Addictions to psychoactive substances and eating disorders. (The Mortification of the Flesh).

The right to health is internationally recognized as a human right as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, various international treaties and conventions, and programs for action from several world conferences held in the 1990s. Nonetheless, innumerable psycho-social and socioeconomic factors prevent the full enjoyment of health in our societies.

As for mental health, more than just the product of a functional, material, biological body, it also responds to the living conditions and the gender roles imposed upon women and men.

However, throughout Latin America and specifically in my country, Peru, no significant percentage of the national budget is set aside for mental health care--even for critical issues, such as stress, depression and addictions, among others--let alone the disorders and syndromes that preferentially or exclusively affect women, including post-partum depression, eating disorders, addiction to tranquilizers, and a variety of syndromes associated with the consequences of abuse.

The lack of attention to mental health is partly due to the fact that, unlike some infectious diseases, mental illnesses are not usually fatal. However, there are exceptions: suicidal obsessions and anorexia can have deadly consequences.

Mental Health and Gender (1)

A great many of women's emotional disorders stem from the marginalization and powerlessness they are subjected to as women. Mental illness is often an extreme manifestation of women's real and symbolic social, economic and cultural exclusion in a culture that holds up a male ideal that is the symbol of acceptance, a paradigm of equality, a test of worth and proof of existence.

A gender perspective is very useful to understand this phenomenon, since it "analyzes women's and men's possibilities in life: the meaning of their lives, their expectations and opportunities, the complex and diverse social relations that exist between both genders, as well as the daily and institutional conflicts women and men must face and how they confront these situations." (2)