Shrink
Discuss anxiety, therapy, and well-being with clinical precision and everyday warmth — out loud.
Mental-health Spanish runs on two registers, and C1 means moving between them. The clinical one is precise: el trastorno de ansiedad, la terapia cognitivo-conductual — which patients in Mexico just call la TCC. The everyday one is warmer and regional: tengo depre in Mexico, estar bajón in Argentina, estoy en bajonazo in Colombia. Two more essentials: estar en terapia carries no stigma in Mexico or Argentina — Buenos Aires even says mi analista — and respectful Spanish is person-first: persona con depresión, never depresivo.
Below: the vocabulary from emotional states to therapy and self-care, how it softens country by country — and a way to practice saying it aloud in real conversation, not on flashcards.
The warm-up pack
The words that actually get said in a session, a check-in with a friend, or admitting a bad week out loud.
01 · The line for real panic
Estoy con el Jesús en la boca.
I'm scared out of my mind. (Mexico, literally 'with Jesus in my mouth')
The most vivid way to say you're overwhelmed with anxiety — far more alive than reaching for the clinical ansiedad.
02 · When bajón isn't enough (Colombia)
Estoy en bajonazo.
I'm in a real slump. (Colombia)
A step past just estar bajón — bajonazo is a low that's hit hard, and saying it out loud is often the first move toward feeling better.
03 · Before you even sit down
Tengo los nervios de punta.
My nerves are on edge.
This is pre-session anxiety in plain language — no clinical vocabulary needed to describe how you feel walking in.
04 · Naming your own bias
Tengo un chip mental.
I've got a mental block/bias.
A casual, self-aware way to flag your own cognitive bias — much easier to say out loud than sesgo cognitivo.
05 · When you lose the thread
Se me cruzaron los cables.
My wires got crossed. (Colombia)
The everyday way to admit your thinking got tangled — said with a shrug, not a diagnosis.
06 · Owning a bad memory
Tengo memoria de pez.
I've got a memory like a fish. — the common joke for a short attention span.
Self-deprecating and universal — this is how people actually talk about forgetting things, not 'tu memoria a corto plazo es deficiente'.
07 · Saying it plainly
Tengo depre.
I'm feeling down. (Mexico)
Tengo depre doesn't have to mean a clinical diagnosis — it's the casual way Mexicans name a low mood, without minimizing it.
08 · The Thursday standing appointment
Voy a mi grupo de pares los jueves.
I go to my peer group on Thursdays.
Grupo de pares is the clinical-adjacent term that's become completely normal to say about your own therapy schedule.
09 · What the doctor told you
Me dieron diagnóstico.
I got a diagnosis.
Dieron, not recibí — Spanish frames a diagnosis as something given to you, and that's exactly the construction people use.
10 · Finishing a course of treatment
Me dieron el alta.
I was discharged. (Southern Cone)
Alta always travels with dar — you don't 'leave' therapy, you're 'given' your discharge.
11 · The work behind the feeling
Trabajarse a uno mismo no es fácil.
Working on yourself isn't easy. (Argentina)
Trabajarse, reflexive, is deeper than trabajar — the phrase Argentine therapy culture uses for real inner work, not just 'self-improvement'.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/shrinkRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
No flashcards, no term-matching — in the Shrink lessons the vocabulary only counts once you can say it to someone. Olivia stages the conversations where it's needed: a mental-health awareness talk, where you explain el trastorno de ansiedad to an audience that doesn't know the jargon; a chat with a friend, where la disonancia cognitiva has to become plain Spanish; a check-in on your own week, where she asks about your herramientas — your coping resources — and you answer with el autocuidado you actually practice. Precise when it should be, human the rest of the time, out loud throughout.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Shrink is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
El psicólogo / la psicóloga — in Colombia the feminine is the default. Saying ir al psicólogo or estar en terapia is fully normalized in Mexico and Argentina, and in Buenos Aires, with its strong psychoanalytic culture, people say mi analista.
Regionally: Mexico says tengo depre, Argentina estar bajón or estar re mal, Colombia estoy en bajonazo. For acute anxiety, Mexicans have the vivid estoy con el Jesús en la boca.
La terapia cognitivo-conductual — cognitive behavioral therapy. The acronym is what patients in Mexico actually say. Argentina's therapy culture leans psychoanalytic instead: el psicoanálisis and mi analista.
The translation is la atención plena, but across Latin America the anglicism el mindfulness is what people actually use. Related self-care language: el autocuidado, el equilibrio emocional, and Argentina's trabajarse a uno mismo.
Use person-first language — persona con depresión, not depresivo — and keep clinical and casual meanings apart: clinical ansiedad is not the same as estar nervioso. Pairing the technical term with a plain paraphrase is the skill this badge trains.
