We live in a region that hardly knows of calm and stable years, let alone decades. Multigenerational suffering, wars, mass accidents, diseases, poverty and insecurity, transitions, migrations and countless traumas and crises, are transmitted and remain woven into the contours of our emotional competences and abilities to cope with life's adversities many generations later. Even in countries with much more peaceful histories and more developed economic standards, there are psychological disorders and they take their toll.

We were born and brought up in a society that generally favors patience and strength, independence to the point of hyper-individuality in solving problems, endurance as proof of character, family networking and solidarity, as well as the rule of ’not washing dirty linen’ in public. Many times, the conviction that one not only can, but also must solve their problem alone, is one of the main obstacles for a person who is facing psychological problems, to talk about it to anyone, even the closest friends, let alone strangers such as psychological and psychiatric professionals. We don’t talk about anxiety even when it is pressing - it is easier to say that we have a headache or a stomachache, so that we can go away and take (for the umpteenth time during the day) a sedative. Maybe a glass or two of alcohol, but that's natural. We don’t talk about depression and choose to withdraw into isolation under a variety of excuses. We avoid to contact a psychiatrist or a psychologist, so that ’compromising’ information that we once needed help would not be slipped into some medical record, which may affect the employment position and the like in the future. We keep quiet because nobody will want us around them, to be their wives or husbands, because such an illness is a much greater shame than a sick spine, stomach ulcer or heart attack. It is something that indicates that we are weaklings, spoiled and unprepared for life. Parents of today's teenagers often explain to them when they appeal for help that they are okay, that they should ‘get serious’, that their parents could not provide them with anything and yet they became virtuous and successful people, that they should be ashamed to constantly complain and that ‘they still don't know what the real problems are’...that it is important to overcome obstacles in silence, because who knows what people will think of parents who failed to put their children on the right track. We are silent because our sister or brother will not marry because we tarnish the family with a mental disorder. Maybe we are silent because we will be even more lonely and even more excluded because something is wrong with us.

From numerous of conversations with my patients and clients, I conclude that long after the onset and facing with their mental disorders, they do not realize that others are facing the same or similar problems, but think that they are the only ones or among the few who have such a problem. They deal with it on their own, or carefully keep it within the closest family circle. This is not by chance either. A long-known phenomenon, but relatively recently recognized through the concept of stigmatization, is visible through the marking and branding of differences, especially when it comes to a mentally ill person. The disease becomes the primary determinant of their identity. In addition to the fact that the sick person has to deal with the symptoms of the disease, which affect the quality of life, the environment with its misunderstanding encourages the development of stigmatization, which can create difficulties in finding a job or returning to the old workplace. Much smaller funds are allocated for psychiatric programs and treatment than for some other diseases. It is exactly because of the existence of stigmatization in society towards mental illnesses, that people often do not seek professional help, even though it is necessary. On the other hand, stigmatization increases the risk of depression and other mental illnesses, and recovery may take longer. The common findings of numerous researches conducted in different countries on stigma and mental illness indicate a high level of ignorance and misinformation about mental illness. The results have also shown that there is no country, society or culture where people with mental illness are considered equally valuable and accepted in the same way as people without mental illness.

We should not lose sight of the family stigma either. Research in this area has focused on the experience of stigma of a family taking care of a member with mental illness, which has been associated with feelings of vulnerability, psychological distress, sleep disorders, interpersonal relationship disorders, poor quality of life, and low self-esteem. Stigmatization becomes a serious health problem when the patient begins to refuse to see a doctor or to conceal their illness to avoid the negative attitudes of the environment. At the same time, the fear of discrimination and social isolation reduces their motivation for treatment. Thus, the patients most often come to see the doctor in an advanced stage of the disease with worsening symptoms.

The importance of local community is also significant when we talk about mental health of individuals. The surveys dealing with the link between social disintegration in particular environments and the prevention of mental disorders in such communities have been conducted in more recent decades. The level of social disintegration of a particular community was determined through the following characteristics: poverty, cultural turmoil (unstable cultural values and their confusion), secularization (absence of religious values), number of incomplete families, weak intra-group connection, small number of leaders or weak leaders, lack of a model of using spare time and recreation, frequency of aggressive outbursts, frequency of criminal proceedings, as well as a weak or poorly connected communication system in the community. Higher level of the prevalence of mental disorders has been identified in the communities characterized by several of the above-mentioned features.

