Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many Russians have been on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Skyrocketing sales of antidepressants and consultations with psychologists: After months of a military offensive in Ukraine, anxiety is at an all-time high among many Russians, caught up in a conflict they had tried to ignore. The announcement at the end of September of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists brought the conflict into the daily lives of many families in Russia, where its impact on the population was minimized by the Kremlin.

In addition to the shock caused by the mobilization, the stagnation of the conflict and the increasingly alarmist statements from Moscow touting the nuclear threat are also stressing the Russians.

“Nothing makes sense anymore”

As soon as the intervention was announced on February 24, Vassilina Kotova, a 22-year-old Muscovite, recalls being “frankly paralyzed.”

“For two months I did not leave my house, nothing made sense anymore,” says this computer science student, who says “he only survives with (his) antidepressants, like many of (his) friends.”

“You think at first that you narrowly escaped, that it doesn’t affect you personally and that your friends are crazy to leave the country,” says this blonde with pale complexion. “And suddenly the idea that you’re the crazy one starts to worry you,” she says. And her concern has increased tenfold in recent weeks with the mobilization, the student fears that they will call her brother and father.

Antidepressant sales on the rise

At the end of September, after the announcement of the mobilization, 70% of Russians said they were “anxious”, a record rate never recorded by the pro-Kremlin FOM polling institute. A month later, the Levada Center, an independent institute, reported that nearly 9 out of 10 Russians said they were “concerned” about the situation in Ukraine.

In that climate, spending on antidepressants jumped 70%, and 56% on painkillers, in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period in 2021, according to officials.

“The whole country is going to be traumatized for a long time”

The online psychological consultation service YouTalk has seen “an increase of 40% in the number of requests since the mobilization”, indicates its co-founder, the psychologist Anna Krymskaïa, with “an increase of 50% in the number of people who complain of depression” .

And while the conflict continues, psychologists are already worried about its long-term consequences.

Amina Nazaralieva, a psychologist-sexologist at the private Moscow Mental Health clinic, already fears the return of the reservists, some of whom “will inevitably suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.” “The whole country will be traumatized for a long time,” he concludes.