We talked to Partizan and Zvezda fans who are so obsessed with the games that they even get seriously ill. Why is that so?
Staniša (42) fainted one Thursday. Otherwise, he does not live particularly stressfully, except for what is necessary in Serbia, he has a house next to the forest, a happy family.
But, on that Thursday, there was none.
The night before, he roared in the Belgrade Arena when Partizan came within just a minus point of Barcelona.
"The hall exploded." I felt my heart want to jump out. And then we lose that rollercoaster", Stanisa tells for our newsletter Medjuvreme.
He watched the next games at home, just in case. Blood tests do not show anything special, but a pulmonologist, a cardiologist are waiting for him...
Doctors could not save another fan - his heart failed in the hall, in the last quarter of that match.
Although cheering is not the main reason, it is often a trigger for poor health. I talked to people who, after a match of their beloved club or national team, fall into a fever, have a stomach ache, and call an ambulance.
A difficult story
Aleksandar Topalović (50) felt the first stabbing in his chest when Serbia and Switzerland played at the 2018 World Cup. Seven days later, a stent was implanted.
"Even today, when the familiar symptoms start, I stop watching," he says. He supports Zvezda, but only the national team gets him into trouble.
The Zvezda basketball players have one more fan. "They also set me up with high blood pressure, which obviously spikes abnormally when there's a game," he says. For several months, he has been taking medicines that regulate the work of the heart.
Experienced psychiatrist Velisav Đotunović has seen such cases during his career. When asked whether people who prefer the club suffer health problems "from cheering", he firmly says - no.
The story, however, is more complicated than that.
Wasting our gasoline
Candidates who feel that cheering hurts them are people who enjoy themselves too much, says Đotunović for Medjuvreme. Those who wait obsessively, take all experiences to heart, including cheerleading.
"It quickly depletes the emotional energy that is our fuel." "You will start from other things, then by enjoying yourself at the beginning of the game, you will use up the rest of your energy," says Đotunović.
"That's when the anxiety starts, the apprehension that grips the whole body, which is unpleasant in itself. But it additionally upsets the vegetative system, psychosomatic disturbances begin, heart palpitations, sweating, stomach, intestines."
The same people, says the psychiatrist, often carry a lot of burdensome thoughts without cheering - they think too much about what they are doing, what someone thinks, they work out scenarios, they worry about everything as if it were the end of the world.
"Each experience, anticipation is valued too much... individual experiences are given too much importance... everything is too strong. Those imposed thoughts drain emotional energy. Then the game completely consumes you."
It's not normal
People so emotionally and psychologically exhausted often do things mechanically, zombie-like.
And it is important, our interlocutor points out, to experience things as they are, with emotions, but not excessive ones. Let's say, to enjoy coffee while drinking it, instead of worrying about all the worries of the world. Enjoy the match.
Đotunović says that there is a cure - let's say in the form of cognitive therapy. Sometimes also classical medicines.
"There are people who will never go to a psychiatrist, and they live with pain and think it's normal." It's not normal," he concludes.
None of the fans, interlocutors of Medjuvreme, mentioned that he had gone to a psychotherapist.
At least some managed to "discipline" themselves not to watch the games. The question is whether they help themselves or just treat one symptom.
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