One of the most obvious signals that we are in Christmas It is the exacerbated consumerism that surrounds us. The truth is that it is the time of the year in which the consumer society in which we live is evidenced.

We cannot ignore that humans are social beingsand we need to feel worthy of being loved, so it is inevitable that the environment incides our well -being. So it is no longer that we know what the psychology about How Christmas consumerism affects our mental health and the relationship of this with consumption in general. You may be surprised.

Consumer Society

Cleveland Shopping Center at Christmas/Photo: Unspash

In his book You are screwing your life. Forget your best version and be yourself (Editorial Martínez Roca), the psychologist Buenaventura del Charco, better known in networks such as Ventura Psychologistput the focus on the current Consumer Society. Thus exposes how the human being has become one more product, and the consumerism It has ended up engulfing the collective mechanisms that facilitated Social justice and equality. Even people are used as objects to use and throw.

As human beings to whom its environment influences, this contributes to Increase in mental health problems. Ventura Psychologist specifies several Factors that propitiate them, like Precariousness, perfectionism, self -examination and Tristophobia, incidentally accept emotional pain To prevent it from giving rise to an older one, generate other symptoms or make us dependent on whatever we do to cover it.

Labor precariousness

WOMAN IN LABOR INTERVIEW/PHOTO: UNSPLASH

Thus, the psychologist puts the focus on the precariousness current, which causes people to end up having some beers or shopping for flee from discomfort. This may be caused by the job instability And the concern of not being able to pay the invoices at the end of the month, but also for the Duels and the Emotional problems. Any of them gains intensity during Christmas holidays.

The gigantic happiness industry That has been developed in this breeding ground, and which explodes in style at Christmas, offers easy solutions to avoid any discomfort. Thus, it puts at our disposal goods and services with which it promises that our problems will be solved and we will feel better. Even if it’s a lie.

Anguish and frustration

Christmas is thus a specially complicated time. If the rest of the year the advertising invokes our emotional needs To take effect, during these dates, its pressure is far multiplied. The ads show us Happy families scenes With all members around the table, couples in idyllic places, very expensive giftsPantagruleic meals and kind children with dream toys. Nails fictitious images And unreal with which, if you compare yourself, you will always lose. They will appear then anguish and frustration For not being able to reach such social expectations.

Christmas consumerism

Christmas/Photo Market: Pixabay

Nor can we forget the pressure and stress for buying giftsconditioned by what they imply on our social and economic situationand the way in which others receive them, sometimes more concerned about their material value than about the love we show when doing them.

It is necessary to remember that The really important thing is people and the moments we share with them. Keep or recover the feeling that There are things that are done without getting anything in return It is fundamental.

Anxiety and stress

However, the anxiety and stress that many people suffer today, and who increase on Christmas dates, this consumer society is not bad. After all, we are constantly urged to the perfectionism And let’s get out of our comfort zone. In one way or another, we are encouraged to consume selling us the fantasy that changing the external, we can solve the internal.

Those problems increase at Christmas, when we seem to have the obligation to be happy. In fact, it is the time of the year in which more anxiolytic and antidepressants are consumedand the more demand there are psychologists, as Ventura points out. Because family problems, business dinners and absences cause these parties to affect us a lot psychologically.

Christmas sadness

Woman in snowy landscape/Photo: Pixabay

For those who deal with absences of loved onesChristmas is a very sad time. But in a society with Tristophobia in which you will feel the rejection of many if you express that sadness, you may succumb to the Shopping maelstrom and multiple plans to avoid face that human emotion. But if you need to cry, cry, because you can’t avoid it when you see the empty chair At the Christmas Eve.

Acceptance and congruence

Read the work of Ventura Psychologist, in which he also offers the guidelines to build a Healthy, self -pity and honest relationship with oneselfwe conclude that this consumer society is interested in people are psychologically bad. In this way, they will continue to feed this system taken to the limit, consuming as crazy to mitigate your anxietyflee from your discomfort and replace their shortcomings.

So touch us be responsible and congruentremember that the truly valuable is the time we spend with the people we love and lead the life that, to the extent of our possibilities, we want to live. After all, happiness and mental health depend on that congruence.