I'm reading about the history of suicide. You would think suicide is a relatively new phenomenon. There's very little discussion about it in general conversations about history. Depression. Mental illness. Suicidal ideation. It almost seems like a uniquely modern problem, or a problem of the privileged. As if people from poorer countries do not experience suicide or poor mental health. Of course, I know it exists and happens, but everyone, and I mean everyone, makes it seem like this is a new phenomenon, that it happened rarely in the past, and that it was only people who were extremely mentally ill who experienced it. As if suicide and suicidal ideation were truly extreme in the past, but now are common for some reason.
We know it happened, but it is so hush hush how common it was, or even the thoughts themselves. Now I know that people were so deeply ashamed of how they felt that they often tried to make their deaths look like accidents, so as not to leave shame for the family members who were still alive, or the family would try to hide the cause of death. If this has been the case for most of human history, then why should I be surprised that mental health services, despite all these performative and fake campaigns for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, are still incredibly shit, and that the people running these mental health services are also making mental health worse? Why should I be surprised if this has been our attitude towards mental health for the majority of human history?
We know it happened, but it is so hush hush how common it was, or even the thoughts themselves. Now I know that people were so deeply ashamed of how they felt that they often tried to make their deaths look like accidents, so as not to leave shame for the family members who were still alive, or the family would try to hide the cause of death. If this has been the case for most of human history, then why should I be surprised that mental health services, despite all these performative and fake campaigns for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, are still incredibly shit, and that the people running these mental health services are also making mental health worse? Why should I be surprised if this has been our attitude towards mental health for the majority of human history?
