Mental health issues in 1921... how might they have treated it?

[havinggivingsharingandreceiving]

With the release of the 1921 census in Scotland I've been able to confirm my grandmother's story, that her own grandmother was admitted to an 'asylum' after having her children . The census records her as an inpatient - I've since found other records online that say this was her second admission, and that she was released from this one on 'probation' before going back in again a few years later. Supposedly I can view her admission notes from one of these admissions so have applied to see them, although feel a bit guilty for doing so (even though she died long, long before I was born) .

I think after each child (7 in total) she took unwell - post natal depression? - and was re-admitted. After number 7, she never got to go home again (as far as I'm aware).

I'm trying to imagine what her life as an inpatient might have been like, the list of other inpatients with her is absolutely massive ... 16 pages of others in the same place . I can't imagine how they'd have treated mental illness in those days - if indeed she was mentally ill, my grandmother was never very sure (was never allowed to meet her) . Don't know if she'd have been treated kindly, therapeutically, given treatment like ECT or just left to it.

I can see some parallels between us, same age and though I don't have children I've struggled with my own mental health for a while and feel very fortunate I'm living in the 21st century and that long stays in huge institutions aren't really a thing now.

Obviously noone here can say for certain, but just curious ... I've watched a few documentaries but they're more focused on the 60s-80s really, so not sure!

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/heroic-therapies-psychiatry
THE HEROIC THERAPIES
In the 1920s and 1930s psychiatrists began to take a more experimental and interventionist approach to treating mental illness. Several new ‘heroic’ physical therapies were introduced, based on the belief that mental illness had a physical basis in the nervous system or the brain. Among the heroic therapies were:
Insulin coma therapy
Chemical shock therapy
Psychosurgery
Electroconvulsive shock therapy

poor people

There's a good book called "Bedlam: London and it's mad" which is the history of Bethlem hospital and the history of mental health. It's a very good read and may offer insight

Poor woman. She might have been suffering from post-natal depression but equally she might just have been struggling perfectly understandably to cope with having seven children. I wonder what her marriage was like, how much family support she had, how much financial strain they were under, what physical health problems they were struggling with (pre NHS, pre antibiotics, pre most immunisations), whether any of the seven children didn't live to adulthood.

Fascinating but sad story you have to investigate here, OP. Good luck with it.

Women that had illegitimate children could be put in mental asylums for being unmarried Mothers.

Financially they were reasonably well off, I think - I've seen a newspaper write up for her wedding that talks about fur trimmed coats etc.. . Census for the husband shows two servants living at home .

I think of the 7 children, they weren't all brought up at home all the time, I think they were at times with other female relatives . Certainly we've never been told of any losses in infancy but I'm not 100% sure . It'll be interesting if the archivist I've spoken to comes back to me with her admission papers .

There was an additional story (she believed husband to be dead but he wasn't) but not sure how true that is at all.

I'll definitely look up that book . It's interesting that her second admission doesn't say anything regarding husband, whereas the first one (four years earlier) does ... first one says she was handed back into his care .

I don't think any of her (many) grandchildren ever met her sadly.

Asylums, with electro therapies and other experimental treatments. MH was still stigmatised and anything which did not confirm to accepted standards of behaviour could be included, like single pregnant women or those with learning difficulties.

Many years ago when I was training as a mental nurse ,the trust I trained at were knocking down all the long stay wards at the mental health hospital ,it was in the grounds of what was the " County Asylum" they had a very small museum in site for staff that had archived patient records dating back to the 1800,s I spent a morning reading through some of the records
Many patients were described as " Lunatics" and the.reason for their lunacy was often caused by Masturbation!
Women who had illegitimate children were also commited as they were felt to be immoral.
Patients were put into insulin. Coma,s and some had unmodified ECT for treatment all very barbaric

When we were living in Swindon in the 1960s, there were quite a lot of youngish mothers who were given ECT, my neighbour being one of them. They were treated at a hospital in Devizes, so if you were told, "She's in Devizes", you knew what the problem was.

My great-grandma was on the 1911 census in an asylum, although her surviving grandchildren said they had never heard that. She had brought up a large family in a very poor area of Manchester. Sadly, she was described as a "lunatic" on the records, and by the 1921 census, she was dead,in her forties.

