Iran may be approaching a mental-health emergency as prolonged uncertainty over war, economic pressure and the future takes a growing toll on the public, the head of the country’s Psychology and Counseling Organization said on Sunday.
Asked by ILNA how far Iranian society was from a mental-health emergency, Alireza Agha-Yousefi said: “I don’t think we are very far from it.”
He pointed to marriage, divorce and birth rates as areas of concern and said authorities needed to act before psychological and social problems became more severe.
Uncertainty and prolonged stress
Agha-Yousefi said the prolonged state of neither full-scale war nor peace was itself becoming a major source of pressure.
“The overall condition of society in a situation of neither war nor peace can create significant psychological strain,” he said.
He said people normally try to meet their needs while also responding to threats, but when both are present at the same time, threats tend to dominate.
“Uncertainty about the future is one of the most difficult situations,” he said, adding that it deprives people of the ability to plan their lives.
Agha-Yousefi said prolonged uncertainty could produce severe anxiety and, over time, lead to both physical and psychological exhaustion.
