Settimanale Azione - Going through the motions without really feeling alive

“For months, I kept saying I was just tired. I wasn’t sleeping well, I had trouble concentrating, and I didn’t feel like seeing anyone anymore. But I went to work, smiled, and said, ‘Everything’s fine.’ In reality, I wasn’t fine at all.” Agata, 42, had never thought of asking for help: “I thought I had to handle it on my own and that there were people with more serious problems than mine.” What seemed like simple fatigue began to affect her sleep, work, and relationships. “I realized that just gritting my teeth wasn’t enough anymore.”

Gianni, 55, also attributed everything to stress. “My wife told me, ‘You’re not yourself anymore.’ I was always on edge, I wasn’t sleeping much, and I’d lost all my enthusiasm.” Eventually, his wife’s persistence convinced him to talk to his doctor.

Two different stories, united by the difficulty of recognizing psychological distress and asking for help. A reality that the statistics urge us not to underestimate. In Switzerland, according to the Federal Office of Public Health, the proportion of people experiencing moderate or severe psychological distress rose from 15% in 2017 to 18% in 2022. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, during the same period, the percentage of those who felt lonely very often or fairly often more than doubled, from 4% to 10%. Globally, the WHO estimates that in 2021, approximately 1.1 billion people were living with a mental disorder. These numbers do not tell individual stories, but they remind us of the importance of listening to feelings of distress before they begin to affect daily life. Not every instance of sadness, anxiety, or fatigue is an illness, but neither should every instance of suffering be ignored.

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