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Back in the day, we were a lot worse diagnosing more routine mental health issues.
Also, back in the day, we just sucked it up and dealt with it. While it is good that we are more aware about mental health today, the pendulum has swing the other way with many people seeking victimhood and trying to evade responsibility for their actions and failings and struggles. Instead of just manning up and dealing with things, too many people want the easy out of blaming some mental illness instead. "I just need my weed".
gee, when was that? There have been lots and lots of successful and influential fat people over the last several millennia. I think there is less acceptance now than when I was a kid.
Obesity is 10 times more accepted and tolerated today than during the 1960s because it has become so normal.
I remember being in a restaurant in the 1970s and a young child pointed a finger at a very obese man and in quite a loud voice said, "Mommy, why is that man so FAT!". The guy slunk out the door likely very embarrassed about it. When is the last time you heard a kid say that?
There used to be a lot more pressure to lose weight when you were fat. Today, people just say "you should try to be healthier" and pretty much leave it at that. It is considered a health issue today. When I was a kid, it was considered an issue of self-respect vs "you are a slob".
Believe it or not... There didn't used to be the expectation that "normal" life was happy and worry-free; therefore, feeling depressed or anxious wasn't "abnormal." The idea that there's something wrong with you if you're not all smiles is a fairly recent one in history.
Famous people like Churchill and Lincoln suffered from quite serious depressions, but they carried on.
Pretty much the only mental illness recognized as such was full-blown psychosis.
I think a swing back in that direction wouldn't be a bad thing. It's normal to feel sad, scared, etc., and too many emotions that are simply human are pathologized today.
For anyone older than around 50, please shed a light. Mental health talk is everywhere now. Hypersensitivity over mental illness and other debilitating psychological diseases seem abnormally high. If you research subjects like BPD or Anorexia and Karen Carpenter's death, the comments will say that this was never talked about then and they suffered in silence. But I have a hard time accepting that. Alot of these illnesses are human conditions. Just because it isn't dealt with on television or weren't had by famous celebrities, doesn't mean people weren't aware of it. I don't know what the truth is.
People had "issues" back in the olden days, but it wasn't talked about. So what you have heard about no one discussing anything? Very true.
I had a great uncle who was a war PoW, and very likely had PTSD when he came back. He was very intelligent, articulate, well read. Came back a different man. He was married and had kids but acted erratically... up and left and lived by himself in a shack in the woods, like a recluse, having less and less contact with outsiders, until his family sent a doctor after him. He was hospitalized I guess, and eventually reintegrated with the family? I'm not sure... no one really talked about it, so details are sketchy...
There were all kinds of sordid things that went on years ago, that no one talked about. And lots of things that don't seem awful at all, by today's standards. People didn't talk about terminal diagnoses back then... cancer, MS, even chronic medical conditions like epilepsy or dyslexia, they were hushed up or associated with mental illness or mental "retardation" etc. People considered these conditions mysterious and shameful to any family that had to deal with them.
Talk shows on TV and the radio in the 1980s blew a lot of these taboos out of the water. This was also during the AIDs epidemic, and the taboos around disease, palliative care, and gay rights were just beginning to come out into the open.
And now we have the internet and anyone says anything, to whoever... I am personally just blown away by the optimism, bravery, and resilience of a lot of the younger people that I see talking openly in forums and on blogs and video chats about their experiences with things like bipolar, PTSD, even schizophrenia. They put it all out there, with their name and face and all of it. This would have been unimaginable to me before I started seeing people doing it.
Even 20 years ago, if you had a problem like dealing with anxiety, you'd be told "sink or swim" instead of being offered help... and the stigma against that was far less than for issues like psychosis.
Edit to add: if you want to have a glimpse at how far things have come, do a little research into how General Patton treated soldiers recovering from PTSD. He considered them cowards and berated and hit them. Not helpful.
Last edited by OTownDays; 09-12-2022 at 09:02 PM..
Reason: adding info
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 sounds about right. People in earlier eras were very harsh about mental illness, or not even well-enough informed to know that certain behaviors were indicative of, say, early trauma, and so on. So they were judgmental of people being "weak".
Well certainly it was "less discussed" or even "acknowledged" by the commoner.
Depression, schizophrenia, bi polar, Mania, multi personality disorders, paranoia, Just to name some that were " deemed"- taboo to discuss or mention.
My parent was a nurse- Did a three month stint at a psychiatric ward during her RN certification. A famous academy award star was brought there to be monitored - given reprieve...Because gosh knows ONE didn't "label" the condition and seek proper medical therapy. It was just a place to "settle" the nerves and off he was to go again. It would be later in this Gents life that he acknowledged his mental psychiatric condition.
My Parent said, This was one place where his acting skills did not aide in his diagnosis and prognosis. He was for lack of a better phrase- Off his rocker. His delusions kept him there longer then he wanted.
Far more Females were cast into certain 'wards" , Depression and even those going thru the "change" (menopause) were put away instead of understanding the physical and psychological changes. Females had nervous Break downs...With very little Therapy to conquer it. Shock treatments, ice baths were the norm.
I think in part fewer Medical doctors were aware( educated) during their licensing and training ...THey can't aide what they do not know ...
Sadly the White Knuckle attitude intensified the symptoms and effect.
For anyone older than around 50, please shed a light. Mental health talk is everywhere now. Hypersensitivity over mental illness and other debilitating psychological diseases seem abnormally high. If you research subjects like BPD or Anorexia and Karen Carpenter's death, the comments will say that this was never talked about then and they suffered in silence. But I have a hard time accepting that. Alot of these illnesses are human conditions. Just because it isn't dealt with on television or weren't had by famous celebrities, doesn't mean people weren't aware of it. I don't know what the truth is.
I'm interested in this discussion thread as well because it looks to be a fascinating topic.
People were aware of it...as in "he/she's a "retard". That label was given to a very broad number of mental illnesses.
Those afflicted in a serious way were institutionalized. There was no attempt to "main-stream" them either in schools or any other public program.
Bottom line is that mental illness was not discussed in public (whisper behind people's back: "oh, they have a retarded child/whatever" and it wasn't a public thing.
That, of course, has changed for a number of reasons. Parents sued to have their children in regular schools. Public programs to train and educate were put in place. People today are educated to be understanding ("don't stare") and accept people from all walks of life.
In a way, it parallels "fatties" and the way we accept them, whereas years ago they were told they were fat to their face and, like those with a mental disability, ostracized. There was little to no public acceptance of either group.
That's the cold hard facts. Sorry to make it sound brutal, but by today's standards, it was.
This thread is about mental illness, not mental retardation/disability. Two completely different things.
But your post would make for a good separate thread/discussion.
But I have a hard time accepting that. Alot of these illnesses are human conditions. Just because it isn't dealt with on television or weren't had by famous celebrities, doesn't mean people weren't aware of it. I don't know what the truth is.
We've learned a lot since then. I don't think it's so much that people weren't aware of problems, they just didn't know much about them.
Take ADHD for example, as that is a fairly simple condition, and one I'm familiar with. Back in my day in the 60's and 70's those kids were usually labeled as brats, difficult, spoiled, discipline problems, and basically written off as a bad job of parenting. It was failure, and shameful.
When my son was diagnosed with it in the early nineties there was still some of that attitude around and many people didn't really understand what ADHD was. There was still stigma attached to it.
Nowadays most people are aware that the ADHD mind processes things in a different way and that there are ways of coping with it, from medicine to behavioral modifications. Having a child with ADD is something people are comfortable acknowledging and seeking help for now, whereas in the past that was not often the case.
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