Survivors. Why Russia doesn't need to fear economic turmoil
Many people are afraid of conflicts. They agree to experience a feeling of constant anxiety, just not to leave their comfort zone. If you want to get rid of this painful state, you will have to initiate conflict and defend your interests. To change the situation, but at the same time maintain the relationship, you must follow a number of rules.
Put your arguments on paper in advance
As a rule, conflicts are resolved emotionally. By putting your thoughts on paper, you will prepare yourself to stick to questions that directly relate to the conflict situation. This way, you are more likely to talk about what you would like to change in the relationship, and not turn into mutual accusations.
Observe your interlocutor from the side
No matter how you prepare for the conversation, it is difficult to resist the emotional flow into which the other party is trying to involve you. However, as soon as affect turns on: aggression in response to the attack of the offender or, on the contrary, fear, you lose. You forget about everything you previously wrote and find yourself in an emotional flood that deprives you of the ability to think rationally. Try taking a symbolic step aside, shifting your attention from what is being said to the person who is saying it. Take a closer look at how the person looks at this moment, what color of his eyes he has, the features of his clothing. Is his hair dyed or natural? Is the shirt ironed thoroughly? Imagine him not as your opponent, but as a five-year-old who has simply grown older. This will help you regain composure, which will help you act in your own interests.
Determine what the other person really wants
Conflicts can be direct or indirect. In the first case, everything is clear: your car is cut off on the freeway, and the conflict does not go beyond the scope of a traffic incident. However, sometimes a completely different reason for dissatisfaction may be hidden behind the expressed complaint. A loved one is jealous of you, but for various reasons he does not dare to express it. Instead, he accuses you of insisting on going to see friends when he would rather spend time elsewhere. The position of a detached observer here will allow you to better see the undercurrents: what actually lies at the heart of the conflict.
Let the other person talk
Every conflict has its phases. Do not try to end an unpleasant conversation as quickly as possible and give the interlocutor the opportunity to go through the most emotional stage, which allows you to free yourself from the accumulated burden of grievances. The more tension there is in a person, the more difficult it is for him to understand you. The words that are important for him to hear from you: “I understand you.”
Take back what you said
IN short form tell him everything he said. This will make the person feel understood and accepted by you.
: “Today is a completely different state, with a completely different economic strength.”
This time Dmitry Peskov is absolutely right. We are the surviving society of a drowned country. But the fact that we survived then is not a reason to drown on dry ground now. The Englishwoman Millina Dean, having survived the sinking of the Titanic as an infant (a statistical miracle!), lived for almost 100 years and died during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev. If Millina had nightmares, it was not as often as Russian society. The collapse and collapse of Russia is my favorite folk print, like Bova the Prince. We accompany all political moments with views of the death and ruin of a state. And the mantra “Gaidar saved Russia from famine and civil war“- a meme as tired as the school ones “Lenin is always alive” and “Mom washed the frame.”
Be Russian Federation a regular state with a system of institutions, it would not have existed long ago
The factor overlooked by black forecasters is the Russian Federation itself. It is statistically incredible, even more so historically. The idea of the RSFSR leaving the USSR could only arise in strange consciousness a Soviet person - a master of homemade crafts, who knows how to make a fashionable lampshade from a skein of twine.
The Soviet Union arose as a result of a revolution, a civil war and two world wars, and died in days of peace - but days of global crisis. Gorbachev could not have found a worse global moment for perestroika. Since Black Monday in the USA in 1987 and especially in 1991-92, the American economy has been in recession, with more than 10 countries affected by the economic crisis, from Canada and England to Japan and India. The collapse of the European exchange rate mechanism has hit the British pound. Crisis of 1991-92 made the growth of government spending in the West, necessary for the “Marshall Plan 2” aid to the USSR, unthinkable. And the Union collapsed. And what hatched from it greedily clicked its beak, demonstrating in every possible way the will to live.
