B1 · Intermediate
13 min
mental healthspanish culturehistorysocial change
Spain Learned to Swallow It
Aquí no se llora
Spain has a reputation for passion and openness, yet for decades mental health was a topic nobody touched. Fletcher and Octavio dig into why that's changing, how Franco's dictatorship and the 2008 crash shaped Spanish silence, and whether talking about it is actually enough.
España tiene fama de ser un país expresivo y apasionado, pero durante décadas la salud mental fue un tema prohibido. Fletcher y Octavio exploran por qué está cambiando eso ahora, qué papel jugó el franquismo y la crisis económica, y si hablar de ello es suficiente.
8 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| aguantar | to endure, to bear, to put up with | Muchos españoles aprendieron a aguantar el dolor sin quejarse. |
| la salud mental | mental health | Hablar de salud mental es más fácil ahora que hace veinte años. |
| la lista de espera | waiting list | La lista de espera para ver a un psicólogo puede ser de más de un año. |
| la ansiedad | anxiety | Después de la pandemia, muchos jóvenes hablaron de su ansiedad por primera vez. |
| hacerse el fuerte | to act tough, to pretend to be strong | Muchos hombres aprenden a hacerse el fuerte aunque están sufriendo. |
| la red de apoyo | support network | En España, la familia es la red de apoyo más importante para muchas personas. |
| normalizar | to normalize | Los deportistas famosos ayudaron a normalizar la conversación sobre salud mental. |
| el sufrimiento | suffering | Durante muchos años, el sufrimiento era algo privado que no se hablaba en público. |
Here's a paradox I've been sitting with all week: Spain is one of the most socially expressive cultures I've ever spent time in, people argue loudly in restaurants, strangers tell you their life story on the metro, and yet for most of the last century, mental health was almost completely unspeakable there.
That gap has always fascinated me.
Sí, exacto.
Yes, exactly.
En España hablamos de todo: del fútbol, de la política, de la comida, de los vecinos.
In Spain we talk about everything: football, politics, food, the neighbors.
Pero de cómo nos sentimos por dentro...
But how we feel inside...
eso era diferente.
that was different.
Eso era privado.
That was private.
O peor: eso era una debilidad.
Or worse: that was a weakness.
And now something is shifting.
I've been reading about this for a few days and the scale of the change is striking, particularly among younger Spaniards.
What does it look like from where you're sitting?
Pues mira, el cambio más grande llegó con la pandemia.
Well look, the biggest change came with the pandemic.
Antes de 2020, hablar de ansiedad o depresión en público era casi imposible.
Before 2020, talking about anxiety or depression in public was almost impossible.
Después de la pandemia, la conversación cambió.
After the pandemic, the conversation changed.
Los jóvenes empezaron a hablar, en las redes sociales, con sus amigos, en los medios.
Young people started talking, on social media, with their friends, in the press.
That tracks with what I saw in a lot of countries, but I want to understand why Spain specifically.
Because the pandemic hit everywhere, and not everywhere had this same kind of cultural dam break.
Porque en España el silencio era más profundo que en otros países.
Because in Spain the silence was deeper than in other countries.
Tiene una historia muy específica.
It has a very specific history.
El franquismo, la religión, la idea de que tienes que ser fuerte.
Francoism, religion, the idea that you have to be strong.
Todo eso junto creó muchos años de silencio.
All of that together created many years of silence.
Right, and I want to get into all of that, but first, on a practical level: is the government actually doing anything?
Because a cultural conversation is one thing, but policy is another.
Sí, en 2022 el gobierno aprobó una Estrategia de Salud Mental.
Yes, in 2022 the government approved a Mental Health Strategy.
Es un plan para mejorar los servicios públicos hasta 2026.
It's a plan to improve public services until 2026.
También prometieron más psicólogos en los centros de salud.
They also promised more psychologists in health centers.
Pero la realidad es más complicada.
