The question from the title is provocative and wrong, because today’s text is not about politics, but about mental health. And there is nothing abnormal about mental health problems. We all suffer from certain mental struggles, ranging from minor ones to serious ones. Yet we pay little attention to mental health. We have normalised addiction to gambling, alcohol, and food, while we consider caring for our mental health to be something abnormal.
This is best explained by the way our culture treats someone who “drinks” and someone who has chosen rehabilitation because of a “drinking problem.” The stigma is greater for the latter than for the former. And what exactly is abnormal about that?
Or gambling? Drugs. Or anxiety. Not to mention depression.
First, we know very little. Second, our institutions tell us as much: the state does little to implement its strategies and plans for improving mental health in Montenegro, which have been and remain nothing more than words on paper.
Excessive worrying, emotional outbursts, breakdowns. Shouting and hysteria. The inability to get out of bed. All of this is dismissed as part of the décor of our Mediterranean culture. As fjaka (*a state of lethargy and lack of energy). As a reaction to the southern winds.
And then there is religion, which in our ignorance has become organised superstition, unable to distinguish between illnesses of the soul and illnesses of the spirit.
Or our healthcare system, which should provide medical care in these cases as well, while doctors are not trained in communication. We rarely have doctors who know how to talk to patients, give them time, and explain what is happening in their bodies. And this is even with non-mental health issues. More often, what happens is that doctors end up yelling at people.
Medicine advances every day, and there are ways for society to normalise itself—in the sense that we understand it is normal to seek medical help when we experience mental difficulties, rather than self-medicating with tranquilisers, just as we do with antibiotics. I think that, alongside other Balkan countries, we are world champions in self-medication. We certainly are when it comes to medication consumption.
Perhaps that is why the real question is not who is normal today, but who has the courage to admit that they need help. A normal person is not someone who never feels anxiety, sadness, or exhaustion. A normal person is someone who understands that mental and physical health are inseparable, and that seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist is not a sign of weakness, but of responsibility toward oneself and the people around them. Just as we would not expect someone to set their own broken bone, we should not expect serious psychological difficulties to be treated with willpower or folk wisdom.
If we want a healthier society, we must stop covering mental wounds with stigma. That means more education, better support for families, stronger institutions, and a healthcare system that treats mental health as seriously as any other illness. As long as it matters more to us to appear “normal” than to actually be healthy, we will continue hiding problems instead of solving them. And that is perhaps the only truly abnormal thing worth talking about today.
(Columnists’ opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the CdM editorial staff)