Update - received the admission papers tonight . God bless her but she was unwell . With a 21st c hat on I’m guessing at post natal psychosis - or something trauma based - but she sounded dreadfully unwell . The papers give details of her behaviour and actions and even today that would have warranted admission I think . Not sure what to do with it now, I rather wish I hadn’t seen it - it’s not the sort of cheerful story you want to share with the rest of the family . Her eldest granddaughter (my great aunty) might be interested - has often said she’d want to understand what happened - but I don’t know whether I should tell her .

Makes me look at my great granny in a whole new light, I can see patterns repeated down through the generations too sadly . A very difficult discovery .

If you are living in Swindon and receiving ECT, it is still carried out in a hospital in Devizes in case you were interested

Poor woman. No doubt having seven children didn't help the matter. Thank goodness for contraception.

That's really interesting @havinggivingsharingandreceiving. It is frightening reading these things from the past, I'm sorry it was upsetting. My great grandmother was also mentally ill in some form and went into an institution in the early 20s which she never left, after having had six children. A cousin has written about her, and has noted that there are multiple explanations for what kind of illness she had, with few verifiable facts.

I hope you can feel calmer about it all over time. It's hard to see these things in the family - I would say only that it's pretty common to have this kind of thing in the family, just unusual to have records of the forebear involved.

@havinggivingsharingandreceiving sorry the records were a difficult read.

I would be interested to obtain my grandmothers records - I think she was admitted to in patient MH care in the 1950s, again due to PND (and also
my grandfather treated her her badly). I my father was very badly damaged by his childhood, which in turn impacted on my childhood.

are there restrictions on obtaining records, eg a person has to be deceased for x years? I’m not the next of kin and there are other family members who would be very against obtaining the information.

@SOWK

I know this may not be your local area, but I guess the legislation will be same about access to records
www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/mental_hospital_records/access_to_mental_hospital_records/

That must have been hard to read.

As mentioned, they used to use ECT without anaesthetic and insulin coma therapy. ECT is still used occasionally (thankfully with anaesthetic) and it can have good effects. It often works quite quickly and antidepressants can take a month or so to be effective so is sometimes used if someone is so depressed that they're severely self neglecting and/or at high risk of suicide. However there are a lot more safeguards in place than there was back then with regards consent etc.

They used to use "hydrotherapy" which sounds lovely like you're in a nice warm bath but in fact you were in a freezing cold one often for hours at a time.

Surgery like lobotomies didn't really come in until later in the century.

There is a good documentary by the BBC about the history of asylums. I'll see if it's on iPlayer but I would recommend it.

You tube link for you.

There's also the Museum of the Mind at the modern hospital (Bethlem moved sites a few times over the centuries; it's now in Beckenham.) It's very interesting, though goes from 19th century to modern treatment without so much in between.

museumofthemind.org.uk/

I spoke to my gran’s sister last night (my great aunty) but skimmed the page that details her illness. Sent her some copies of some of the papers but have missed out the one that goes into details of her behaviour/symptoms . She said same as me, dreadfully sad .

The notes say she was diagnosed with mania . She was released after several months, back in within a month, released after 4 years and then back in within 6 months . After that admission she was never released again I think .

The twice she was allowed home she had another child . Which explains the prolonged gap between the last two children .

It’s just so bloody sad. Notes said several times she was terrified of having twins - her own mother died hours after having her twins (of which she was one). She (her mother) had something like six others first too . Twins run in the family . There would be every reason for her to be shit scared of having twins - and I imagine from her perspective, nothing she could have done to prevent that from happening.

They do say they thought the reason was she was at home alone during the war, she was ‘entirely changed’ after the war.

Yes thank goodness for safe reliable contraception and a (mostly) better understanding of mental illness and trauma . You wonder if they ever realised the possible connection between another pregnancy and a relapse.

@SOWK I didn’t even know I could read these records, we’ve been talking about it as a family for years but it was a bit of a shock going through various genealogy sites, there’s two for Scotland (scotlands people and oldscottish) - the latter had her on list of register of ‘lunatics’ and when contacted they said could provide me with her admission papers - didn’t think thah was even possible . The papers I could see were from 1918, I suspect they’re shut for 100 years as most things seem to be? I’m not her NOK by a long shot, I suppose my gran’s sister would be.

I understand what you mean re things being passed down . Quite a few in family with tendency towards being very anxious (though I don’t think anyone with an illness to the extent that poor lady seemed to suffer).

I’ll have a look at all those links/documentary, thanks so much !!