Discussion Mental illness through the ages.

[Forever Sleep]

I have a difficult relationship with the idea of mental illness- largely because I am influenced a lot by what my Dad thinks.

I hate to paint him in a bad light because he is actually a very sensitive and caring man but, overall- my Dad gets pretty irritated by talk of mental illness. I think he sees it as a lame excuse as to getting out of work etc. It's odd- because on the other hand- I'm pretty sure he would say suicidal people are suffering from depression- a mental illness.

Anyhow- what I'm really wondering about is whether mental illnesses are more prevalent now. I suppose- now that we have so many names for them. I think my Dad's attitude is that- back in his day- people just had to get on with life. They didn't complain about their mental health because it wasn't suggested that they could/should.

To some degree- I wonder if there is any truth in this. I once went on a tour of a World War II submarine. Honestly, it was cramped, dark and I imagine- very smelly when fully staffed. One of the people in our group asked our guide (who had served in the navy on similar submarines) just how much time they spent submerged- with no sunlight and no contact with their families. He asked whether they suffered from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and depression. To which the guy replied that- no- nothing like that was talked about back then. It makes you wonder though- did people still suffer from stuff- but were just unable to really talk about it?

I pointed out to my Dad that mental illness must have existed just the same years ago. It's just that people were carted off to assylums instead! For just about any ailment their families found unpleasant too!

I guess I also have this suspicion that as a race- we have been slowly poisoning ourselves over the decades. God knows what's really in our water and air- with all the pollution. Plus, we eat so much processed food- packaged in plastic. We've pretty much all got chemicals wthin us thanks to companies like Dupont. None of that can be any good for our bodies and brains. I remember watching a programme about when they introduced lead to petrol and basically made the entire population a lot more stupid- plus- poisoned the environment.

Plus, I was saying to my Dad- that yes- our younger generations do have it easier in terms of physical labour- we have so many machines to help us with washing etc. Still- I reckon the internet and social media has had a massive effect on younger generations mental health.

Anyhow- what do you think? I feel sure mental illness has always been real- even when we didn't have specific ways to describe it. Still, I suppose I do wonder whether it is more prevalent now than say 50 years ago and I wonder why.

 

[unplug]

Interesting topic. I can chime in my two cents.

You mentioned a lot of the reasonings, and it's true, pollution, horrible diets, lack of sun, constant social media and internet usage. These all play a huge role in our mental health, most rather not believe it and continue on, but it's evident.

I personally believe the less human we become the more ill we will be.

We can take a look at some tribal civilizations that still live today, on islands. You don't hear about them offing themselves, they hunt, gather food and all live in a pact, as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. We can't go against what's so natural to us.

As things continue to advance for humans a rapid decline in health will also, and at this point there's no going back.

I think the truth is older generations don't want to hear the new generation complain is because they believe they had it more difficult, and the same goes for their parents and so on. It's kind of always been that way. It's kind of an ego thing.