Extreme stress and mental health: immigrant syndrome with chronic and multiple stress (the Ulysses syndrome)

Abstract

Today, for millions of individuals, emigration presents stress levels of such intensity that they exceed the human capacity of adaptation: loneliness and the enforced separation from one’s loved ones, the failure of the migratory project, the experiencing of extreme hard ships and terror... These persons are, therefore, highly vulnerable to the Immigrant Syndrome with Chronic and Multiple Stress (the Ulysses Syndrome, in reference to the Greek hero who suffered countless adversities and dangers in lands far from his loved ones).We consider that a direct and unequivocal relationship exists between the stress limits which these immigrants experience and the symptomatology of The Ulysses Syndrome and that this Syndromeis found in the limit between the area of mental health and the area of psychopathology