Specialist Psychotherapist Refika Yazgaç, after her nursing education, started her career by getting her undergraduate education at Marmara University Psychological Counseling Department. She continued to progress in her field by working as a field coordinator in the United Nations SOMARC Women’s Health Project. Yazgaç, who carries out voluntary projects for university students and elderly individuals at YÖRET Foundation, worked as a program consultant at TRT Children’s Television. Yazgaç, whose many articles have been published in domestic and foreign journals, is one of the authors of the book ‘The Power of Smile in Healing and Healing’ .
Turkey ranks 4th from the bottom
Factors such as consumerism frenzy, digitalization, work stress while making individuals increasingly lonely and triggering emotional problems and even the increasing social insanity causes suicide cases. According to the data published by TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), 8 people end their lives on average every day in Turkey. When the statistics are examined, there are feelings such as loneliness and feeling worthless among the factors. According to the report of the Ministry of Health, approximately 9 million people apply to a doctor annually due to mental and nervous diseases, while the 2018 Gallup Global Emotion Report shows that Turkey ranks 4th from the bottom in the list of the happiest countries, thus explaining our current state of mind.
‘The cure for loneliness is not an antidepressant, it is self-awareness’
Expert Psychotherapist Refika Yazgaç, on the occasion of 10 October World Mental Health Day He shared remarkable information about his spiritual report card. While Yazgaç stated that the use of antirepressants has increased by 27 percent in the last 5 years due to factors such as emotional depression and loneliness, “When we say social media, internet, artificial intelligence, we have started to move away from concepts such as emotional intelligence, empathy, self-sacrifice and cooperation. “While individuals in all age groups state how lonely they are, one third of patients with depression and anxiety choose the way of getting help from a specialist. Worst of all, the use of antitepressants has reached about 50 million boxes.” He says . In short, we are first addicted to antidepressant drugs through hearsay and the internet. However, with individual awareness studies, we can get out of the loneliness we are in.
This year’s theme is suicide
Due to the increasing number of suicide cases, the World Health Organization has set this year’s theme for the World Mental Health Day, October 10, as ‘suicide’. Every year around 1 million people around the world commit suicide due to mental problems. Yazgaç said, “Many reasons such as economic inadequacy, future anxiety, unemployment problem, traumatic events in the past, and physical discomfort push people to the feeling of loneliness. Suicide attempts can have many causes. Today, it is possible to say that suicide attempts are more common in individuals between the ages of 15-35. Individual awareness should be raised against suicide cases, which are among the top 10 causes of death all over the world. .
Develop emotional intelligence
Today, with the rapid development of technology, smartphones and tablets cover an important part of our lives. For this reason, while communication between individuals gradually breaks down, loneliness increases in response to the increasing ‘me’ feeling. Expert Psychotherapist Refika Yazgaç , who stated that the best medicine against the feeling of loneliness is not the antidepressants, but the ability to think positively, said, “Actually, everything starts in the family. First of all, parents need to be in constant communication with their children before they completely surrender them to the digital age. Talking We need to take part in voluntary organizations, be able to transition from the ‘me’ feeling to the ‘we’ feeling, develop the ability to empathize, and most importantly, we should not lose the sense of being human in the digital age, when artificial intelligence is slowly starting to dominate. It is imperative that the concept of the concept is brought to the fore and efforts to increase emotional intelligence gain momentum.” says
Gizem Bozdag