People in front of a barricade of trams at the scene of night clashes in Moscow on August 21, 1991 Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP
The global economic crisis is the egg of the Russian Federation; it gave it a chance to arise at all. The Russian Federation was hailed as an anchor of salvation and a claim on Soviet resources. It was not the bright future and not the “city on a hill” that hovered in the minds of the population when Russia was announced, but the supply warehouses of the USSR with (it seemed) unbroken locks. An unwillingness to share equaled a will to survive and prosper—that was the underpinning of the democratic idealism of 1991.
Global economic crises occur regularly, although less frequently than economists predict. The next one is also inevitable. But the Russian system does not wait for a crisis; it is ahead of it, preparing in advance to participate in it. Ideally, she is the sponsor of the crisis, if not the initiator of it, and given the chance to succeed. Therefore, the Russian Federation has existed for almost 30 years—almost half the life of the USSR. Looking back, we see a number of severe political and economic crises, domestic and global. Each of them could easily send a new fragile state to the next world. If the Russian Federation were a regular state with a system of institutions, it would not have existed long ago. But the crisis was met by people who knew how to behave in the event of the immediate loss of all hopes, savings, citizenship and status.
1991, 1993, 1996, 1998-99, 2008-2009, 2014-2016... Russia lived in a chain of crises without disintegrating at all. States such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia disappeared, the collapse of the European Union began - and the Russian Federation is still there. Crises did not undermine, but, on the contrary, strengthened a new Russian authorities. She grew up in a wild field, like Mowgli, and learned everything useful, in particular, how to create a crisis. Unlike the Union, the Russian Federation is not a suffering victim of world fires, but a nimble predator waiting for prey in the bushes. Can we say that a country living this way is not viable?
Our demands for life are beyond any norms and standards; they are in the field of the anthropology of survival. “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong” - this is the history of the Russian Federation in one sentence
The devaluation of the ruble in 1998, of course, had an impact, and the drop in imports was more noticeable than after Crimea. But what is called the “Russian economy and statehood” easily coped with this. In Russia there is a force that always waits for hurricanes and grows stronger from them - this is the central government. Like in the old blockbuster disaster movie 2012, where Chinese arks, filled to the brim with billionaires, were waiting in the mountains for a wave that would tear them from their place and throw them into new vibrant waters.
Many have pointed to how quickly the Russian economy, state and society recovered from the 1998 default. I remember who recovered first - the legislators of the Russian Federation. At the August crisis foresight in the Kremlin separate decision accepted that State Duma ATMs will be continuously replenished with cash.
Economic crisis of December 24, 1998. Homeless people receive food in the center of Moscow.
Photo: Maxim Marmur/Getty Images
The Russian system is the most curious of the humanitarian projects of the late twentieth century (albeit not very humane). This is an active conspiracy between the population and the authorities about joint survival without rules. Everyone survives as best they can, some with a yacht and some without a pension. Here households are not fortresses worth attacking: there is nothing to take. Everyone is unhappy, but no one leaves the deal. Entire generations have grown up, classes of people have emerged who serve this amazing machine of crises, with profitable salvation from them. Perhaps our Russia is a beacon of the future in a sinking world order.
Like people who calmly switched from normal cheese to Krasnodar palm cheese (the quality is lower than Soviet), we can again give up everything and eat only rubbish. Our demands for life are beyond any norms and standards; they are in the field of the anthropology of survival. George Soros, predicting an imminent crisis, writes: “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong” - this is the history of the Russian Federation in one phrase. I would include these words in National anthem and sang them with patriotic delight.
A person may worry, worry, be afraid of something - this is normal if there are objective reasons for this. However, there are situations when you lack the strength to cope with your emotions, and the advice of friends and family does not help. If fears become obsessive, aggression arises empty space, and anxiety interferes with your life - this is a reason to think seriously and seek help from a specialist.
The day before world day mental health, which is celebrated annually on October 10, we asked questions to the dean of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, chief freelance psychologist of the Russian Ministry of Health Yuri Zinchenko and psychiatrist and psychotherapist Konstantin Olkhovoy.
Psychologist and psychiatrist, psychotherapist - what is the difference?
