight – uncertainty is a psychological torment, say doctors.
“It doesn’t finish. It’s always there,” says George Christodoulou, a psychiatry professor at the University of Athens and honorary president of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association. “This represents a chronic stress and chronic stress is worse than acute stress.”
“All types of psychological disorders have increased – anxiety, depression, abuses, somatisation, antisocial behaviour,” says Argyro Voulgari, a clinical psychologist at the Hellenic Centre for Mental Health and Research. In Piraeus, a city that has been particularly hard hit by the crisis, the number of child and adolescent patients – who often suffer from their parents’ psychological strain – rose 51 per cent between 2006 and 2011.
“You can help someone with their emotions”, Andrew Armatas, an Athens psychologist says, “but practically, you know they will be unemployed for a very long time.”
He believes the crisis has played on a typical Greek neurosis: an ever-present fear – communicated by overbearing elders who suffered Nazi occupation, civil war and famine – that disaster is just around the corner.
“It doesn’t finish. It’s always there,” says George Christodoulou, a psychiatry professor at the University of Athens and honorary president of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association. “This represents a chronic stress and chronic stress is worse than acute stress.”
“All types of psychological disorders have increased – anxiety, depression, abuses, somatisation, antisocial behaviour,” says Argyro Voulgari, a clinical psychologist at the Hellenic Centre for Mental Health and Research. In Piraeus, a city that has been particularly hard hit by the crisis, the number of child and adolescent patients – who often suffer from their parents’ psychological strain – rose 51 per cent between 2006 and 2011.
“You can help someone with their emotions”, Andrew Armatas, an Athens psychologist says, “but practically, you know they will be unemployed for a very long time.”
He believes the crisis has played on a typical Greek neurosis: an ever-present fear – communicated by overbearing elders who suffered Nazi occupation, civil war and famine – that disaster is just around the corner.
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