The Crisis Turns Greeks Mad

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Rueters): “Behind every suicide in crisis-stricken countries such as Greece there are up to 20 more people desperate enough to have tried to end their own lives.

“And behind those attempted suicides, experts say there are thousands of hidden cases of mental illness, like depression, alcohol abuse and anxiety disorder, that never make the news, but have large and potentially long-lasting human costs. …

“In Greece, suicide rates are already rising rapidly, albeit from a low starting point. Suicides rose by 17 percent between 2007 and 2009, and by 40 percent in the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal last year. …

“The risk, according to some public health experts, is that if and when Greece’s economic woes are over, a legacy of mental illness could remain in a generation of young people damaged by too many years of life without hope.

“’Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic,’ said David Stuckler, a sociologist at Britain’s Cambridge University who has been studying the health impacts of biting budget cuts in Europe as the euro crisis lurches on. …

“Youth unemployment in Greece is more than 50 percent and evidence of peoples’ disaffection is becoming more visible. …

“According to a paper prepared for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2011, the economic consequences of mental health problems – mainly in the form of lost productivity – are estimated to average between 3 and 4 percent of gross national product in European Union countries.

And because mental disorders often start in young adulthood, the loss of productivity can be long-lasting, experts say.”

My Comment: There are no suicides in Africa although people die from hunger there; however, Scandinavia has the highest suicide rate. This suggests that employment or income cannot explain depression: It comes from inner emptiness, from the new level of revealed desires that cannot be satisfied in our world. They can be satisfied only by corresponding fulfillment—the feeling of the next level of existence. Humanity is in search of Kabbalistic knowledge, knowledge about the true picture of the world in which we live that gives us an answer about the meaning of life, and no income can shut up that void. And poverty is just a catalyst.
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One Comment

  1. I work as a psychiatrist in a general hospital in Spain and the situation is similar to what happens in Greece. People do not find meaning in their lives and feel empty. We have to give the solution to the crisis.

    Manuel.

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