A psychologist deals with non-medicinal correction of mental disorders. And psychiatrist and psychotherapist are medical specialties. These doctors make a diagnosis and may prescribe medication.
Which one should you turn to for help at the initial stage?
In a difficult psychological situation, you can call hotline single helpline: 8-800-2000-122. If anxiety seems uncontrollable and excessive, it is better to consult a therapist at your local clinic. If necessary, he will issue a referral to a specialized specialist - a neurologist or psychiatrist. The referral itself does not oblige the patient to attend the appointment. “The appeal is always voluntary,” emphasizes the chief freelance psychologist of the Russian Ministry of Health, Yuri Zinchenko.
You can also contact a psychiatrist directly at the psychoneurological dispensary (PND) directly.
A depressed state, anxiety, emotional excitability, and other symptoms may have a physiological basis and be a consequence of a malfunction of any internal organs, hormonal disorder. To rule this out, the doctor may prescribe additional examination.
I feel like I need psychological help, but I'm afraid to see a doctor. What consequences might there be?
“There cannot be any more severe consequences than the consequences of the disease itself,” Konstantin Olkhovoy is convinced. Experts agree that in order to register a person with a psychiatric ward in the psychiatric hospital, which everyone is so afraid of, compelling reasons are needed. In general, everything is determined by the severity of the condition, and not by the presence of a diagnosis. For example, two people with neurosis can be in completely different states: one lives normally and fully, the second cannot leave the house, work, take care of himself and needs drug therapy.
What does registration at a psychoneurological dispensary mean? What is it for?
Registration occurs only after the patient is hospitalized, at which time the issue of disability due to mental or neurological disorders is resolved. There are two types of records: psychiatric and consultative. In fact, psychiatric registration in the PND means that a person is under regular medical supervision. When the diagnosis is established, the doctor prescribes treatment and builds a method of therapy taking into account the patient’s complaints and physical condition. People with serious illnesses or conditions that require specialist supervision are registered with a psychoneurological dispensary. Advisory accounting does not imply such observation.
Who by law has the right to request information about whether I am registered with the PND?
The diagnosis can be communicated in three cases: to the patient himself, to relatives, if the patient is under 15 years old (under 18 years old - if the condition threatens life and health), and at the request of the prosecutor. In all other cases, for example, when the employer requests information, the dispensary does not report the diagnosis, but informs about the absence or presence of contraindications to work. It is important that the list of employers who have the right to request such information is limited and strictly regulated. Law enforcement agencies, the public transport system (Russian Railways, aviation, urban passenger transport), and educational institutions have the right to request information about the presence of contraindications.
In what cases can a driver's license be revoked?
There are indications that limit activities for certain professions, for driving vehicles and owning weapons. Olkhovoy noted that, as a rule, we're talking about about serious conditions. “There are conditions in which a category B license will be issued, but a category D license for driving a bus will not be issued,” explained the psychotherapist. Thus, people with psychotic symptoms, hallucinations, epilepsy, who are registered for these mental disorders, will be legally limited in their driving privileges, because this can lead to death.
After registering with the PND, they asked me to resign of my own free will. Is this legal or can I complain against my employer?
This is illegal unless there is a medical exemption. If before registration a person worked as a subway driver, the requirement is legal. When a person's profession is not associated with restrictions, such a requirement would be discriminatory.
For example, according to Zinchenko, a person with epilepsy cannot work in mines, at open-hearth furnaces, or be a driver of vehicles.
Can they be forced to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment? What about prescribing treatment without the patient’s knowledge?
There are forced and involuntary treatment. The first is assigned only if a person is involved in a criminal case, and the court has decided to replace his sentence with compulsory treatment.
Involuntary treatment can be prescribed in three cases: a person is dangerous to himself (suicidal tendencies), a person is dangerous to others (acute psychosis, delusional disorder, etc.), a person is unable to take care of himself and there is no one to take care of him (dementia, deep mental backwardness, etc.). In these cases, involuntary hospitalization is carried out in a medical institution, after which the collegial decision is sent to the court, and the judge approves (or does not approve) that involuntary treatment was prescribed in accordance with the law. “From my own experience, I will say that it is very difficult to hospitalize a person involuntarily; for this you need very compelling reasons,” added Olkhova’s psychotherapist.
