We live in a world where psychological suffering has become ordinary. Anxiety, depression, exhaustion. It has been called the silent epidemic of the 21st century, but is it really silent? Or are we all screaming inside, trying to survive in a system that consumes us? This is the reflection of Fátima Alves, coordinator and researcher at the Societies and Environmental Sustainability Research Group of the Centre for Functional Ecology – Science for People & the Planet, Associate Laboratory Terra at the University of Coimbra, and its Extension at the Open University of Portugal, in this week’s Diário As Beiras.
What is making us ill?
It is not just the fast pace, job insecurity, or isolation. It is the erosion of social bonds, the normalisation of emotional instability, the illusion that a pill or a meditation app is enough to endure exhausting workdays. And what about nature? They say a walk outdoors helps, but how can we talk about the benefits of nature while we continue to destroy it?
Madness is no longer confined to asylums. It is in our daily lives. It is in the leaders who accumulate power while pushing us towards the abyss. It is in the destruction of the ecosystems that sustain us. It is in a world that no longer distinguishes between delusion and strategy, chaos and progress.
Is there a way out?
Perhaps true sanity lies in resistance. In building communities that care, that restore what is essential: connection, humanity, balance with nature.
Read the full article at Diário As Beiras
Alves, F. (2025, March 8). A Loucura do Século XXI. Diário As Beiras. https://www.asbeiras.pt/opiniao-a-loucura-do-seculo-xxi/