Mariana Gutiérrez: «Unemployment is a psychological duel in itself»

Losing a loved one is one of the most emotionally painful experiences, and one of the most common reasons for consultation among those who go to psychotherapy. However, the bases of that suffering, what is known as psychological grief, are present in many other situations of loss. For example, the loss of a job or a competitive professional profile.

To learn more about this phenomenon, we have interviewed the psychologist Mariana Gutiérrez Flores, who in her consultation has helped many people affected by this form of emotional distress.

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Interview with Mariana Gutiérrez: The duel from unemployment

Mariana Gutiérrez Flores is a psychologist with consultation in Monterrey and extensive experience in the psychotherapeutic approach to grief, emotional alteration that leads us to suffer when we lose someone or something with which a bond united us affective. In this interview tells us about the phenomenon of unemployment as a form of mourning.

Does the psychological impact of being unemployed for a long time tends to be underestimated?

Definitely yes, it is taken as something normal, when in reality it is lived and felt as the equivalent of a death grief. Both the affected person and the family cope and turn the page, but the reality is that the experience of being left out The labor market involves a series of physical and emotional situations that represent a process that is not easy to overcome.

How is unemployment related to what is known in psychology as grief?

Although it is true that the first contributions of Thanatology, a science that studies and focuses on providing a meaning to the death process, were focused on the terminally ill and its closest social nucleus, later, with the passage of time, is integrated into the definition of mourning both death and any other significant loss for being human; this is where unemployment is added.

In answer to your question, unemployment is a psychological grief in itself, and as such it must be managed.

What aspects of job loss are most likely to lead to psychological grief?

From the perspective that job loss is experienced as an unwanted change, in the first instance it acts as the trigger for a series of emotional responses, such as anxiety, tension, anguish, worry.

Not having, from one day to the next, the economic and emotional support that work gives us, as it is the vehicle by which we integrate ourselves into a social group, we provide knowledge and are rewarded through a salary, it has a drastic variation to what we lived as a balance, as something that gave our lives purpose and a means to achieve security, recognition and wealth materials.

How is this form of grief similar to grief for the loss of loved ones?

The bases are exactly the same, since both speak to us of an unwanted change and a loss.

Kübler Ross, doctor and psychiatrist, is the one who in the 90's proposed a series of investigations with terminally ill patients and proposed the 5 Phases of Grief, Denial, Anger, Pact, Depression, Acceptance. These same phases are the ones that go through both death and significant losses, which They can be unemployment, old age (loss of youth, independence), divorce, amputations, among other

How is this type of grief related to self-esteem problems?

Definitely the tools that the patient has on a personal level will be decisive to face the loss in a more effective way; However, and although there is no order or definite time for each stage, it is a fact that in the event of a loss we all go through each of the phases; the difference will be reflected by way of upbringing, culture, social level, education, since each of These factors endow us with the skills to face with different levels of maturity and efficiency the lost.

The self-esteemIn such cases, it comes to function as a regulator that provides security, giving us the basis to carry out what is experienced as a duel. Ultimately, having high self-esteem works as the omen of a healthy grief with an end date.

As a psychologist, what kinds of therapeutic strategies and techniques do you find most useful in helping people who go through such an experience?

The best intervention in a case of unemployment is the thanatological accompaniment; From this discipline, it will be possible to provide the patient with tools and support to successfully process each of the stages.

In my experience, all grief must be lived from beginning to end. Giving time to heal is an important part, since denial and wanting to move on "as if nothing happened", far from helping, inhibit situations and emotions that in the near future will come to light by other means, transforming what could be a healing process to the experience of a pathological grief, in which Several factors are intertwined, including being of an excessive duration (the normal time is 6 to 12 months), disproportionate symptoms and experienced in another moment, overflow of emotions, psychosomatic illnesses (physical illnesses without clinical explanation), maladaptive behaviors (poor anger management, depression...).

The above refers us to a need for immediate help; The symptoms described are irrefutable proof that the person cannot sustain recovery on their own and requires specialized help.