The phrase is from a tango that Carlos Gardel sang, an emblematic character of my country. In it he tells what his feelings are after having suffered a disappointment in love. The tango is called Downhill.
It’s a pleasure to hear it, but beyond that, and making a somewhat illicit extension, what Gardel wonderfully relates is something of what has been happening to us in relation to the events that we have been suffering since 2020. Perhaps there has already been a lot of talk about this topic, but its effects and shocks do not stop appearing, nor do their consequences diminish.
We have been trying for more than two years to try and pretend that we can get back to where we were, and no matter how hard we try, we are not achieving it.
We force a new normal with roots in previous years and it does not seem that the path went that way.
We try not to think about that, and we go back to traveling and moving as before, to neglect hygiene measures that should have already been incorporated into daily life, and I am not just referring to cleaning ourselves with water, but to all types of hygiene that includes health. , both mental and physical; so that most of our behaviors seem more like a challenge to destiny than learning.
We continue to remain from the audience, observing a work that does not show us the end, but makes us suspect an unexpected turn. We believe that this work has already been released and we saw it, but we do not realize that the events are chaining and growing. There is a silent “pain of no longer being” and as long as this is the case we will remain bogged down in a coagulated and evasive duel without any learning.
Crisis times
The latest events in the United States, the violence that we see in schools and on the streets, the poor learning and attention for children, the consequent school failure, the mental consequences of confinement, the excess of technology, the desire to save time that is already was lost and the increase in denial, along with the idea that the world is ending and everything must be done now, the restructuring of companies, the failure to incorporate new forms of leadership into institutions and establish coexistence guidelines, are just a few. some of the consequences we encounter on a daily basis.
I think we all watch a higher level of aggression in human relationships, both in the leaders and in the common street. Those of us who have children know that children have changed.
Those of us who work know that workplaces are unstable, that the economy in general does not provide stability, sometimes not even the minimum to guarantee health. That there is a war, even if we look the other way.
Those of us who wear white coats know that today’s pathologies are not those of a few years ago, they are cruder, more severe and with more remote origins than a stress crisis.
From the highest place of despair with which the pandemic devastated us, which was the death of family members, to going through COVID-19, which was experienced like a Russian roulette without knowing who it was going to touch, like the confinement and the consequent increase in psychotropics and other substances such as alcohol and drugs.
Domestic violence, aggressiveness in the streets, the uncertainty of knowing if we would continue working or being crude if we would still be alive, anxiety, depression, stress and constant exposure to the media, were in our daily lives, like a bad dream. .
The bad news is that There are remnants of those moments that are still with us time doesn’t heal everything, of course not.
School failure is a direct consequence of this time, parents placed under their greatest demands, families suddenly had to look for a poorly rehearsed dynamic. Children and adolescents were affected by a noticeable drop in academic performance and productivity. The lack of socialization in both the older and the younger children stopped their learning until they were faced with the possibility of not speaking correctly, not only due to the level of language management and comprehension of simple texts, but also due to the sense of the speaks literally. Children who, as a result of having a lack of vision of the lips of their parents or those who trained them, did not finish articulating their facial muscles, those involved in correct diction.
Coping with vital and social crises
Confined to solitude and exposure to dysfunctional families, they were exposed to domestic violence and different types of abuse. Without leaving aside the implication of the family economic situation
New emotional dependencies or the worsening of existing ones, such as games on social networks, became more severe and the relationship with them became almost continuous. The telephone and the insistence on reviewing the lives of others, not so much to participate in it, but to compare on each device how happy the other person was and how far that happiness was from my life today.
When talking about suicide, it is believed that there is an exaggeration on the part of those of us who experienced it, especially in the early days of the pandemic, as we also see today, in the worsening of depression and mood destabilization.
The themes of poor or deteriorated socialization, poor management of uncertainty, communication and, as I said, dependence on devices, substances or people, emerged to light.
The incorrect management of the exits from this crisis that still persists and that this note tries not to forget so that we keep our minds alert to the signs that mark a visible beginning of the manifestations that are already present. The decline in social signs of the pandemic did not end with it. Let’s not pretend again that nothing happened or that it already happened.
Evasion is a false solution
The parents used medications and the children consumed other “more accessible” substances, unfortunately. Evasion is not the answer. At an increasingly younger age we find addictions; Studies show that drug consumption decreased until around the age of 14, therefore the acceptance or not of substances is referred to the examples. In adults, the escape from a situation that seems adverse to us is often resolved with the pill on the nightstand or in the wallet. That it seems to have passed in time does not dull the consequences of its absolute presence with present value.
The Internet provides us with excellent tools to hang a shelf or to correctly adjust a tap, but it is also a provider of diagnoses of all kinds, from medical to psychological where anyone and without much effort can find a way to solve something that internally or externally bothers them. happens.
Solve complicated issues with magical ease and feel that we are capable of doing it watching a couple of videos, from having great abs while doing curious diets (which goes without saying, not all of them are suitable indiscriminately), to solving a personality disorder that someone relates in an easy and simple way in three steps as he faced it in his life. I congratulate anyone who has overcome problems with effort and discipline, but mental health is a serious matter and years of study support why things are done in a certain way and not another. Teaching the criteria to regulate in both children and adults that it is true that it is an illusion on the small screen is a pending task.
In adults it will be the responsibility of each person, but we must remember that in extreme situations such as confinement our demons leaked through our best covered crevices and came to light, Were and are we in a position to choose when our defenses are low? It is always good to ask for help from a valid and suitable interlocutor for each topic, especially in these times.
The younger ones, where the interests are simpler, but no less important, toured sexual movie theaters that do not always reflect a real reality of love and care where it is not only about relationships between people but also the care of the body is simply neglected. to different pathologies that could occur.
We write with our hand and erase with our elbow, free sexuality without prejudice is not a sexuality free of care, it is a responsible act and not evasive of the reality that we often want to avoid. It is the responsibility of health professionals in general, physical and mental, to be attentive and in continuous training to be able to sustain this tsunami of emotions with everything we have, some about to be unleashed and others already on the scene.
Returning to work or not is a discussion that still persists, reasons for and against. It would be advisable to adopt certain customs left by the pandemic regarding whether or not to work at home, among others, or do so on certain days, as is happening.
The evidence shows that when this appears guided by senior management, it decompresses feelings, for example, in mothers who leave their children and who are the ones who capture their evolution and feelings. That is, looking in more detail at human requirements from a more affectionate and empathetic vision that allows the best development of individual capabilities.
Teach the exercise of responsible autonomy where everyone achieves a commitment to the task they have to perform. Promote from all areas the commitment to the function and the clarity of a framework that helps us manage the uncertainty that is already much more established among all of us.
we are going through a duel and its effects, it is necessary to go through it without closing our eyes and without letting it pass between us without learning. That we make decisions with conscience and information, that we understand that Gardel’s “dark tango tango” has already left us and that we urgently need to find a way out of a harsh reality, which can be resolved if we are not the abandoned ones of a reality that is no longer , to be the protagonists of a balanced future attentive to our own most internal and primitive needs, those of love and feeling cared for by everyone. Overcome the pain of what we lost and give value to what we can gain.
