The World has changed so much over the last 50 years, there didn't seem nearly as many mental health issues when I was younger, or maybe there was and I wasn't aware?
Could it be that people are less mentally strong than they were many years ago?
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The World has changed so much over the last 50 years, there didn't seem nearly as many mental health issues when I was younger, or maybe there was and I wasn't aware?
Could it be that people are less mentally strong than they were many years ago?
I'd say it's a couple of things. People are more likely to be open about it now (a good thing), and 50 years ago you were probably a kid or a teenager. So as an adult you'll be more likely to be informed.Originally Posted by Bluebina
I hadn't read the thread, no offence meant to anyone, some really good and honest posts, the point I was trying to make is what seems to have changed, as there seems a big increase even over the last twenty years?
On the one hand, people using the internet perhaps feel a greater pressure to look good and to appear if their lives are interesting to others (and the peer pressure that many younger people must surely be acknowledged) but on the other hand we do not know how many people suffered in isolation in years gone by.
Similarly, there must have been a lot of people out there who had pretty ugly and bitter personalities but whose opinions were confined to those around them, the people they worked with and fellow-pun-goers.
True I expect a lot of people had undiagnosed depression many years ago, and there was possibly even less help then?
Not just depression. Think of all of the other mental illnesses that would have gone undiagnosed.
People were just called 'nuts' or 'crazy' even 30/40 years ago and that was normality for that time. I remember growing up and knowing of certain people to avoid in my home town that, with hindsight, obviously had undiagnosed mental health issues but were seemingly treated as social pariahs instead of being supported to get help (that may have not even existed).
True what you say, but i'd add that because of a lack of knowledge, people were more forgiving and accepting when i was growing up. I knew plenty of people who did some very odd stuff or who reacted badly in certain situations or who just couldn't cope at times, but because we didn't have the knowledge and exposure that exists today these people were just accepted for what they were and allowed for. Im not saying that was the case on every occasion, there was plenty of bullying going on, it was just more open as we didn't have the internet and because of that it could be regulated easier by people around them.
I do feel sorry for the younger generation, when i was growing up everyone was skint, parents out of work at times and really struggling to get by, people didn't have a pot to piss in where i grew up. It wasn't great at times, rent man banging the door while we hid upstairs, but i'd say that was half of my estate. I wasn't easy although it was a great leveller, nobody could pretend to be something that they weren't and if you acted like a **** you were sorted out. I'm thankful for my childhood.
50 years ago, there were huge mental health hospitals that took care (in most cases) of the mentally ill. There were some bad incidents with the types of treatment some patients were subjected to though, but in the main, mental health was a hidden subject.
For example, when I lived and worked in North London, there were 3 very large mental health hospitals within a 15 mile radius of where I was living, the biggest being Friern Barnet Hospital (Which boasted the longest single corridor in the World and is now a block of luxury flats). None of them exist anymore. When I was a teenager, in the Bridgend Borough, there were three mental health hospitals - Glanrhyd; Penyfai and Parc (The prison is built on the site of Parc Hospital). Now there is only one.
Fast forward to the late 1980's and Thatcher introduced "Care in the Community" which led to vulnerable and sometimes dangerous (to themselves and the general public) patients being placed into the community. One of the most famous incidents of this was a man called Christopher Clunis who murdered a complete stranger on the London underground in 1992.
Mental illness was hidden, people were ashamed if one of their relatives was in a mental health institute.
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