2022 seen through the eyes of mental health professionals

2022 has not been a year of respite. Thanks to the vaccines and containment measures previously adopted, Covid has partially loosened its grip but the fact that we now have fewer restrictions and more possibilities for action has not allowed us to say that the pandemic is over. Furthermore, the front pages of the newspapers were filled with equally serious news, such as the invasion of Ukraine and the consequent economic crisis which affected many countries, including Italy.

If the first years of the decade were marked by a condition of anxious uncertainty, we can say that 2022 was marked by a new awareness and greater awareness. We have returned to the experiences and places that were denied us, but who can truly say they are the same person they were in 2019? Even if technically we find ourselves in the same pre-Covid condition, for many the fact of being able to go out, go to discos and concerts, go back to work in the office or go on vacation was not the same thing.
Not to mention the large number of people who find themselves dealing with anxiety states, self-harm, depression and obsessive compulsive disorders.
According to data released last October 10 by a report by the European Commission on the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of young peoplethe requests to take advantage of the psychologist bonus received through the INPS website up to that date have been 300,000, of which 60%, equal to 180,000 applications, from people under 35demonstrating how it is above all young people who find themselves in conditions of greater psychological discomfort.

Definitely, the psychological impact of recent years has inexorably had its weight and the consequences have emerged well in 2022, determining the need to find new and effective measures to guarantee an increasingly desired psychological well-being. We asked three mental health professionals to share their personal experience, perspective and expectations for the new year.\

The importance of taking care of your own psychological well-being

by Valeria Fiorenza Perris, clinical supervisor and Therapist Manager of UnoBravo.comonline psychology service

«After the Covid years, which saw us confronted for the first time with a global upheaval of our lives, the need for a new normality was strongly felt, to put this dark period behind us. In reality the war, the environmental transformations have contributed precisely to the persistence of that sense of anxiety, sadness and precariousness that we aimed to abandon.

Paradoxically, also the resumption of sociality, of face-to-face work, the reduction of the social distances imposed it has necessitated an emotional rearranging and reorganization on the part of many.

Psychological well-being is increasingly at the center of debate, both daily and institutional. But much still needs to be done to make the measures to support those who feel the need to undertake a course structural and to normalize access to psychological care.

The discussion around these themes is becoming freer and more spontaneous. Many expose themselves firsthand to witness the positive benefits obtained with the therapy. We hope that we can continue in this direction, to definitively overcome every stigma and every prejudice.

Everyone must feel free to ask for psychological support as soon as you feel the need. Each person can find himself having to face a complex moment in life, having to make difficult decisions, living in a bond that generates suffering. It’s not necessary to cross a certain threshold, wait, perhaps, for symptoms to appear or for emotional discomfort to be impossible to manage.
Taking care of yourself is always a good idea, like asking for the support of an expert if needed».

You need a “mens sana” (also) to work well

by Alessandro De Carlo, professor of Occupational Psychology at the University of Padua and scientific director of Sygmundonline psychological counseling platform

«2022 was the year of the real boom in psychology. L’huge amount of requests for the psychologist bonus confirmed that the psychology profession, the community of psychologists, is today more than ever an asset for the population and is recognized as such by both stakeholders and people. Obviously there is still a lot to do, but the message is clear: people care about their mental well-being and identify psychologists as professionals with the right tools to help achieve this goal.
Psychology, well-being, mental health have been central topics this year and the trend is not destined to change direction: we have to overcome a very difficult period (not that current times are excessively simple) and finding the inner energies to do so is fundamental.

But there is also another important change, linked to the corporate world. There was this year the consolidation of the concept that taking care of people’s psychological well-being is now indispensable. And there is substantial agreement on the value of mental health and psychological well-being initiatives among companies and people. We have seen this with the platform Sygmund: many companies have adopted it as a psychological counterbut the relevant fact was the very high number of accesses by male and female workers: by now the fact that “mens sana” is an indispensable element for working well is a shared awareness. I see a search by companies of seriousness and preparation: today we cannot trust the “first comer” but we look for an evident and recognizable psychological professionalism. I believe that this direction can lead us to the levels of the most economically advanced countries because the professional community of Italian psychologists is of an excellent level and today online and proximity services are also widespread, providing companies with various options for building their mental well-being paths ” .

Mental health, a right for everyone and not a luxury for a few

by Carolina Traverso, psychotherapist and Mindfulness teacher

«In 2022, mental well-being in Italy went from being considered «the Cinderella of health» to having full right to consideration. However, i Mental health problems still suffer from strong stigmatization today. It is a stigma that grows with the severity of the diagnosis and which, often, it is also internalized by those who suffer from it, who struggle not only to talk about it with friends and family, but also to accept them and ask for helpor. This is due to the erroneous belief that emotions, especially painful ones, must be controlled, a bit as if each of us should have a switch inside us to turn them on or off as we please.

And so, convinced that they must look like machinesMany people come to me with the idea that I have to help them find this switch and “fix” it, expecting me to “fix” them, so to speak, because they think they are broken.

The problem is that the more we try to control an emotion, without taking the time to understand its message, the more not only does the volume of emotion increase, but we feel more and more tired and desperate.
It is necessary to change course, and to pass from the illusion of control to acceptance which, mind you, is very different from resignation. When we resign ourselves, we think there is nothing left to do. When we accept, on the other hand, we cultivate the attitude of acceptance towards our suffering which is the basis for taking care of ourselves and living a life worth livingregardless of any diagnostic labels.
This attitude is considered the key to any psychological transformation in what is currently called the third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy and now pervades the various psychotherapeutic approaches.
Much remains to be done, in any case, for implement policies that make mental health a right for all citizensand not a luxury for the few”.

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