The reaction of the entire population to the covid pandemic was a “reflection of the society we have: selfishness, individualism and ‘every man for himself’… the worst came out”according to the analysis of the doctor in Psychology, Julen Alba Muñoz, three years after the start of the confinement.
In an interview, this psychologist, who works in both the public and private spheres, recalls that “initially, there was talk of a united citizenry to face the covid, but people They swept the malls with products they didn’t need And given the shortage of masks, if they could, they would buy a lot, even if they were not going to use all of them.”
“Facing the gallery, the toilets were applauded, but then, just in case, you filled the gas tank of the three cars that you have and you bought all the products from the supermarket”, he detailed.
All this “absurdity and nonsense” comes from a “basic education whose pillars are very difficult to change; they are the reflection of society and what is always going to happen: each one looks at his own”.
fear and anxiety
The explanation is “fear, the anxiety of not knowing what is going to happen”, as he highlighted, and explained that, with the pandemic, “a gigantic anxiety agent entered society and accentuated that anxiety, stress, depression, and mainly fear and uncertainty”.
Three years later, this fear has transformed part of the population into “hypochondriacs”, because “by education we are not prepared for sudden changes, like those that the pandemic caused in people’s lives, nor to see beyond the circle in which we move”.
“The pandemic and the confinement meant a brutal change; you take it for granted that everything will work normally and from one day to the next, they don’t let you leave the house, with what this entails… but the covid as such only caused hypochondriathe rest of the problems that have increased, such as anxiety or depression, existed previously and emerged with the pandemic,” he considered.
“They were latent problems, which were accentuated with the covid and confinement,” he insisted. In addition, during the pandemic, conflicting information on the use of masks, hand washing… and schedules were established in means of transport or all kinds of places that “limited life and freedom.”
This situation affected the youth “very much” at a time when they are discovering friendships and social relationships, but also the rest of the population: “Two years of our lives were stolen from all of us”, has pointed out.
loneliness and abandonment
Another sector of the population “very affected” was the elderly, that he felt loneliness “and even abandonment, because to a social circle that was already restricted due to age, it was added that they could not receive visits from relatives… for them it was a real drama.”
And also added to these groups are the people who live alone, victims of abuse who had to live with the aggressor 24 hours a day, or those who received face-to-face psychological therapy and went to mode onlinewhich “can be useful at times, but not in the face of 100% efficiency, by eliminating gestures, emotions, I see it as superficial”.
The social response to this context, once the confinement has ended and the consequences of the covid have been softened, has filled the private consultations of psychologists.
“From the public system there is no supply; it was seen that it would happen sooner or later, because psychological resources are scarce compared to the demand that currently existsand the covid has only burst the pipe and accentuated or accelerated the problems,” he stated.
The demand in the public system “is immense and so are the waiting lists; if you go to the family doctor with psychological problems, they will prescribe an anxiolytic or an antidepressant… and the appointment for the psychologist will take six months“, he lamented.