History Of Mental Illness & World Mental Health Day

A continuous change in behavior is an alarming situation that must bring under consideration of a psychiatrist. Your behavior, your mood, and your actions are all directly linked to your mind. Any unusual change in them is a sign of mental illness. We must look into the history of mental illness to analyze different conditions faced by different mentally ill people.

What Is Mental Illness?

Before moving towards the history of mental illness, just have an overview of the signs that shows a “person is mentally ill”.

• A change in the emotions and behavior of a person
• A change in sleeping patterns
• A change in social interaction
• A change in eating habits

All the above factors are some of the basic signs of mental illness. However, the condition must be that all the changes are unusual and unfavorable, that must be not in control of a person.

Stress, depression, and anxiety are mental illnesses. However, these situations can be less or more in different people. Keep in mind; if these mental illnesses are left untreated, they become a cause of the mental disorder.

In the current era of hustle and bustle, that person is quite lucky who saves himself from stress and depression. Remember that all stress and depression are not severe, some stress is for the time being and gone once the problem solved or the situation becomes in favor of a person. Such stress doesn’t cause any harm to the person.

The good thing is that many people are capable of treating their stress without the help of medical aid. They become familiar with their stress and find out the ways that bring relief and relaxation to them. Such as, they develop certain hobbies that bring happiness and relaxation to them.

History Of Mental Illness

Mental illness is not new. People are facing this from ages. However, in the ‘20s people show a more serious attitude towards mental health. Mental illness can be due to certain circumstances that can be social, emotional and environmental

Many times people stressed because they want attention from their loved ones. In some other cases, people became upset about some social issues and put them on their nerves and became a victim of stress and depression.

Environmental circumstances also affect a persons’ behavior and mood. But every time, the situation and the level of mental stress is different. But the history of mental illness shows that these forces become the severe cause of mental disorders.

Diving into the history of mental illness, we came to know that from the 1960s till 20’s people became the victim of mental illness. In every era, the severity of mental illness and its causes may differ. However, there are several myths present in the history of mental illness, that were used to be very common in old times. With time people became educated and realize the medical facts behind mental illness.

Supernatural Forces And Mental Illness

The relation between supernatural forces and mental health is very strong and persists in some under-developed countries. In countries where people are not educated still believe that mental illness is due to some spirits or magic. They spent huge money on the treatment of black magic causing mental illness. That results in mental disorders that become so complicated to treat. In many cases, people lost their lives because of this wrong and distressful treatment.

Similarly, the lunar and solar eclipse was considered the cause of mental illness and this myth is still common among various tributes. Whenever there is a solar or lunar eclipse, it is advised not to go outside. This is not because you will get mentally ill, the reason is rays became harmful and that must be avoided. As far as, the world is progressing the place of these myths is taken by scientific facts based on evidence.

Physical Health And Mental Illness

In the past, it was the mindset that if a person is healthy physically he is perfect mentally as well and vice versa. There was no concept of mental health. History of mental illness shows that when a person got mentally ill it was linked to some physical illness.

In old times, one of the main causes of mental illness is inherited. In China, it was assumed that the mental illness was due to the imbalance of hormones of male and female.

Coming towards the present era, the relation between mental illness and physical health persists and considered to be right. As if a person is having some illness he became upset, a common scenario. But every time the case is not the same, many times cause of the mental illness is not linked with the physical illness. This can only be examined by medical experts.

Psychological Issues And Mental Illness

Psychological issues and mental illness have a very strong relationship from many ages. History of mental illness shows that in old times, people were also in the view that some unfavorable events have a strong impact on a person’s mind.

This is the fact that some bad or unacceptable happenings occur in the life of a person that left a huge impact on a person’s mind. In many cases, these impacts were so strong that results in severe mental diseases. Anyhow, whatever the severity of illness is, it is treatable.

History Of Mental Health

After a deep discussion on the history of mental illness, the need is to put some light on the history of mental illness as well. As the people are getting mentally ill but couldn’t find a way of treating it. Every country puts heir huge struggle to run a campaign that gives awareness to the people about their disease and also makes arrangements for their treatment. However, this journey toward mental health differs from country to country.

History of Mental Health UK

History of mental health UK shows that in old times people were not given importance to their mental health. However, in the current era, people give equal importance to their mental and physical health realizing that mental health is the base of physical health.

History of mental health in America is quite interesting and heart touching based on the founder of “America mental health foundation”

Suffering from severe depression a person who sets the foundation of mental health America association is The Great “Clifford. W Beer”

He feels the condition of mentally ill people when he got stressed due to the death of his brother.  He was treated so badly in the hospital that makes him realize how mentally ill people are treated. At that time, he sets the vision to work for the people who suffer from mental illness.

 In 1908, with the help of a psychiatrist and a team, he starts the mental health America association. History of mental illness in America shows that with the efforts of Clifford and his team situation becomes far better for mentally ill people.

History of mental health in Australia declares that Australians mistreated their mentally ill people. They kept them away considering them bad for others. Even the families took apart from them. They were kept in prisons. Later on, the foundation was set to treat the mentally ill people.

In 1930, the Victoria mental health foundation took the initiative to treat mentally ill people. Later on, in 1984 mental health foundation of Australia and Victoria’s mental health foundation run a first campaign that is “Depression Awareness Campaign”.

Objective Behind The World Mental Health Day

Keeping in view the mental disorders faced by the people and realizing that in different countries people were not in a position to analyze their mental illness. The purpose behind this is to given importance to mental health and highlight the different issues related to mental health.

Every year, millions of people became the victim of mental illness and this is very sad that they are not familiar with their issue. However, to address the mental issues of people world mental health day is organized and celebrated around the globe on the recommendations of WHO.

History of world mental health day shows that in the first three years a message is communicated among the people focusing on the importance of mental health. Later on, every year a certain topic was decided by WHO, that is followed globally. This is still in practice and followed around the globe.

Looking into the history of world mental health day, the themes for world mental health day and world mental health week are decided after thorough research by experts. The chosen theme always focuses on the mental issue that is faced by the majority.

FAQ

Who was the first to discover mental illness?

A detailed system of mental disorders was first discovered by a psychiatrist named Emil Kraepelin. He belongs to Germany and his system worked on the central cause of mental disorders.

What do people think about mentally ill people in the past?

History of mental illness shows that it was considered that mentally ill people are trapped by demons, spirits, or under the impact of some magic.

Who sets the foundation for mental health in America?

“Clifford. W Beer” took the initiative to treat mentally ill people. For this, he built a team including physiatrists and sets foundation of “mental health America association”

What treatments were used for the mentally ill people in the past?

History of mental health shows several baseless treatments including Trephination – drill in the skull of a person and removed a small part of the skull for relief. Isolation – mentally ill person is kept away from the family or the other people.