But the reality is more complicated.
Of course it is.
A plan is a plan.
The question is what actually gets built.
But let's step back, because I think the history here is genuinely important and I don't think most people outside Spain understand it.
Tienes razón.
You're right.
Para entender el presente, hay que entender el pasado.
To understand the present, you have to understand the past.
En España, durante muchos siglos, la Iglesia Católica tenía mucho poder.
In Spain, for many centuries, the Catholic Church had a lot of power.
Y la idea principal era: el sufrimiento es normal.
And the main idea was: suffering is normal.
Es parte de la vida.
It's part of life.
Dios te da sufrimiento y tú lo aceptas.
God gives you suffering and you accept it.
So suffering wasn't a problem to be solved, it was almost a virtue.
A sign of faith.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y hay una palabra en español que explica mucho de esto: aguantar.
And there's a word in Spanish that explains a lot of this: aguantar.
Aguantar significa resistir, soportar el dolor sin quejarte.
Aguantar means to endure, to bear pain without complaining.
En mi familia, en muchas familias españolas, aguantar era una virtud.
In my family, in many Spanish families, to endure was a virtue.
Si aguantabas, eras fuerte.
If you endured, you were strong.
And then Franco arrives and that whole framework gets amplified into something political.
Because the dictatorship didn't just suppress political dissent, it suppressed interiority itself, in a way.
Sí.
Yes.
Franco gobernó España de 1939 a 1975.
Franco governed Spain from 1939 to 1975.
Durante esos años, no podías hablar libremente de casi nada: de política, de la guerra civil, de tu familia si tenías parientes republicanos.
During those years, you couldn't speak freely about almost anything: politics, the civil war, your family if you had Republican relatives.
Aprendiste a no hablar.
You learned not to speak.
A guardar las cosas dentro.
To keep things inside.
And that silence didn't end when Franco died.
That's the part that gets underestimated.
You can't just flip a switch after forty years.
The habits of silence outlive the reasons for them.
Muy bien dicho.
Very well put.
En España incluso hay un nombre para eso: el Pacto del Olvido.
In Spain there's even a name for that: the Pact of Forgetting.
Cuando llegó la democracia en los años setenta, la sociedad española decidió, más o menos, no hablar del pasado.
When democracy arrived in the seventies, Spanish society decided, more or less, not to talk about the past.
No hablar de la guerra civil, no hablar del dolor.
Not to talk about the civil war, not to talk about the pain.
Seguir adelante.
Move forward.
A political pact that also became a psychological one.
Although I know the Movida happened around that same time, and that's always been presented to me as this explosion of freedom, of expression.
Was that a release valve?
En parte sí.
In part yes.
La Movida fue en los años ochenta, en Madrid principalmente.
The Movida was in the eighties, mainly in Madrid.
De repente había libertad para hablar de sexo, de drogas, de política, de todo.
Suddenly there was freedom to talk about sex, drugs, politics, everything.
Era como abrir una ventana después de mucho tiempo.
It was like opening a window after a long time.
Pero la salud mental, la psicología, eso no entró en esa conversación.
But mental health, psychology, that didn't enter that conversation.
So you could talk about desire and rebellion and identity in new ways, but the quieter interior stuff, the anxiety, the depression, the grief, that stayed locked.
Sí.
Yes.
Y entonces llegó la crisis económica de 2008.
And then the 2008 economic crisis arrived.
España fue uno de los países más afectados.
Spain was one of the worst affected countries.
El desempleo llegó al veinticinco por ciento.
Unemployment reached twenty-five percent.
Entre los jóvenes, al cincuenta por ciento.
Among young people, fifty percent.
Fue un trauma enorme para el país.
It was an enormous trauma for the country.
I was in and out of Spain during those years for work.
The atmosphere was extraordinary.
Not just economically painful, it felt like a collective humiliation for a lot of people.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y los estudios dicen que en esos años aumentaron mucho los casos de depresión y ansiedad en España.