What to do if the behavior of a loved one is dangerous for him and others?
Relatives can first contact the PND and tell the whole situation. "IN good option may issue a referral for hospitalization. In case of an acute condition, you can call a psychiatric ambulance", the psychotherapist explained to Olkhova. He noted that in order to receive a referral for hospitalization, very compelling reasons are needed. If a person behaves aggressively, for example, is in a state of acute psychosis, you can call the police and then, having a protocol, ask for an involuntary PND hospitalization, but even in this case it will not be easy.
What to do if a person is in a psychiatric hospital and he himself - or his relatives - believes that his rights are being violated?
First, you can contact the department management, then the hospital management. The next step is to contact the prosecutor's office. A person can leave a psychiatric hospital if he does not undergo compulsory treatment. “No one can be kept in the hospital by force if we are talking about adults and capable people. Parents make decisions for patients under 15 years old,” Olkhovoy added.
During a divorce, does the fact that one of the spouses is registered affect the court's decision about who the child will live with?
This depends on the person’s condition, since diagnosis and capacity may be unrelated: a person with a severe diagnosis can be socially adapted, work, take care of himself and loved ones, while a relatively mild diagnosis may be accompanied by a serious condition and disability. The court must take into account the person’s condition, and not the very fact of diagnosis and registration at the dispensary.
Under what circumstances can they be deregistered from the PND?
“You can independently contact the PND with a statement. “I ask you to challenge the diagnosis that I was given in such and such a year,” said the dean of the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University. “A forensic psychiatric examination is appointed, which can remove the diagnosis.”
A person can be deregistered from the PND as a result of re-examination. In this case, the stability or instability of the patient’s condition is noted, and attention is paid to the manifestation of the disorders with which the person initially sought help. In the outpatient service of the dispensary or in the dispensary itself, they note whether the patient takes medications or not, how he communicates with doctors. It is also important whether he drinks alcohol or drugs. If everything is in order and for a long time (depending on the severity of the mental disorder - TASS note), doctors assess the person’s condition as stable, he is removed from the register.
Inna Finochka, Vera Klyueva
Psychotherapy is a way of self-knowledge, support in resolving internal and interpersonal conflicts, assistance in changing those personality traits and behavior patterns that prevent you from realizing your inner potential in life, work and relationships.
The main “tool” of psychotherapy is special relationship client and therapist, within whom the disclosure and resolution of psychological problems occurs (or does not occur). Psychotherapy is not a medicine and does not diagnose or treat mental illness. It is suitable for correcting psychological problems that anyone, healthy or sick, can have. In the second case, it is used in combination with psychiatric treatment.
Psychiatry is a branch of medicine. She learns mental states human by medical means and treats mental disorder as a disease of the body that can be studied and its “root” found in the functioning of the brain - and treated with drugs like any other disease. Psychiatry believes that by influencing the brain, one can change the psyche.
The same disorder may be caused psychological reasons or biochemical disorders in the brain. For example, depression can develop against the background of unresolved emotional problems - or due to an organic disorder in the production of dopamine in the brain. Often psychological problems and brain dysfunctions manifest themselves simultaneously - and even doctors cannot always say which comes first. And it’s almost impossible to independently understand the reasons for your subjective state of being “bad,” especially if you feel bad right now. Therefore, in good clinics, a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist work with the patient in tandem.
If you want the "talking cure" and you go to a therapist, he may refer you to a psychiatrist if he sees that you are too unstable emotional condition, and it needs to be adjusted. At the same time, if you feel that you are always in an abnormal state for yourself without any external cause, and go to a psychiatrist - then after stabilizing your condition, he can refer you to a psychotherapist. After all, you will have to deal with those features of behavior and thinking that destabilize you in addition to physiological disorders.
If you suspect you have a mental disorder, choose a psychotherapist with medical education and clinical experience. Psychologists' diplomas are most often issued by humanitarian universities, and their graduates have a rather weak understanding of psychiatry.