It is not difficult to establish that there is a strong connection between numerous social factors and psychological well-being. We can find examples for almost any of the factors listed above in everyday experience in most areas in Serbia. That’s why we oftentimes rightfully classify various mental health disorders in the group of psycho-social pathology, considering the strong network of psychological and social factors.

The experience from different countries shows that coping with mental illness is easier if it is an economically more advanced geographical area, as well as among economically, residentially and professionally more stable individuals around the planet. By all means, health cannot be bought with money. Nevertheless, a stable financial framework is a better starting point for a person to deal not only with the basic existential needs, but also with health in the broadest possible sense. Mental health is often left to be dealt with as the last one on the priority list. Even when there is money, it is popular to take care of a healthy and personalized diet and various programmes of physical exercise. But, what about mental health?

I have also heard many times when talking to clients that they give a good care to the hygiene of clothes, type of eco-friendly cleaning agents, healthy grown food and healthy ways of its preparation, ‘the right’ time for various activities... Although they strive to physically exclude themselves from all toxic contents, they too often fail to check and strengthen the mental filters for their intellectual and emotional contents. It is a particularly complex situation when the actual poverty is an additional aggravating factor, actually closing the circle: caring for survival, and additional inability to get the support for the developed mental disorders. In different areas of Serbia, the latest statistical data provided by DevInfo show that the rate of the risk of poverty is generally high, but nevertheless it is pretty different within the Republic - whereas in the Belgrade area it accounts for 10.5%, it is 42.7 % in Leskovac, and more broadly looking, in Jablanica District, it amounts to 45.5%. The information is also available that the average wage in the Belgrade area for example amounts to RSD 82,132, while in Leskovac it amounts to RSD 51,734. Considering the difference in the costs of living in smaller and bigger places, as well as the unemployment rate in Serbia ranging between 52 and 57% irrespective of the size of a town and district, we are talking about a general trend of a pronounced economic crisis, clearly exerting a negative impact on the mental health of the population.

Examining the effectiveness of different forms of psychotherapy has shown that there are no significant differences between different routs - there is no more or less successful school of psychotherapy than another, but some forms of psychotherapy are more suitable for eliminating a certain type of problem.

A number of interventions have shown to be effective in reducing the stigmatization experience of people with mental illness and their family members. Education of medical staff, particularly psychiatrists and psychologists in the field of strategies for combating stigma is also important. The strategies include the development of awareness of stigma among family members, identification of the mechanisms of overcoming stigma, exploring the experience of stigma in a safe and supportive environment, participation in anti-stigma programs and providing opportunities to practice stress coping skills.

Apart from having the power of knowledge, psychologists have a moral and ethical duty to contribute to the development of individuals and the community, as well as the duty to find the most efficient way to do this by understanding human behavior. The media can help a lot in increasing the sensitivity of the community to the problems, as well as in using all the saved capacities of individuals, in acting on destigmatization of the occasional life crisis, mental illness, and similar. Providing information on health and sickness, impact on the development of attitude and behaviour, as well as developing healthy life styles fall within the duty and responsibility of both the community, and the individual. The media cam be of huge help in this.

Nevertheless, without the willingness of an individual to talk about the personal problem, all the above ideas are just empty and idle talk. To be honest: everyone has problems. It was long ago, at the beginning of my work at the clinic, I remember there was a patient who begged me to schedule the appointments to talk to him on Friday evenings as late as possible. When I asked him for a reason to do that, his answer was: ‘To avoid meeting any of neighbors here.’ It was not enough to assure him that if he met one of the neighbors, it would have meant that that person came for the same reason - to look for a solution to his or her problem. It was important to keep all of it a secret. The secrets are big and dark when we are fighting for our mental health. Talk about it, illness is not something that you should be ashamed of. Share a painful secret. Sometimes we are surprised when we realize that the solution to stress, anxiety, depression or other disturbances is not only close, but it is inside of us, only no one gave us the key.

Mental illness conditions are frequent and common, treatment is possible, and the effects are often surprisingly good. A large number of people do not talk about their mental problem, because they do not know how they can help themselves, it seems to them that there is no solution, the environment often denies the existence of their illness or reacts mockingly and dismissively. They chose to seclude and ‘endure’. When I ask them if they would do everything in their power to get help for someone close to them - a brother, parent, etc. - if they fell ill, I always get an affirmative answer. There is ‘only’ the question how comes that they don’t help themselves - hiding the disorder or illness somewhere deep in the soul, they deny the possibility of being helped. Mental health concerns each one of us and working on its improvement is our joint task. Those of us whose souls are hurting in one way or another.