HEALTH-SERBIA: A Traumatised Nation Seeks Out Psychiatric Help

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 12 2002 (IPS) - An old Serbian proverb says as long as there are “kafanas” (cafes and restaurants) in Serbia, no one will need psychiatric help because they will be able to talk out their problems while socialising.

But times have changed and today expert help is being sought by an increasing number Serbs who have experienced major traumas during the decade of rule of Slobodan Milosevic that ended with his fall from power in October 2000.

“People who visit therapists mostly have acute problems. They are struggling with anxiety, fears and depression,” says Jovan Maric, head of the Belgrade Institute for Psychiatry.

According to Maric, and other experts at the Medical School at Belgrade University, the reasons for the anxieties and fears are the four wars Serbs lived through in the 90s, isolation, the worst poverty in their history and the traumatic 11 weeks of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing three years ago.

“Kafanas’ proved not to be enough (for) the people,” says psychotherapist Josip Berger. “We saw a boom of private psychotherapist offices in the capital in several years only”.

Since the end of NATO air raids in July 1999, statistics show that more than 100 private new practices have been registered in the capital. Despite their patriarchal opinion that seeing a psychiatrist means being mentally unstable or crazy, Serbs are now ready to face their problems and seek expert help.

A 50 minute session costs around 15 United States dollars and the contact details of psychotherapists are found in the classified advertisements of all the dailies and weeklies.

“People are still ashamed when it comes to seeing the therapist. At least half of our patients do not tell their families where they go when they come to see us,” Maric says.

“Statistics (show) that we have more women patients, as they are more ready to question themselves and face problems. Besides, most of our patients come from the class of educated people who want a way out of the problems that prevent them from functioning normally,” Maric adds.

“There are very few patients who have problems in the area ‘what is the meaning of my life?’, as most of them are at the level of ‘how can I survive the hard times?'” therapist Milan Milic says.

There is a rise of patients coming from political structures “as the pressure is high on them” Berger says. “It’s a new phenomenon” he adds.

Recent studies have shown that anxieties accompanied by fears and depression top the list of acute psychological problems faced by Serbs.

“Since the fall of Milosevic, the cause of fear has totally changed,” says Petar Bokan, one of the psychiatry teachers at Medical School. Professor Bokan headed a recent research project looking at the mental problems faced by the traumatised population.

“Most of the people are now afraid of the economic crisis (35,5 percent), sudden grave illness (25,3) and crime (19,8 percent),” says Bokan.

In the 90s, he adds, fear of war topped the list with 51 percent, while economic crisis and illness followed second and third as reasons for fears with far lesser percentages (18,6 and 10,8 respectively).

“Unlike in Western countries, loneliness as a reason for anxiety or depression does not rank high among Serbs,” says Josip Berger. “They still have strong family ties, solid partner or marriage relationships, but sometime feel suffocated by the love and care of their dearest and closest”.

“Serbs can be defined as people with a surplus of emotions,” professor Maric explains. “This would be a very rich country if we could export the surplus… Unfortunately, such a vivid emotional structure often leads Serbs into depression,” he adds.

Recent statistics show that many ordinary people tended to solve their unbearable problems of the 90s by using an extraordinary amount of sedatives.

The crunch came at the times of NATO air raids, when statistics showed a daily use of three million tablets of bensedine, the most popular sedative here. Serbia has a population of seven million people.

“The recent statistics show the dramatic fall in use of bensedine, but that does not mean the problems disappeared. They have only changed their face and experts have to work into that direction,” Maric says.