Seven Reasons Why Establishing the Lebanese Journal of Mental Health Helps Fight Stigma

Lebanon has long held a prominent position in the medical and academic landscape of Asia and the Arab region. Our country has built a reputation for clinical excellence, innovation, and resilience, even during prolonged periods of instability. In the field of mental health specifically, Lebanon has been a reference point, producing pioneers, shaping minds, and developing advanced mental health services in universities and hospitals that serve the Greater Middle East. Despite these achievements, Lebanon continues to deal with stigma surrounding mental health. Stigma in Lebanon is not only cultural and social, but it is structural. It prevents individuals from seeking help, from receiving a diagnosis, and from accessing treatment. It silences suffering while making it grow worse. For too many, the shame of being labeled with a mental health condition is more paralyzing than the disorder itself. Stigma may not be the only barrier to reaching the appropriate mental health care, since poverty, limited access to specialized care, and under-resourced public health systems also play a role; however, stigma remains the most critical. It is a barrier to perception, a barrier to management, and a barrier made of silence. This is precisely why we launched the Lebanese Journal of Mental Health (LJMH). The LJMH has been launched because we believe that a national scientific platform, rigorous, peer-reviewed, open-access, and proudly Lebanese, is one of the most powerful tools we must confront and dismantle stigma. If you do not see the relationship, here are seven reasons why the LJMH helps fight stigma: First, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because when we publish, we inform. We bring mental health into the public and professional sphere, supported by evidence, not fear. We show our patients, our students, and our colleagues that there is a body of knowledge here, at home, in which they can place their trust. In an era when trust in systems is fragile, offering local, scientifically validated knowledge is an act of empowerment. Second, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because when we publish, we exist. We remind each other, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and researchers, that we are here, active, and evolving. We refuse to perish. We assert, as Prof. Hirsch once said in his famous quote, “Publish or Perish,” that to publish is not only a duty, but also a declaration of presence, of relevance, and resistance. Third, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because when we publish, we collaborate. The LJMH is not an isolated project. It is a collective endeavor. It is the convergence of many disciplines and voices, brought together by the belief that mental health is a shared responsibility, medical, psychological, social, legal, and political. The LJMH is our common language for advancing standards of care. Fourth, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because when we publish, we advocate. We provide data for policymakers. We give visibility to patterns and gaps. We offer the government and third-party payers a foundation for planning, budgeting, and reform. In doing so, we work through the ignorance that sustains stigma, the myth that mental disorders are rare, foreign, or untreatable. Fifth, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because when we publish, we encourage. We remind our students that choosing psychiatry, psychology, or any mental health profession is not marginal, speculative, or an alternative, but a bold, necessary, and mainstream path. We make clear that these are scientific disciplines, informed by evidence, guided by ethics, and fundamental to the overall well-being of society. Sixth, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because when we publish, we preserve. Every study, every case report, every commentary becomes part of a growing, permanent repository of knowledge. A repository that patients themselves have contributed to. A repository that will serve future generations of professionals and patients alike. A repository that will continue growing forever and that will encourage every stakeholder to contribute to its growth. And finally, last but not least, the LJMH helps fight mental disorders stigma because it is an open-access journal, and we are democratizing knowledge. We are breaking down hierarchies. We are inviting every clinician, researcher, policymaker, student, and patient to read, reflect, and respond. We are saying to everyone involved with the mental health scene in Lebanon and the Greater Middle East that “your voice matters.” Remember that silence is the soil in which stigma grows. Remember how cancer was and sometimes is still treated in this part of the world with silence, shame, and euphemisms. Remember that sometimes in cancer patients, everyone knows the diagnosis, including the patient, but no one dares to speak about it, and, as a result, in that silence, cancer becomes a taboo, a death sentence, and a secret. Today, we risk doing the same with mental illness unless we break the conspiracy of silence. In this perspective, the LJMH is not just a publication; it is a movement, it is a statement, it is a refusal to stay silent. It is “your voice that matters.” It is the right platform to announce that mental disorders are frequent, that they are treatable, that no one is immune, that early intervention saves lives, and that dignity is part of the cure! Let us end the silence. Let us reduce stigma. Let us publish. Let us make our voices heard through the LJMH. Let us submit our work now! Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.