According to the results of a 2025 survey, 20.4% of upper primary and secondary school students in Serbia show symptoms of at least one mental disorder, including depression and anxiety. In BiH, according to a 2023 UNICEF report, as many as 39% of adolescents in BiH report mental problems, most often anxiety and depression. In Montenegro, a fifth of young people have such problems. Data from this year shows that this is the case with 9% of young people in Croatia.
In PERSPEKTIVA, young people often talk about depression and anxiety. Ljupko and Rijalda shed light on this problem.
“I think that the anxiety that exists among young people, and is caused by political leadership, leads to a kind of introspection, where young people increasingly ask themselves why we are not suitable, capable, or able enough to live in this country. I believe this creates a serious saturation of the prevailing mentality, which prevents people from reacting and saying, “No, there is no limit for me,” or, for example, “No to the criminalization of defamation, defamation is not a criminal offense.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-banja-luka-mladi/32875347.html
“Depression among young people exists both in Tuzla and throughout BiH and the Balkans. I believe that around 70% of the cause lies in this recurring depression and anxiety itself, while 30% comes from social networks.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-tuzla-mladi/33101655.html
“My biggest problem is anxiety and, in some contexts, laziness—that is, the difficulty of motivating myself to begin the process of physical and psychological individuation.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-banjaluka-mladi-drzava-/32865157.html
How do young people define the causes of this situation?
REALITY IS BRUTAL
“When we live in a reality like ours, which is brutal, but brutal in the modern sense, because it is not direct, instead things happen slowly, little by little, in all spheres of life, and then you bear the consequences as an individual, as a community, as a society, and as a country.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-beograd-region/33038786.html
I CAN’T BE MYSELF
“People have trouble expressing themselves. More precisely, we live in Montenegro, where it is taboo to be yourself, and let’s say, different and not fit into some standards.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perpektiva-mladi-crna-gora-problemi/32804765.html
THEY DON’T BELIEVE US
“In addition, a key factor and the main problem for young people is institutional distrust.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/retrospektiva-perspektiva-skoplje/32855901.html
WE ARE BECOMING SELFISH
“Maybe if there were a little more empathy among all of us, there would be fewer of these problems. We don’t go out of our way to show compassion to other people.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perpektiva-u-sarajevu/32995305.html
WE JUMP INTO NORMS AND MOLDS
“We still think the grass is greener and the sky is bluer somewhere else, but in fact, until someone goes and sees that the sky is neither bluer nor the grass greener, people remain unaware of their sociological and political surroundings. Here, we are not. I would say, in fact, that determinism is our greatest paradox because we, in fact, jump into already established norms instead of cutting through them and breaking free.“
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/bih-sarajevo-perspektiva/33005834.html
WE ARE NOT BLAMELESS
“I would say that there is self-censorship among young people, a fear of leaving the comfort zone. Everything happens online, and we lack young people who act in the public sphere.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-banjaluka-seksizam-svakodnevnica/32894611.html
The data presented at the beginning is alarming: one-fifth of young people in Serbia and Montenegro, and nearly 40% in Bosnia and Herzegovina, face these issues. Experts stress the need for investment in prevention and education. The number of young people with mental health problems continues to rise, yet society, institutions, and politics largely ignore them.
