The pandemic has affected us all, but the trail it is leaving in the mental health of young people is not small, as we counted. We now know that suicide has become the leading cause of death for young people in the Spanish state. It is the first time that suicides are the leading cause of death, since statistics are made.

"Will Pass"

A mother has claimed that, before reaching such serious conclusions, her mental health is made visible, she speaks naturally about the issue and gives the importance she deserves, after her 14-year-old son Rodrigo committed suicide by depression. In a moving letter, he says they took the psychiatrist late: “We have been victims of disinformation, stigmatization and underestimation of mental health. We spend the sad weeks without reason, we have self-esteem underground, we suffer because we feel outside society... and we do not tell anyone, we hope that this stage will pass, we take it into disguise.” But thinking “will pass” is not the way.

“I didn’t know that children could have depression,” he says, “and when I learned it, I didn’t measure the degree of suffering it can cause. We have reduced weight and importance to the word ‘depression’ and depression is an invisible and cruel disease.” He used to tell his son Rodrigo that “you have to change the chip” or “enjoy what you have,” but he has realized that it’s unfair to ask those who have depression, it’s like asking those who have cancer not.

Nothing from Mister Wonderfuli, please.

In Malene San Pedro ARGIA he spoke to us in a similar way: “The Wonderful and similar Mister are very fashionable and very toxic. If you tell someone that they're wrong to be happy, not only do you not help them, but you'll feel guilty. Don't tell him to be happy, he has to be sad. The first thing I had to do in my process was know how to be sad, why I was sad, accept that pain, and pass the grief. If we tackle the problem and strive to be satisfied, the problem will remain there, within. I don’t want to be sad either, but sadness and suffering are common in our lives and we have to accept them to be OK.”

At the end of the letter, Rodrigo's mother calls for hope: mental illnesses usually have a good prediction of healing with appropriate treatment and therapy and if taken in time.