However, in the acute stages of a mental disorder, communication with a psychotherapist can be not only useless, but even harmful. For example, in case of the height of depression, a qualified psychotherapist will not offer you to delve into your relationship with your parents - but will send you to a psychiatrist to stabilize emotional background(without which constructive conversation and insights will not happen). If you yourself feel that psychotherapy does not help get rid of an abnormal condition for you or even worsens it, go to a psychiatrist yourself.
If you have 100 people working in your office, up to 30 of them will sooner or later experience mental illness. Most likely, it will be depression, phobia, obsessive disorder, eating disorder or mental changes caused by dependence on alcohol or other harmful substances.
Most psychiatrist patients are the most ordinary people, whom others consider somewhat “nervous”, “lazy”, “weak-willed”, “strange” or do not notice their problems at all. If you seek help in time, in most cases you can improve your condition and return to ordinary life. But if the disease is ignored for years (which is what thousands of Russians do), then even banal depression or anxiety disorder can result in the loss of work, family and place in society.
Before you suspect you have a mental disorder
1. Get enough sleep and rest. In modern city dwellers, disruptions in brain function can be triggered by banal overload and constant stress.
2. Rule out other reasons for feeling “strange.” See a neurologist (you may have physical damage nervous system) and an endocrinologist (hormone imbalance can also cause behavior changes). Not often, but there are cases when a person begins to be treated for schizophrenia, and then it turns out that the psychosis is caused by a brain tumor.
3. Remember that medicine has not yet been able to establish the exact causes of mental disorders. But scientists agree that there are always several factors: biological (that is, innate characteristics of brain biochemistry), psychological (stress, habit of thinking and behaving in a certain way) and social (education, relationships with others). Tablets will only help with the first group of problems. The rest will have to be dealt with on your own or with the help of a psychotherapist.
Why you shouldn't be afraid of psychiatrists
Not all horrors about psychiatry are fictitious: in the 20th century in the USSR, a person who tore up his party card could actually be sent “to the madhouse”; in the USA, thousands of patients were lobotomized, and in Canada, experiments were carried out on helpless patients. Modern psychiatry has become completely democratic and does not aim to “cause health” by force: until you commit a crime, your mental health- this is only your problem (and your loved ones).
Domestic hospitals still lag behind European ones in terms of humanism, but in general they are moving in the same direction as the entire civilized world. For example, in Moscow they are opening psychiatric departments at regular clinics in order to overcome the outdated habit of isolating the mentally ill; in clinics you can make an appointment with a psychotherapist, and the city’s chief psychiatrist speaks at conferences along with patients.
Patient's rights
Russian psychiatry is based on fairly progressive laws, but it is worth keeping in mind that practice often lags behind theory. Therefore, it is important to know what rights you have.
Voluntariness
To be treated or not to be treated is voluntary. A patient can be hospitalized only with his written consent. Involuntary hospitalization can be in three cases: if a person poses an immediate danger to himself (attempting to commit suicide) or to others, and if he is helpless (not able to take care of himself). In such cases, the decision is made not by one doctor, but by a special medical commission.
There is compulsory treatment by court order, but that is a completely different story. So if you were taken to the hospital due to someone’s mistake or malicious intent, there is every chance of returning home.
Confidentiality
Transfer of data from your medical record to third parties, be it an employer or dear mother, without your written consent is prohibited. Both the diagnosis and the very fact of contacting a psychiatrist constitute a medical confidentiality. Such information can only be requested by law enforcement agencies or a court if there is reason to believe that you are involved in a crime.
Psychiatric registration, which still scares people, was officially abolished 25 years ago. So the requirement to “bring a certificate” about registration in the IDP is illegal. The accounting system was replaced by dispensary observation. It does not cover all people with diagnoses, as was the case in the USSR, but only those whose illness is severe, with frequent exacerbations. Monitoring does not take away your rights, and it can be removed over time if you achieve remission.
Despite the illegality, in Russia they can still require a certificate from the IPA. In this case, the PND should assess the patient’s condition for this moment and write about this, and not about what happened to him several years ago.
