During the first session of the “Forum of questions and answers 2023, Let’s speak clearly”, organized and moderated by Dr. Ingrid Vargas Huicochea, Research Coordinator of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health (DPSM) of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM, and transmitted by Youtubea panel of experts provided numerous tips on the ways of self-care, understanding its meaning, practicing it and how to take responsibility for it.
Dr. Olga Robelo Zarza, head of the DPSM Mental Health Communication Area, mentioned that “it is important to understand that we are integral beings, that well-being is not only the biological part, but rather a set of elements which are your thoughts, how you recognize your body, what you do to take care of it, how is your relationship with yourself and with society, in short, different elements that make you feel good about yourself”.
For her part, Dr. Vannya Torres, a nutritionist, considered that “well-being is a situation where the person feels at peace, since in addition to valuing physical, mental and social health more, we must also turn to see each other and ask ourselves what of everything we do to take care of our integral health, we do to seek our internal peace”.
Likewise, Dr. Alejandra Méndez, internist and Director of the Sansce Clinic, indicated that “today, the way in which we have to approach the people who come to us as health professionals has two important concepts, the first is that the attention should be focused on the needs of the patient, and the second is that we must promote health education in the people who consult us”.
At the time, Dr. Tomás Zepeda, a pediatrician and academic at UNAM, highlighted that the sensation of well-being is a sensation of care, since “sometimes it goes hand in hand with sensations of comfort, taste or satiety, but sometimes we are surprised that this feeling of well-being that certain foods or activities cause us is not entirely good and leads us to a false well-being”. From his experience in caring for the pediatric population, he mentioned the relevance of allowing children to “be children” in order to really bring them closer to a condition of well-being.
Finally, the coach Edgar Mata, a certified sports trainer, commented that “in gyms there is a distortion of what is healthy and of what it means to be fitness due to the negative influenza that social networks can cause, affecting the health of the people who follow them”, which is why he highlighted the importance of multidisciplinary work with different health professionals, since it is difficult to find a balance between the nutritional, physical, clinical and psycho-emotional factors.
Vicky Enrimar
