Greek Crisis Has Seen a Rise in Suicides and Depression

Anti-EU protesters are silhouetted behind a banner reading "No" during a demonstration of about five hundred people in Athens, Greece, July 13, 2015. Euro zone leaders made Greece surrender much of its sovereignty to outside supervision on Monday in return for agreeing to talks on an 86 billion euros (61.2 billion pounds) bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the single currency. JEAN-PAUL PELISSIER/REUTERS — Anti-EU protesters are silhouetted behind a banner reading «No» during a demonstration of about five hundred people in Athens, Greece, July 13, 2015. Euro zone leaders made Greece surrender much of its sovereignty to outside supervision on Monday in return for agreeing to talks on an 86 billion euros (61.2 billion pounds) bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the single currency. JEAN-PAUL PELISSIER/REUTERS

Valia Gkeka has been one of the lucky ones over the past few years. Unlike many in Greece, the 36-year-old lawyer has managed to keep her job and avoid moving in with her parents, and she says that makes her feel guilty. But she has still felt the chaos of the crisis acutely. “I don’t feel as autonomous. I don’t feel like I really have control over my life,” she says. “There is an expression we use a lot today: ‘Where is the bottom of the barrel?’ Because it seems that we’re falling, falling and falling, and we’re not able to stop.”

As the country tumbles out of a long weekend of knife-edge negotiations and into a daunting period of political uncertainty and more harsh austerity measures now that Greece has a deal for a new bailout, the toll of recent events is written clearly on the faces of many people here. Besides the massive humanitarian and economic costs incurred by five years of recession and austerity, the emotional impact of the crisis has also been steadily chipping away at this country that prides itself on its never-say-die resiliency.

New research using official statistics shows a 35 percent jump in the suicide rate during the first two years of austerity programs, with researchers linking every percentage point in additional unemployment to an incremental increase in the suicide rate among working-age men. Reported depression rates also have increased from 3.3 to 8.2 percent between 2008 and 2011.

A pedestrian walks through empty streets on Sunday by a mural in Athens, Greece. As the nation deals with crippling debt and low employment rates, a rise in depression has followed. YANNIS BEHRAKIS/REUTERS

As spirits have fallen, so has funding and access to health care. Health care spending has fallen from 9.3 percent of GDP in 2012 (around the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development average) to 5 percent today. As many as 2.5 million people lack health insurance today, and some 800,000 are estimated to lack unemployment benefits and the means to access health care.

Emergency rooms have helped to absorb some of the overflow from primary care facilities. According to a 2014 joint study by the European Commission and two Greek universities, ERs have seen as much as a 35 percent rise in visits, including a notable increase in people seeking treatment for anxiety issues.