Restrictions
There are indeed restrictions on the choice of work for people with chronic disorders: these are professions associated with weapons, high risk, or responsibility for other people. Your suitability for work is determined not by “registration in the IPA”, but by a medical board that assesses your condition at that particular moment.
Patient Responsibility
Recovery (long-term remission, to be precise) is impossible without your own active participation. If you want to feel better, you need to change your lifestyle and give up habits that weaken you. peace of mind. Each disease has its own characteristics, but the rules of a healthy lifestyle have remained unchanged since the time of Hippocrates: adequate sleep and rest, moderate physical exercise, no overload and healthy foods rich in brain nutrients. Drugs and strong alcohol (or mild in large quantities) are harmful to everyone, but for a psychiatry client they are taboo: they not only give unpredictable side effects in combination with medications, but can also provoke attacks of the disease.
Take care of your mental health, don’t be afraid of doctors, and remember that mental disorders rarely “go away on their own”: if left untreated, the consequences for your family and your future can be much worse than admitting the fact of the disease and the need for help.
In life modern man Today there are so many fears that poison this life that all people’s behavior is based only on fear. And every day new fears are carefully imposed on a person, oppressing his psyche and will with them, making him controlled through fear. But in fact, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of in this life; many people live in constant fear, without even understanding its nature, let alone comprehending it. What does all our fear come down to if not the fear of death, because our life is the most precious thing we have, and death is unknown to us, and that’s why it frightens us.
It is the fear of death that is the root of all other fears that grow and bloom in our heads. But even death is not scary when you understand that it is an integral part of our life. If you realize that your life can be interrupted at any moment in any place, and that you do not know the reasons for this, then the very fear of death will lose its meaning. There is no point in fear, because what needs to happen will still happen, but what we did not do will never happen. That is why it is so important not to be afraid, because fear fetters our actions, and we must act; this is the meaning of the entire life process.
A person is afraid of loneliness, and therefore he acts, he is looking for a mate, a person is afraid of hunger and poverty, and therefore works, a person is afraid of death and therefore tries to prevent it. All this suggests that we need to act, and fear forces us to do this, but we should not be afraid, why not step over this stage and immediately begin to act? Why are they necessarily afraid of something in order to either do something or remain inactive, submitting to their fear, but not obeying it? Once you stop being afraid, but at the same time you are not an indifferent person, but remain as purposeful as fear makes you, you will take a leap forward.
It is impossible to scare or stop a person who is not afraid of anything, including death, but at the same time he has a goal in life. But an apathetic person who is not afraid of anything, but at the same time has no goal, can get scared at any moment when his measured and calm life ceases to be so. And all because such a person lives in the illusion of stability, which does not exist, he is afraid of losing something that does not exist in principle. This is where the absurdity lies, this is where there is no understanding of the nature of your fear. Fear acts as the fuel that drives human body into working condition, but this fuel can also paralyze a person, limit him if he does not want to start.
But in general, this is just a stupid measure of coercion, because if you are not stupid and ask questions about life, you don’t need to be forced, and fear is just funny fun for you. Who and what can deprive you in this world if you already own nothing, but people are afraid of this. Everything will someday go into oblivion, everyone dies, time spares no one, and in that case, what can you regret about the inevitable? The whole universe consists of the same parts, we are all a single whole, and no matter how you look at it, we will remain so, and what can we be afraid of in this case? You just need to think about it a little to understand the pointlessness of fear, and that the function it performs may not be necessary for us.
You are not smart enough if fear forces you to do something, but you are very stupid if fear forces you to do nothing at all. Transform your thinking by realizing your fear, find its root and its meaning, and you will understand that there is nothing to be afraid of in this life, you just needed the illusion of fear, because you don’t understand otherwise. Fear recedes in front of those whom there is no point in frightening, who see true position affairs, and understands the necessity of everything that is in this life. Your psyche will be significantly transformed, and your opportunities will increase when you understand why you are afraid, what you are afraid of, and decide for yourself whether you need it.
