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Expats suffer depression as conditions deteriorate

‘In the UAE, home-sickness, alleviated by unmet expectations at the workplace and back home, has led to an increase in stress and depression among the working class from the Indian subcontinent,’ said psychiatrist Dr Ali Marjan. ‘Over the past seven months, 69 Indians — all of them labourers — committed suicide,’ said Chandra Mohan Bhandari, Ambassador of India to the UAE recently.

Reaffirming the conditions pointed out by psychiatrists, the ambassador said that a majority of the people who committed suicide were mentally upset because when they left India, they had started off with certain expectations. ‘They had been told that the working conditions are good and they would get a good salary,’ he said. Exploited by recruiting agents, the labourers discovered that they had been taken for a ride and their dreams would never come true. ‘Frustration over non-payments of salaries and loneliness, combined with poor working and living conditions, is indeed a deadly combination for a majority of people in the UAE,’ said Dr Marjan.

While the embassies are offering counselling for the labour class, the ‘middle-class’ in the UAE has also started complaining of stress caused by the rapidly increasing cost of living in the UAE. ‘I’m a customer service centre manager and a mom of two young kids. I see myself as a happy person and a hard worker. But last month, the commuting to work, my job, the chores around the house, and trying to spend enough time with my kids, was really stressing me out,’ said Zeenat Karim.

‘I have to get up really early in the morning to get the kids ready for school, then it takes me so long to get to work that I’m in a bad mood by the time I get there. My office is short-staffed and we had a lot of deadlines to meet, so I was working overtime, and my home life suffered. Going home doesn’t help my mood, and when I get there, I am just so tired that I don’t want to do anything! But I am almost daily faced with making dinner and doing the laundry. Besides, my kids need my attention too,’ she complained, adding that despite the hectic lifestyle, the couple were hardly making any savings, the reason for which they had moved to Dubai in the first place, like many others. ‘This is a very classic example of the stress a majority of people face in the UAE,’ said Dr Marjan. ‘This stressful life may lead to depression, and damage the personal lives of couples. This is also one reason several families have split up — either by moving back to their home country or simply parting ways,’ said the doctor. He also asked people to watch out for symptoms of stress and depression so that it could be treated at the earliest. ‘Even severe depression can be highly responsive to treatment. As with many illnesses, the earlier the treatment begins, the more effective and greater the likelihood of preventing serious recurrences. Of course, the treatment will not eliminate life’s inevitable stresses, and ups and downs. But it can greatly enhance the ability to manage such challenges,’ he said.

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