To think there isn't a 'new' mental health crisis

[Builtthiscityonsausagerolls]

Was thinking earlier about the reasons why so many people are struggling with their mental health now.

Then it got me remembering Sunday afternoons in the mid 80's with my grandmother, great gran and other matriarch of my family. The men would go to the pub, and the women would sit around putting the world yo rights, and (My great gran in particular ) discuss the health problems of every woman in a 5 mile radius. Phrases I remember
'She has such problems with her nerves' - anxiety
'How are you feeling in yourself?' - are you depressed?
'She has terrible baby blues' - post natal depression.

I also had an ancestor who shot himself after being demobbed after WW1. If you read any memoirs, or even contemporary literature eg Agatha Christie, there are so many casual references to what must have been nearly an entire generation of men affected by PTSD. Going back to my great gran you used to say the Great War 'knocked the stuffing' out of her dad.

You see lots of comments from the unsympathetic 'other generations just got on with it' to the sympathetic 'it's more endemic now

It just made me think. Is it? Or has it always been around we just framed/worded it differently?

Also there is quite a stark difference between traditional physical jobs like farm/mill/service work in the 1950s and the large number of seated/screen based roles today. Both have their issues, however physical work was probably therapeutic to some extent, while the internet has made the world complex with poor fitness levels and exposure to some very dark things

Yes, people had ‘nervous breakdowns’ suffered from ‘nerves’ or if severe ‘went doolally’. The latter would involve ‘men in white coats’ and admission to the local mental hospital.

On the other side people were allowed to be quite eccentric without it being labelled. As long as they weren’t hurting anyone it was fine.

I think we gain and we lose. Drugs have upped the game though. The number of younger people who have mental health issues and have taken drugs is really high. Just say No.

There was an awful lot of alcoholism in my parents' generation. I can remember them just downing whiskey like there was no tomorrow and not in a fun, enjoying themselves way. Several of them died of liver failure.

Both my parents were very angry people and my dad had nightmares from the war until the day he died.

I don't think not talking about their problems helped either of them.

On the other side people were allowed to be quite eccentric without it being labelled. As long as they weren’t hurting anyone it was fine.

This is so true, my uncle clearly by todays medical knowledge had a level of autism which was never recognised or supported at any point in his life.

He worked and managed ok but was generally labelled a bit of an ‘odd nod’ because nobody knew how to deal with him, he was seen about town as generally eccentric.

My gran was never offered any support, none was available back then and she also had a husband with undiagnosed PTSD from WW2.

I often think how hard it must’ve been for her, but at the time there was nothing in terms of diagnosis or support.

‘Odd bod’ - not ‘nod’ although tbh what’s the difference?!

I think there are different stresses.

Far more pressure on children to do well in exams than there was in the past. Uni was pipedream that even if kids could get the grades the families couldn't send them so it didn't actually matter.
There was still big competition for apprenticeships but work was available.

Even for women who lived through the war, raising children alone or lying in bed at night worrying will your son, husband, father come home must have been horrendous. I can see how that extended period of fear could cause long term damage.

I also think we see more MH issues with the Care in Community politics. I wonder how many big mental hospitals were full of people stressed out by the war?

Other than increases obviously linked to widespread events like war, famine, etc. I think mental health problems are probably far more widespread and prevalent than in the past for a number of reasons:

People with problems live in the community instead of being shut away so issues are more visible. Less stigma means things are talked about more.

Society is more aspirational so more disappointment. I don’t look at a lion in the zoo and genuinely feel envy that he doesn’t have to go to work or pay bills. He’s a different species and different rules apply. I imagine in, say, the Victorian era society was so rigidly stratified that there was no chance of change from one level to the other or from a feminine role to a more masculine. A lot of people might have just not had aspirations (which is sad in itself) and therefore felt happier with their lot within quite tight parameters.

I saw something on Twitter that chimed with me the other day. Productivity is based on old white men’s standards from fifty years ago. I think this is particularly relevant to women. We’re expected to go to work and be as productive as men have ever been. The men of the 50s and 60s who set the standard for the modern world generally did no housework or child rearing. Yet we have to be as productive, as happy and worry free while we bear and raise children, run houses (whether shared or as is more likely, taking on the burden), have our bodies go through dramatic changes, care for relatives and all the while fit into masculine stereotypes at the same times as remaining stereotypically feminine and doing it all with a happy carefree smile society seems to want.

Sorry that was very long. It is a complex issue though.