BAGUIO CITY, Philippine?"Tsismis" (gossip) and videoke singing are the most common stress busters among Filipinos, mental health experts said here on Tuesday.

Dr. June Pagaduan-Lopez, head of the committee on psychosocial response to disaster of the Philippine Psychiatric Association, said among the hottest subjects when Filipinos engage in gossip is the lives of movie and television actors.

"When Filipinos talk about the lives of other people, they tend to feel much better about themselves because they think that the people they talk about have bigger problems [than them]," Lopez said in a press forum during the 35th PPA convention here.

She said gossiping was the most affordable way of releasing stress and bottled-up emotions.

Gossiping, she said, should not only be considered as mere talking because it is a healthy way of communicating to other people what you think and feel despite all the hardships in life.

"This is a good sign of coping with problems. We do not fear the future and [we do not forget] the past," Lopez said.

Because of the Filipinos' love for music, the most popular way of releasing stress is holding a microphone and singing using their videoke machines or those provided in bars and restaurants, other psychiatrists attending the convention said.

"In Canada, you would know if the house is owned by a Filipino because you would hear people singing with a videoke [machine]," said Dr. Daisy Ann Jabido-Artuz, a child psychiatrist.

Lopez said other Filipinos cope with stress through ballroom dancing, traveling and learning how to play musical instruments.

But Lopez and Artuz agreed that the Filipinos' deep-rooted belief in religion and their spirituality also help them keep their sanity.

"Filipinos pray a lot, iyong ipinapasa-Diyos na lang (they leave everything to God)," Lopez said.

She said it was difficult to identify which social class of Filipinos suffered the most cases of mental health disorder because their experiences varied.

She said a person who could afford expensive stress eliminators could still suffer from mental health disorder.

Cases showed that some children studying in exclusive schools commited suicide and poor people suffered mental health disorder because of the disorderliness in their environment, she said.

Lopez said there was a need to remove society's biases against people with mental health disorder.

Yolanda Oliveros, director of the Department of Health's National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said addressing mental disability was a huge public challenge because many Filipinos are exposed to "extreme experiences."

Among these are natural disasters like typhoons, landslides, volcanic eruptions and floods and problems like armed conflict, corruption, poverty, exodus of workers for overseas jobs and the global economic recession.

A PPA report said there has been an increase in suicide attempts and completed suicides.

"These deaths have to remind us of the need for suicide prevention in the country, especially among the young," it said.

"Depression is the most common predisposing factor and what is meant here is a clinical condition marked by the inability to work and engage in life. We tend to associate depression only with adults, but depression can start even in childhood. We need to dismiss this as being sumpungin (moody) in children," the report said.

It said other risk factors are family history of depression and suicide, alcohol and drug use, sexual abuse, family conflicts and lack of outlets for depression.

Lopez said the PPA has worked with the DOH in outreach programs to communities, particularly in places hit by disasters, calamities and armed conflicts in Mindanao to help prevent the increase of cases of mental disorder.