Discussion Older users of SS, how was ''doing it''/mental illness seen back then?

[Sergeant45]

Greetings,


I believe the title says enough on its own, but I will also elaborate my question.

I am talking to users aged 30 - 60+. Is it really true things like catching the bus, mental illness, and self harm, were seen as ''insane people things''? How did your generation view these things? Feel free to tell me below. I am a curious cat (and I hope curiosity won't kill me like the saying goes just yet).

Thank you if you take time to answer this.


Regards

 

[Forveleth]

40 here. I do not think thoughts around killing yourself (let us call it what it is) have changed at all. The stigma is still there for the most part. Now there are more "resources" but they are all just for show. For the most part, people who commit suicide are still seen in the same light now as when I was young.

Also, the second half of your cat phrase is "but satisfaction brought him back."

 

[dead dav]

Well you would be classed as insane with bad mental illness locked away in an institution and I think upto the late 60s suicide was a criminal offence so you could get locked in prison for attempting it also there would be no sympathy from medical staff ie self inflicted wasting our time and a lot of mental illness wasn't recognised as such!

 

[Apathy79]

Born 79 as a reference. I don't think the views on suicide and self harm have substantially changed. It may have become marginally more prevalent but not a lot. Mental illness is a huge change in the sense that it is used as a blanket term for a lot of conditions now but was less common then - you'd have more specific things like an eating disorder or depression (which I don't think was broken down into so many different categories like now). Also for the most part the remedy was get over it, toughen up, stop whining, etc., so people kept it more private like it was a character defect, except the goths who had their own clique but were basically shunned by everyone else. It's more accepted now.

 

[Linda]

Greetings,


I believe the title says enough on its own, but I will also elaborate my question.

I am talking to users aged 30 - 60+. Is it really true things like catching the bus, mental illness, and self harm, were seen as ''insane people things''? How did your generation view these things? Feel free to tell me below. I am a curious cat (and I hope curiosity won't kill me like the saying goes just yet).

Thank you if you take time to answer this.


Regards

I'm 72. They were viewed much as they are viewed now, though often with less sympathy and less understanding.

 

[darksouls]

the internet has changed everything
self-harm is openly displayed
everything has become more normal

 

[Worndown]

65...
Self harm was not a thing known to others. I am sure it happened.

Mental illnesses were discussed but the complexity was not as defined as today. Treatments were equally basic.

Learning disabilities were not handled well. There was the "mainstreaming" idea around 1970. Put everyone into one classroom and all will be well. It was not.

Jokes were made of those with unfortunate circumstsnces. Sensitivity was years away.

Medications and therapies are better today. There are more options.
I fear people are now more fragile.

Then there is the internet. An unlimited wealth of information and entertainment at out fingertips and a highway to our souls for our tormentors.

 

[22yearsbroken]

Im 46.. and i ghess fir it was lacking ... i lost my mum on my 16th birthday raised my 12 year old sister for a few yeara as my dad worked abroad ... i managed to do ok in GCSE got to do A levels and finished em early during all of that i ran a house and worked 2 to 3 jobs ...ahould i have been offered threapy as kid... fuk yes... it was kind of frownd upon in a way then and this was only 30years ago no one wanted to admit they had a child in threapy... has it effected my life...
Its dfficult to say, i mean qould it have changed me .. i guess it would although would i have still gone down the same path as i have done in my made the same choices or not maybe better ones or even worse ones ...i know now i sufferd with severe depression anxiety and addiction issues from that ave as i was never given support or help i juat cracked on and did what we do.. work get paid and indulge... and did induldge ro the point im here talking honestly and openly with you fine people

 

[J&L383]

I'm 72. They were viewed much as they are viewed now, though often with less sympathy and less understanding.

Liked: "I'm 72" I'm 67 and good to know not the oldest person on the block.

When I was 10 years old I was nearly put into a "children's psychiatric hospital" (but it must have been just a ward of a hospital. I don't think they had whole mental hospitals for children). And I did what I needed to do to not have that be my fate. Masking my sadness, although it was diagnosed as depression of some sort or another. Anyway that's a long story. So what's changed is that would not have happened today. Back then the threshold for escorting people to "the bin" was much lower. As for suicide discussions, yes, not much different, but we heard it more quietly, like Hemingway for example. And we didn't talk about it. Now when famous people die it's on the news cycle, albeit always with the PSA. And we talk about it

 

[JesiBel]

I have a close relationship with my grandparents, since my parents were teenagers when I was born, so they basically raised me too. I was even able to meet and spend some years with my great-grandparents.

Here, in those times, the Catholic religion was something very important and essential in everyone's life.

Mental health was not considered or treated as it is today. The "crazy" (a term like this was used to refer to people with mental problems) were poor unfortunates who society abandoned them to their fate, almost always ending up on the streets. They were simply pitied, and some churches welcomed them. Society didn't engage with them. There was a stigma attached to "being crazy".

In families, there was a tendency to remain silent and endure any inconvenience, problem, or trauma alone. For the sake of the family, or "staying together" even when things were hellish. Something as simple as a divorce was inconceivable. So all the suffering was carried inside without speaking to anyone. Supposedly that "made you stronger," like "I went through this and that and never complained about anything". As something to be proud of.

Marriage, family, life.. "the sacred things".. whoever violated them rebelled against God.

So, suicide would be the worst act against Him, only God gives and takes life. Only weak and worthless people could do something like that. A black sheep, tarnishing the family name. People who committed suicide were no longer talked about, as if they had never existed, carrying only shame and judgment from others.

It's normal for very old people to tell you "seek help from God and pray".

There are still generations mixed, so the stigma of having a mental illness or being suicidal is still present.