Depression in Galicia: The hidden distress

Depression in Galicia: The distress missing from travel guides

What is really happening with depression and anxiety in Galicia? This question sounds like a cliché, but it has dominated public discourse and entered public health analyses for weeks. The region boasts of "Galicia Calidade," fresh products, and life at the rhythm of rain, yet when speaking to locals, the narrative shifts: antidepressants are common as candy, divorce rates rise, sedentary lifestyles persist, and there is a general feeling that something has broken.

Interestingly, official data do not identify Galicia as the most depressed region. Figures that debunk the cliché Castilla y León leads the prevalence of depressive disorders in Spain, affecting 10% of the population over 15 years old, trinc by the Comunitat Valenciana (9.8%) and Navarra (6.7%). Cantabria, with a climate similar to Galicia's, appears on the opposite side, with only 3.6%. Thus, the equation "it rains a lot, therefore depression" collapses under its own weight. Or at least falls short.

Radon, granite, and humidity: Environmental explanations Some point to a less visible factor: radon gas emitted by granite, very present in Galician subsoil, which is harmful to health in high concentrations. This theory has circulated for years in occupational risk studies but does not explain why depression also hits areas without granite. Humidity and lack of sunlight, however, have more supporters: months of fine rain and gray skies undermine even the strongest individuals. But note, because Northern Europe sees more rain and depression rates are not comparable.

The cost of emptied Galicia: Employment, closed circles, and family The economy plays a bigger role than it seems. Jobs are scarce outside cities, social contacts are hard to break into, and closed social circles suffocate rather than support. The extended family is discussed as a protection network, but also as overprotection, inheritances turning life into a battle, and homes where distress is inherited silently. A devastating example: someone with four apartments in Redondela and another in Santiago, financially comfortable, medicated, and deeply unhappy. Money does not buy balance, and real estate wealth does not translate into well-being.

Clash of identities: Atlantic people forced to be Mediterranean Perhaps the most lucid diagnosis comes from those who speak of an Atlantic people forced to play the role of a Mediterranean one. Galicia is forest, fog, stone, silence, and work; it is not sun, terrace, Latin music, and obligatory sociability. When a Galician is demanded to be an Italian with an umbrella, the contradiction becomes somatic. Depression would then appear not for being too Galician, but for ceasing to be so.

It is not Galicia, it is the model Another current goes further: this is not a Galician issue, but Spanish and, in reality, a First World problem. Modern lifestyle—screens, meaningless work, liquid relationships, abuse of psychopharmaceuticals—hits equally in A Coruña, Madrid, or Berlin. Galicia's advantage is that the stereotype protects it: structural malaise of late capitalism is blamed on *morriña* (a specific Galician sense of melancholy).

With these pieces on the table, the question remains open where it started: no one knows exactly what is going on. But one thing is certain: blaming the rain is no longer enough. Meanwhile, antidepressants have become the souvenir no one takes home as a memory.