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Interesting. I know what you're talking about, but didn't know that it was common for mental illness to be used. My MIL always talks about nurses that would milk that system (She was a nurse and worked in the hospitals) so I know its abused.
Depression, anxiety, PTSD; fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue; now I suppose ADHD and autism. None of which can be proven outside patient reports and doctor's opinions. Honestly, I got disgusted and found another job. Relatively few illnesses truly render one "permanently and totally" unable to do ANYTHING.
No doubt there are many people who game the system.
Years ago, a relative of mine kept prompting me to file for disability based on mental issues. No. I was going through an extremely stressful time in my life (full time 500 level academic classes, taking care of an ill elderly parent who lived an hour away, family criticism). I was not mentally disturbed in the sense of being disabled. I was challenged and depressed. That's not grounds for disability.
However, at the same time I was severely impaired by bone on bone in a hip and needed hip surgery in order to walk without pain, along with severe lung issues exacerbated by living in the PNW. THAT's what I ended up being awarded disability for. I was in denial about the extent of disability and actually should have filed far sooner.
I'm sure that relative still thinks I should have been awarded disability for "mental illness." I'm also sure that many people believe they are disabled when they are actually just being severely challenged in life. They think they deserve to "check out" and get a disability check.
When I was a child in the '50s even in my small town there were families which had someone tucked away in a bedroom upstairs. Some of those people we never saw. There were whispered rumors but we young people never knew what the problems were. It added even more mystery and fear to the stigma of disability.
The mother of a childhood friend was an English war bride. She came to the States before her husband got discharged and no one told her about the family's secret member. She claimed to her friends that her first couple of nights in that house cause her to develop a white streak in her hair.
Reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë did little to alleviate the association with mystery and violence.
Those were the kinds of stories, the stuff of movies, that my first knowledge of mental health issues told.
I remember a young boy who had been kicked in the head by a horse. Once in a blue moon his family would bring him to town on errands. We kids would see his shadowy figure in the back seat of the car but the general feeling was not to stare so we'd pretend not to notice. Everyone was curious.
It just now occurs, if he were capable of the feeling, how very lonely he must have been to be made invisible like that. How did we know that we weren't supposed to look? Did his parents want that? It raises so many questions about what is healthy for society and for families dealing with mental illness.
Finally, the comment: How vital it is to reach a place of openness about the often familial disease so good decisions can be made regarding family planning and dealing with problematic behaviors.
I'm under 50, but I don't think it was uncommon in the past for there to be a lot more judgement about mental illness, even if it wasn't hidden. People were judged for being broken or not having enough willpower, and that stigma has carried into the 21st century in many ways.
This is pretty spot on, from my recollection.
It was hidden. To be ashamed of. To be mocked. Considered a personal failing or weakness.
But it was also misunderstood and mistreated. We’ve come a long way in so many aspects of mental health and are really only beginning.
Today was the first time I heard anorexia in years. In Karen Carpenter's day it was always talked about. A girl I went to high school with died from it. A beautiful girl with a great body. She would be 69 today.
Marriage applications used to have a doctor sign off on them not being drunkards, epileptics, imbeciles, syphilitic, drug users, not a resident of a home for the insane in the last so many years and physically capable of supporting a family. I'm talking about 50 years ago, not 1840.
I think there was more self-medicating in the past. Jack Daniels instead of a pill. For some it worked. They just needed an escape for a few hours.
I haven't read the entire thread. I'm in my 60s, with a family history of mental illness.
Which was never discussed. NEVER EVER.
I know for sure it existed on my maternal side, both mother and grandmother; genealogical research revealed it went farther back. A great-great grandmother died in an asylum, labelled 'insane.' Given the times, it could have been anything. Back then, it was considered a genetic flaw, shameful and hidden for fear of ostracism. It impacted the ability to find a mate because no one wanted to marry into a family containing someone who was 'insane' or 'crazy.'
My siblings and I were the first to even consider therapy, mostly because of damage done to us by an untreated parent, and the fear we'd turn out like them. Very late in life, our mother sought counseling, mostly on the suggestion of her GP so she could obtain drugs to smooth out the bad mental days. Mother described the effects euphemistically as "I feel less tired." Before we visited, we always called her to ask "did you take your pills today?" If she didn't, we rescheduled the visit. Harsh, but we simply had enough as young people, enduring her titanic bursts of rage and depression. As adults, we could draw boundaries.
When I was growing up, we had a neighbor whose son had been in WW2, and never recovered mentally. He lived with his parents, but we never saw much of him. My dad called him one of the uncounted casualties of the war.
My mother had to drop out of high school in tenth grade because her mother had a "nervous breakdown". My mother's younger sister was mentally retarded and had cerebral palsy, and there was no "special ed" or help for such children back in those days. You either put your kid in an institution, or you took care of them at home. My grandmother would never put my aunt in an institution. The school system did send a teacher around, so she could write her name in a scrawl, but that was about it. Her IQ level was about that of a five-year-old.
Years later, I asked my mother what "nervous breakdown" in the case of my grandmother meant, actually.
"She cried all the time, and she couldn't get out of bed or do anything around the house." Clinical depression.
She then went on to say that my grandfather took my grandmother to the doctor to find out what was wrong with her. The doctor told my grandfather that her condition was a result of never leaving the house and having no other life than taking care of him and her kids, including the handicapped sister. He told my grandfather he had to start taking my grandmother out once a week for a movie and coffee afterward or something.
My grandfather's response was, "I put a roof over her head and food in her belly, what more do you want me to do?"
The doctor's response was, "Keep thinking that way, Mr. J., and your wife will have to be institutionalized, and then who will take care of your home and kids?"
So, he reluctantly started taking my grandmother out every Friday night, and eventually she got better. But my mother was now a year behind, and she never returned to school.
For anyone older than around 50, please shed a light. Mental health talk is everywhere now.
At least one episode of the popular sitcom All in the Family dealt with psychiatry in the early 1970's probably because of the Tom Eagleton incident. The M*A*S*H show also featured a psychiatrist in a recurring role, and his work was taken seriously. Other 70's TV characters such as Bea Arthur's Maude soon found their way to the psychiatrist.
In 1972, vice presidential candidate Tom Eagleton (and U.S. Senator from Missouri) was forced to withdraw from the Democratic party ticket because it was revealed that he had received electro-shock therapy a few years earlier, for clinical depression. It was felt that the public at the time would not vote for such a candidate, although Missouri voters had no such qualms and kept electing him to the Senate until he retired in the late 80's.
So the 1970's were a watershed decade in getting mental health issues into the mainstream. Most middle class people like me who were children in that decade have no negative feelings toward mental health professionals or people who receive mental health services.
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