After months of a military offensive in Ukraine, sales of antidepressants and consultations with psychologists have skyrocketed in Russia. Anguish becomes more and more important among citizens, trapped by a conflict they wanted to ignore.
The announcement in late September of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists pushed the conflict directly into families in Russia, where the Kremlin has downplayed the impact on its population.
The duration of the conflict and Moscow’s increasingly alarmist declarations on the nuclear threat also contribute to the growing concern of the Russians.
Since the announcement of the surgery on 24 February, Vasilina Kotova, a 22-year-old Muscovite, remembers being “totally paralyzed”.
“I didn’t leave the house for two months, nothing made sense,” this computer science student told AFP, stating that “she survives on antidepressants, like many of her friends.”
“At first you think you’ve been saved, that he didn’t touch you personally, and that your friends are crazy to leave the country,” says this pale-skinned blonde woman. “And suddenly, the idea that you are crazy starts to distress you,” she says.
Their concern increased with the announcement of the mobilization, he feared that his father and brother would be recruited.
Vasilina also says she “feels very bad” about Moscow’s baseless accusations of a “dirty bomb” that Kiev was about to use.
“Then my mom really panicked,” she recalls.
Anguish
At the end of September, after the announcement of the mobilization, 70% of Russians said they were “distressed”, a record high never registered by the Kremlin-friendly FOM constituency.
A month later, the Levada Center, an independent institute, reported that nearly 9 out of 10 Russians said they were “concerned” about the situation in Ukraine.
And the latest statements from the Kremlin have not helped to calm the population.
In late October, when President Vladimir Putin declared that the world is going through “its most dangerous, most unpredictable decade” since World War II, some Vasilina residents began to build a bomb shelter in the underground car park of your building.
Psychotropic drugs
In this context, expenses for antidepressants have skyrocketed by 70% and by 56% for painkillers in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period in 2021, according to the authorities.
The online psychological counseling service YouTalk has seen “the number of its requests increase by 40% since the mobilization,” its co-founder, psychologist Anna Krymskaya, tells AFP, with “a 50% increase in the number of people. who complain of depression “.
This trend is striking both those who oppose the offensive and those who support it.
After the conflict began, Ilya Kaznacheyev was “happy and proud” of his country. But from the first setbacks of the Russian forces, at the end of March, he says he feels “permanent anguish”.
“What’s worse than a war that begins? A war that is lost,” says this dark-haired, bearded man with stylish glasses, from a seat in the conservative Listva bookstore in Moscow.
The 37-year-old is considering taking antidepressants, but fears there will be a “shortage of imported drugs” due to Western sanctions against Moscow.
The well-known antidepressant Zoloft is no longer available in pharmacies. The Russians “were quick to book along with other drugs still available,” Oleg Levine, a prominent Moscow neurologist, told AFP.
“They did well,” he adds.
“Whether you are for or against the operation (in Ukraine), everyone is worried about their future,” sums up the specialist, who has seen the number of his patients taking antidepressants increase by a quarter since February.
At the end of October, 57% of Russians said they were “in favor of negotiations with Kiev”, nine points higher than the previous month, according to the Levada Center.
Psychologists also deal Long-term effects.
Amina Nazaraliyeva, a psychologist-sexologist at the private Mental Health clinic in the Russian capital, already fears the return of the reservists. Many of them will suffer from “PTSD and alcoholism”.
“The whole country will be traumatized for a long time,” he abandons.
Source: AFP
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Source: Clarin
