Unemployment and Depression.

The link between unemployment and depression is very close. The issue of occupation in today's society generates consequences in the psychological aspect. Identity and self-esteem are fundamentally linked to occupation in a very direct way.

Many people identify entirely with occupation and put all their energy into it. The frustration that not getting a job can generate, when you are actively looking for and wanting it, is very significant. The feelings of uselessness, personal failure, and the lack of motivation that it generates, in many cases favor the development of depressive symptoms.

For this reason, in times when there is a high unemployment rate, cases of depression also tend to increase.

There are different types of occupations and people with different objects and projects. There are those who are happily carrying out a trade or undertaking independently and those who have the need to work in a dependency relationship. Here we speak of unemployment in cases in which the person, for a long time and contrary to what he would like, finds himself without income and unable to carry out an activity that pays off economically. In Argentina, the issue of unemployment is very complex and the idea is not to delve into this issue, but simply to focus on the relationship between unemployment and psychological aspects, specifically depression.

Work generates a sense of self-worth in many people. Feeling that they can carry out a task and that they receive a return for it. When this does not happen, this idea can be weakened, feeling, on the contrary, that "they do not do anything right" or attributing the lack of employment to characteristics of their person.

In these cases, the subject is convinced that he does not get a job because he is not worth it, instead of observing the complex socioeconomic framework that is behind it.

Work, in many cases, gives the person a sense of usefulness and recognition. It implies the external validation that we sometimes need, that return that confirms that we can do something, that we are capable of. Unfortunately, this is the weight that is sometimes placed on work. When in reality we know that this personal assessment must be developed internally. Getting a job or not does not determine our validity and ability.

Maintaining the activity and developing autonomy, which are issues that work makes possible to a great extent, sometimes do not find a place if the person does not get a job. This becomes a vicious circle, the lack of employment develops greater passivity and dependence, which in turn generates anguish and greater difficulty in getting out of that situation.

Sometimes this position generates a certain satisfaction, because it keeps the person with less responsibility, being able to attribute to their lack of employment the cause of all their ills. However, this is something that needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis, as this is by no means the case in all cases.

"Work dignifies" is a controversial phrase. It is true that staying active helps the subject in many aspects, but it is essential to be able to recognize that his abilities and personal value do not depend on a job. They are tools that the subject must feel empowered to deploy independently. This, of course, depends on the socio-economic situation and the extent to which basic needs are covered. There are roads that can hardly be built in a state of total vulnerability.

 

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