Does your mental health depend on your wallet?
In Nayarit there are around 15 psychiatrists and a consultation with medication can cost between 2,000 and 3,000 pesos.
In Meganoticias, psychologist Cándido Silva Peña, from the Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, suggests that the rise of social media coincided with more anxiety and depression among young people, although that doesn't prove cause. Mental health also has a price.
Fifteen psychiatrists for an entire state
Silva Peña is the head of the Centro de Vinculación, attached to the Unidad Académica de Ciencias Sociales. As he told Meganoticias, in Nayarit there are around 15 psychiatrists and getting an appointment is difficult even for those who can pay for it. Add to that the expense: a session and the medications can represent between 2,000 and 3,000 pesos, depending on each patient's needs.
I stop at that figure. For a young person who studies and works part-time, or who helps out at home, that amount is the rent, the week's food, or the month's bus fare. Care that gets cut off because of money leaves the person halfway.
«Someone who suffers is not a file: they are the image of God, with a dignity that doesn't depend on their income»
Someone who suffers is not a file. They are the image of God, with a dignity that doesn't depend on their income or their diagnosis, and they deserve more than a waiting list.
The question asked in Congress
In October 2026, the Congress of the State of Nayarit hosted the discussion "Mental health is politics." There, an open question remained: what is the public sector responsible for guaranteeing so that no one is left out because of what they earn.
There isn't just one answer, and I think it's worth saying so. Some argue that care should be guaranteed regardless of your wallet. Others warn that no state budget can cover everything, and that families, churches, and communities end up carrying what the system doesn't cover. Both things can be true at the same time, and neither excuses the other.
Since 2023, the psychologist explained, research was developed with public health and education agencies and with the Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit to create detection and referral tools. Detecting earlier helps. Accompanying is something else.
What no app can do
Silva Peña observes something good: young people ask for psychological help with less shame than previous generations, who read it as a sign of weakness. That change is worth it, and it's also worth naming without embellishment.
But a gap remains. Social media shows lives that seem attainable and aren't always so: the house, the trip, the body, the calm. Comparing yourself to that wears you down. And no platform is going to sit with you at eleven at night when anxiety tightens.
That's where the church comes in, not as a clinic, but as family. Galatians 6:2 says it plainly: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2, ESV). And Jesus invites: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, ESV). That rest doesn't replace the psychologist or the medication: it accompanies them.
If any of this sounds familiar, don't carry it alone. Tell someone you trust this week: an adult who will listen to you, your pastor, or a health professional. If it's an emergency, seek your country's emergency services. And if you know someone in that situation, don't just pray from a distance: save them a place at your table.
What would your community do if it treated mental health like it treats a brother's hunger?
