“Greeks used to be very happy people because we were living off money that didn’t belong to us,” he said with a wry smile. “But sometimes you have to face reality. It wasn’t our money.”
A comment from an article in Reuters today.
Harsh and untrue.
Greeks were spending money that didn’t belong to them?
Please.
Who exactly did the money belong to then?
Greeks were going to work, doing a job, getting paid for their job and the money they got in their salary was not theirs?
Callous comments like this do not do anyone any favours. The fact that the statement is completely false adds insult to injury.
Here is an excerpt, the full article is here
Nikiforos Angelopoulos, a professor of psychiatry, has a busy psychotherapy practice in an upmarket Athens neighborhood. He said the crisis has exacerbated the problems for some already less stable people and estimates that about five percent of his patients have developed problems due to the crisis.
“We’re a nation in shock,” he said, even though he suspected that it was the media coverage of suicides that had increased dramatically rather than the actual numbers of suicides. He nevertheless says the crisis is behind a notable rise in mental health problems in Greece.
“I had one patient who came in with a severe depression – he owns a furniture making company that got into financial trouble and he had to lay off 20 of his 100 workers,” he said. “He couldn’t sleep and couldn’t eat because of that. He said his good business was being ruined and he couldn’t cope anymore.”
The furniture maker spent four months in therapy and was also helped by anti-depressants, Angelopoulos said.
“He’s better now. He realized what happened just happened. But there are many others who are unstable or psychotic to begin with and the crisis is increasing their anxiety and insecurity.”
Angelopoulos, 60, has also suffered himself because about 20 percent of his patients can no longer afford his 100 euro ($130) per hour sessions. Some have asked for a half-price discount while others tell him they simply can’t afford to pay anything.
“I never turn people away,” he said. “If a patient says to me ‘I have no money’, I couldn’t tell them to go away. I tell them okay you don’t have to pay now but remember me later.”
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