And studies say that in those years cases of depression and anxiety increased a lot in Spain.
Pero los servicios de salud mental no tenían recursos.
But mental health services didn't have resources.
Muchas personas no tenían ayuda.
Many people had no help.
Which brings us to the structural problem, because Spain has one of the lowest ratios of psychologists to population in the European Union.
That's not an accident, that's a choice that accumulated over decades.
Sí, los números son muy claros.
Yes, the numbers are very clear.
En España hay unos seis psicólogos por cada cien mil habitantes en el sistema público.
In Spain there are about six psychologists for every hundred thousand inhabitants in the public system.
En Alemania o en los países nórdicos, el número es mucho más alto.
In Germany or the Nordic countries, the number is much higher.
Y las listas de espera en España son muy largas, a veces más de un año.
And waiting lists in Spain are very long, sometimes more than a year.
A year.
If you're in crisis, a year is an eternity.
So what happens in practice?
Who actually gets help?
Las personas con dinero van a psicólogos privados.
People with money go to private psychologists.
Una sesión cuesta entre cincuenta y cien euros.
A session costs between fifty and a hundred euros.
Para mucha gente, eso es imposible.
For many people, that's impossible.
Así que la brecha entre ricos y pobres en salud mental es muy grande en España.
So the gap between rich and poor in mental health is very wide in Spain.
And the people who can't afford private care, they fall back on what exactly?
Family?
La familia, sí.
The family, yes.
En España la familia siempre fue la red de apoyo principal.
In Spain the family was always the main support network.
Cuando tienes un problema, vas a tu madre, a tu hermano, a tus amigos.
When you have a problem, you go to your mother, your brother, your friends.
No a un profesional.
Not to a professional.
Eso tiene cosas buenas, claro.
That has good things, of course.
Pero también tiene problemas.
But it also has problems.
Because sometimes the family is the problem.
I don't mean that cynically, just that a loving family can also be the source of a person's anxiety or the reason they can't speak honestly about what they're feeling.
Claro.
Of course.
A veces tu madre te quiere mucho, pero también es la razón por la que necesitas un psicólogo.
Sometimes your mother loves you very much, but she's also the reason you need a psychologist.
Eso es universal, creo.
I think that's universal.
Universally true and internationally underfunded.
Now, I want to ask you specifically about men, because when I was reporting in Spain, the machismo culture was real and the idea that a man asking for help is somehow a failure, I saw that operating everywhere.
Sí, es un problema muy serio.
Yes, it's a very serious problem.
En España hay una expresión: hacerse el fuerte.
In Spain there's an expression: hacerse el fuerte.
Significa actuar como si todo está bien, no mostrar debilidad.
It means acting as if everything is fine, not showing weakness.
Para los hombres, pedir ayuda psicológica era casi impensable.
For men, asking for psychological help was almost unthinkable.
Era una vergüenza.
It was shameful.
And the statistics on male suicide, not just in Spain but everywhere, bear that out in the most brutal way.
Men die rather than speak.
That's not a metaphor, that's literally what happens.
En España el suicidio es la primera causa de muerte externa, más que los accidentes de tráfico.
In Spain suicide is the leading cause of external death, more than traffic accidents.
Y entre los hombres, los números son mucho más altos que entre las mujeres.
And among men, the numbers are much higher than among women.
Esto es una crisis real, no solo una conversación cultural.
This is a real crisis, not just a cultural conversation.
That number always stops me.
More than traffic accidents.
Most people have no idea.
And you said younger men are starting to shift, there's a generational change happening?
Sí, creo que sí.
Yes, I think so.
Los jóvenes de veinte, veinticinco años hablan de salud mental de una forma completamente diferente.
Young people of twenty, twenty-five years old talk about mental health in a completely different way.
Para ellos, ir al psicólogo no es una vergüenza, es normal.
