Stress is definitely the disease of the twenty-first century. The causes are numerous: the frantic big-city lifestyle, traffic jams, misunderstanding at work, inability to talk to friends, the pressures of social media and consumerism, shifting values and uncertainty about the future – to name but a few. In Mongolia, there is a definite rise in related alcoholism and domestic violence, say psychologists.

Compared to the 1990s, there has been an increase in the number of young Mongolians turning to psychologists in order to solve their stress-related problems. In order to meet the rising demand for psychotherapy, the Sukhbaatar District General Hospital in central Ulaanbaatar has opened four new consulting rooms. These enable the public to receive one-on-one psychotherapy and alcoholism therapy.

Today (20 June), for example, 14 people are attending the psychology counselling classes and 42 others are meeting professional psychologists.

This particular hospital is clearly not an exception.