How to Counter Depression in Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – I had been going through terrifying days—at least that’s how I saw them—from the moment I opened my eyes very early in the morning until I managed to fall asleep around 11 PM. I ran to a friend who is a surgeon and told him about my struggle. “Look, man,” I said, “depression is sweeping me away and I can’t allow it to defeat me right now. What do you advise to counter it?”
He answered with his usual good faith: “Take vitamin D, get at least 15 minutes of sun every morning, since that also produces it, and as soon as you get up, go out for a walk. Do physical exercise too, that helps enormously.”
I suffer from deep depressive crises, and ever since I received this advice, I’ve followed it without question. Another aid I allow myself is taking magnesium, for example—something I learned from psychologists and nutritionists online. According to these health experts, magnesium can be consumed like lemonade, but instead of adding sugar to the water and lemon, you add salt. The taste is very strange to my taste buds, which are used to refreshing lemonade, but I don’t care much; feeling motivated to face every waking hour is more important.
But then I discovered that, even with all my remedies—which I consider sacred, because they help me endure—I still run into certain tensions. Like the sonic aggression in the environment that I can’t change, or the disrespect of young people on their motorbikes acting like they own the street.
Once, I sent my mother to the police station to report that unbearable social indiscipline. She came back with the news that the officer who received her greeted her by saying: “Please, tell me you’re not here to file a complaint, because I’m the only one on duty here, and I can’t leave this place unattended.”
I couldn’t believe that answer. I told my mother: “But if someone dares to put up a sign criticizing the government, an army of every kind shows up to investigate.”
On top of that, there’s the missing call from the bank that still hasn’t given me money it’s been holding for over a month, with the excuse that it has no funds. That money I had already requested, already spent on credit for food and other necessities, and now the pressure is on the bank to pay me soon so I can settle my debt.
Then there’s the lack of water—sometimes you have to get a pipa (a truck or tractor hauling giant tanks of water to distribute to the population), because no one remembers the last day water came through the pipes. Add to that the stress of the blackouts, which are constant, plus all the daily setbacks that appear whether we expect them or not.
At that point, yoga, walks, the practice of Ho’oponopono (repetition of mantras such as Emerald green, Key of light, or Thank you Thank you Thank you, said constantly in the mind), prayers, and meditations no longer suffice. So then I ask my aunt for three pills that calm me down quite a bit: benadrine with Alprazolam and Mirtazapine. With them, I feel my head soften, everything slows down, and I usually take them so I can sleep well.
Our pharmacies don’t have endless lines because people feel like it, it’s because the daily realities on the Island are not children’s games. Of course, we hope this passes, that it changes soon, and we’re aware that we have to live through that change with the best state of mind possible. That’s what we say to each other in the family and among friends. And I have to completely agree with that opinion.
Read more from the diary of Lien Estrada here on Havana Times.