For them, going to the psychologist isn't shameful, it's normal.
Como ir al médico.
Like going to the doctor.
Ese cambio es muy importante.
That change is very important.
And social media is part of that story, though it cuts both ways.
Because the awareness campaigns are real, celebrities speaking openly has made a genuine difference, but the platforms themselves are also a source of anxiety for that exact generation.
Exacto.
Exactly.
En España algunos deportistas famosos hablaron de sus problemas de salud mental en los últimos años.
In Spain some famous athletes spoke about their mental health problems in recent years.
Eso ayudó mucho a normalizar la conversación.
That helped a lot to normalize the conversation.
Pero al mismo tiempo, las redes sociales crean presión, comparación, ansiedad.
But at the same time, social media creates pressure, comparison, anxiety.
Es una contradicción.
It's a contradiction.
So the same tool that spreads the message also spreads the condition.
Which is where I want to push back a little on the optimism, because you can have a very sophisticated public conversation about mental health and still have a completely inadequate system for actually treating it.
Sí, tienes razón en eso.
Yes, you're right about that.
Hablar es el primer paso, pero no es suficiente.
Talking is the first step, but it's not enough.
En España necesitamos más psicólogos en el sistema público, menos tiempo de espera, y también educación en las escuelas.
In Spain we need more psychologists in the public system, shorter waiting times, and also education in schools.
El plan del gobierno es un comienzo, pero es solo un comienzo.
The government's plan is a start, but it's only a start.
And there's a generation carrying damage from 2008, then from the pandemic on top of that, without ever really having had access to care.
That's a lot of accumulated weight for a society to be carrying.
Es verdad.
That's true.
Y creo que eso explica también por qué la conversación es tan urgente ahora.
And I think that also explains why the conversation is so urgent now.
No es solo una moda.
It's not just a trend.
Hay una necesidad real, muy profunda.
There's a real need, very deep.
La gente llegó al límite y empezó a hablar porque ya no podía aguantar más en silencio.
People reached their limit and started talking because they could no longer endure in silence.
That word, aguantar.
You've used it a couple of times and it's doing a lot of work in this conversation.
I don't think it translates cleanly as just 'endure' or 'put up with.' There's something heavier in it, isn't there.
Sí, es una palabra muy interesante.
Yes, it's a very interesting word.
Aguantar viene del italiano 'guantare', que significa sujetar algo.
Aguantar comes from the Italian 'guantare', which means to hold something.
En español significa resistir, soportar algo difícil sin quejarte.
In Spanish it means to resist, to bear something difficult without complaining.
Puedes aguantar el dolor, el frío, una persona difícil, o una situación mala.
You can aguantar pain, cold, a difficult person, or a bad situation.
Y tiene una connotación de orgullo: si aguantas, eres fuerte.
And it has a connotation of pride: if you endure, you are strong.
So the whole cultural story we've been telling for the last half hour is basically embedded in a single verb.
To endure without complaining, as a point of pride.
And what this episode is really about is a generation deciding that aguantar isn't enough anymore.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y eso es un cambio cultural muy profundo.
And that is a very deep cultural change.
No es fácil cambiar algo que está en el idioma, en la historia, en la familia.
It's not easy to change something that is in the language, in history, in the family.
Pero creo que España está en ese proceso ahora.
But I think Spain is in that process now.
Lentamente, pero lo está.
Slowly, but it is.
A country renegotiating its relationship with a single verb.
That's the kind of thing that takes generations to settle.
Thanks for getting into all of this with me, Octavio.
Genuinely.
De nada.
You're welcome.
Y Fletcher, la próxima vez que te sientas mal, no digas que estás muy embarazado.
And Fletcher, next time you feel bad, don't say you're very pregnant.
Di que no puedes más.
Say you can't take any more.
Es más honesto y también es más correcto.
It's more honest and it's also more correct.
Eight years and it never gets old.
Never.