Open letter to the dean of the Official College of Psychology of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the hypocrisy of warning about advice on social networks when therapy is an unattainable luxury
It's easy to sit in an air-conditioned office, with the diploma nicely framed on the wall and a mug that says "active listening", and warn us of the "danger of following mental health advice on social networks". Of course, because we can all afford to pay 60, 70 or even 80 euros per weekly session, right? As if that were part of the basic basket.
The reality is different. In this country, talking about mental health has become a luxury. Because if you can't afford a private psychologist (and most can't), you have the public system. That system that, according to the 2024 Health Barometer, makes 40% of patients wait between one and three months to be seen... and 26% more than three months. That is, you may be on the verge of emotional collapse, but you have to stand in line. Because in public mental health, shifts are also distributed as if they were tickets for a concert, but without the emotion or the music.
And now comes the best part: I could afford it. The sessions. One after another. For months. And you know what? They didn't help me at all. Rather, I left there feeling like a client, not a patient. As if instead of trying to understand my anxiety, they expected me to contract the monthly emotional stability bonus. "Is next week good for you?" they asked with a commercial smile. And I also smiled, of course, so as not to cry.
Are you really surprised that people seek comfort on Instagram, Tik Tok or in a Twitter thread? They do it because they have nothing else. Because when the system leaves you stranded, at least there is someone (another human being as broken as you) who tells you: "me too". And now you come, ladies and gentlemen of the Official College, to criminalize that. To tell us that it is dangerous for people to try to save themselves as they can... because you are not there.
They say that mental health should be left in the hands of professionals. And they are right. But the problem is that professionals are not available, or are not accessible, or have simply forgotten that what is on the other side of the couch is not a client. It is someone who needs help. Urgent. Not when there is a gap.
So, before continuing to give lessons from your ivory tower, come down to the mud. Sit in the waiting room of a public mental health center. Ask how long the next appointment takes. Look in the face of those who cannot afford a private session. And then, if you still have the face, come and talk to us about the "danger of networks". Because the real danger is not on TikTok. It is in the indifference of those who could help... and do not.
