In daily life, we experience many events that affect our mental health positively or negatively. External factors and interactions such as family relationships, friendship relationships, business relationships, working status and working conditions, school life and economic difficulties affect our mental health positively or negatively. Problems we may experience in one or more of these in our daily lives will affect us in the short term or long term. We can say that the duration of the effect is directly proportional to the continuity of the problem experienced. We can describe the economic difficulties, which are one of the main problems of today, as a long-term problem. Economic difficulties have become even more severe, especially with the pandemic process. The increase in market exchange rates and the increase in many needs, including basic foods, negatively affected people's purchasing power. During this period when unemployment increased, serious economic problems began to occur, especially in big cities. We see that the inverse proportion between the increase in the cost of living and purchasing power seriously affects people not only sociologically but also psychologically.
We see in many studies that there is a relationship between quality of life and mental health. In individuals with lower economic status, stress and negative emotions are in direct proportion to their economic purchasing power. Basic needs are placed at the bottom of Maslow's "hierarchy of needs", which he created in order of priority. The individual stated that without meeting these needs, he would go to higher levels and experience a deficiency in meeting needs such as self-improvement and realization, respect and love needs. Today, the low level of economic purchasing power in the majority of society unfortunately forces individuals to focus on the basic needs at the bottom level and remain limited only to the bottom level.
Unfortunately, economic difficulties such as unemployment, low job satisfaction, poor working conditions and insufficient wages lead individuals to mental depression more than we could ever imagine. According to the World Health Organization, depression is becoming the most common mental problem today. Do the same in our country and around the world. In many studies, economic factors such as unemployment and low socioeconomic level are among the major factors that lead an individual to depression. Low purchasing power increases the individual's feelings of stress and inadequacy. These become the basic components of psychological crisis. Uncertainty about the future causes a person to be pessimistic. These existing economic difficulties manifest themselves most clearly in our inner world and in our interactions with our environment. This painful process that the individual goes through in his inner world inevitably reflects on his environment, and he is dragged into an even more impossible situation with the negative reactions he receives from his environment. We see that hundreds of people in our country and around the world commit suicide due to financial difficulties. We experienced one of the most recent examples of this last February. A young couple committed suicide, leaving their children with their relatives due to poverty. Likewise, there were individuals who committed suicide or attempted suicide in Van. In recent years, a 53-year-old citizen in Van committed suicide due to the economic problems he experienced. Unfortunately, these examples can be increased even more. The individual is forced to voluntarily waive this right to life, which is one of the fundamental human rights, as a result of the psychological crisis he experiences due to the pressure of the economic difficulties he experiences. Of course, this does not mean that individuals with high socio-economic levels do not have psychological depression, but existing economic difficulties are one of the major factors affecting psychological depression.
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