For my “Evolving Ideas” project I wanted to discuss the change in mental health treatments along with the stigma of mental health that came along with the treatments. I thought it was important to shed light on how far we have come not only with mental health treatments, but also with how society views people with mental illnesses. As a psychology major and someone who wants to become a psychologist in the future, I always wanted to look further into this topic, as I am curious about it myself, and took this opportunity to do so.
Treatments for mental illness have definitely improved and become more available over the past few centuries. I noticed while researching the different treatments used through the last few centuries that the stigma connected to mental health correlated with the treatments that were used. For example, 7,000 years ago, mental illnesses were seen as something that “lived” in your body and could easily be removed. So that is when “trephination” (removing part of your skull using a saw) and “bloodletting and purging” (throwing up and using leeches to remove the ‘tainted’ blood in your body) was used. However, since these were used 1,000s of years ago, they aren’t technically proven to have been used and there is little to no evidence.
The first proven treatment for mental illnesses was mental asylums. The creation of mental asylums started in the 1700s when they believed that mental illnesses were a result of possession/religious beliefs. With insane asylums, the patients received inhumane treatments such as waterboarding and restraints. Asylums were seen as more of a punishment for the mentally ill, rather than a treatment. People believed that the use of mental asylums was also used just to get “the mentally ill” out of public eye since they were seen as “insane” and “diseased”.
What shocked me the most was that all throughout the 1900s treatments such as “insulin comas”, “metrazol therapy”, and “lobotomies” were used. Insulin comas were introduced in 1927 and continued until the 1960s. In insulin coma therapy, physicians deliberately put the patient into a low blood sugar coma because they believed “large fluctuations in insulin levels could alter how the brain functioned”. In metrazol therapy, physicians introduced seizures using a stimulant medication and was usually administered several times a week. Metrazol was withdrawn from use by the FDA in 1982. Lobotomies actually won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1949, but is now no longer used for obvious reasons. It was designed to disrupt the circuits of the brain but came with serious risks and consisted of surgically cutting or removing the connections between the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobes of the brain.
Now in recent years, mental health/illnesses are more accepted and treatments are well…less grotesque. We have replaced these harmful, inhumane treatments with alternatives such as therapy where you talk one on one with a professional. People who have illnesses can receive treatment in person or online, which is mostly a result of the pandemic but is still a huge step for people who aren’t comfortable talking one on one with a professional. Medications are also an option for treating mental illnesses.
*All information about treatments was found on https://online.csp.edu/resources/article/history-of-mental-illness-treatment/*
I recently rewatched American Horror Story: Asylum, which although is a fictional show, it really sheds light onto the conditions that patients had to face as patients with mental illnesses. I would love to see how American society has shifted their views on the mentally ill, from initially treating them with disgust to finally opening up to them and be willing to provide the necessary help. I think it would be beneficial to look at the breakdown of generations, as older generations still seem to have a stigma around mental illness whereas our generation is more open and willing to talk about the issue. Great choice of a topic!
This is such an important topic to discuss. In recent years, treatments for mental illness have improved and become more available to people. The stigma around mental health is changing, and society is becoming more accepting of it. Although we have come so far, we still have a long way to go. However, we must acknowledge that only a 100 or so years ago, people with mental health issues were being treated inhumanely, and treatments focused on curing some physical ailment rather than on tackling the issue through therapy and mindset-altering exposures and exercises (as we know them today). Most people today suffer from mental health issues, the most common of which being depression and anxiety. Nowadays, people seem to enjoy therapy and go voluntarily, rather than being forced into potentially unsafe procedures. Overall, our generation has become more accepting of mental health than previous ones, and we are now trying to address the problem at its roots, rather than trying using unconventional and immoral treatments as scapegoats.