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Original poster

To wonder what people did before antidepressants?

146 replies

dottypotter · 02/01/2023 21:33

Don't know how long anti depressants have been around for depression and anxiety etc, but what happened before they were invented does anyone wonder?
Did people go mad?
Put up with it, but never get better.
Did their depression etc just go away. Intrigued.

OP posts:
TeaAndToastest · 02/01/2023 22:14

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancholia

Messyhair321 · 02/01/2023 22:14

Families & communities were closer back when & although this probably wasn't always a good thing for some people it provided a support which sometimes can help with potential mental health issues.

It was fairly normal before the welfare state when children lost their parents that the neighbours would take the children on. This happened to my gran & her siblings.

My gran (born 1908) had quite severe mental health issues. She was a perpetual bag of nerves but there was no medication - I'd say she just about functioned so wasn't as unwell as some, but still noticeable even to me back then as a child.

She coped to some degree but eventually deteriorated, started hallucinating & saying there were people everywhere. She went into a hospital for people with these issues & never came out. Overall I think she had a said life.

NestingSparrow · 02/01/2023 22:16

Yes ECT is a very good treatment, very good for rapid improvement of severe depression.
IP in the last depressed people sadly often committed suicide, were put in asylums or hidden away in their beds.
Antidepressants saved my life, we are so lucky to have them.

girlfriend44 · 02/01/2023 22:17

NestingSparrow · 02/01/2023 22:16

Yes ECT is a very good treatment, very good for rapid improvement of severe depression.
IP in the last depressed people sadly often committed suicide, were put in asylums or hidden away in their beds.
Antidepressants saved my life, we are so lucky to have them.

When did tablet's appear I wonder?

lifeinthehills · 02/01/2023 22:22

MajesticWhine · 02/01/2023 22:11

Nah. Antidepressants are taken by a wide range of people including those with a mild or moderate problem. 14.7% of the population in England took an antidepressant in 2021/22. A very tiny percentage in comparison would have been institutionalised in the days before antidepressants.

Show quote history

Those people just 'got on with it'. Or self medicated somehow. Chances are feelings were dismissed and they were told to toughen up.

NannyGythaOgg · 02/01/2023 22:27

Mummy's little helpers aka valium in the 50s/60 (as taken by my mum), followed by amphetamines 60s/70s (as taken by my much elder sister. Then 'old fashioned ADs such as amitriptyline
Prior to valium it was 'gin'. And many still self medicate with alcohol.

Amitriptyline was available in the 50s but not often prescribed by GPs only by psychiatrists.

JamSandle · 02/01/2023 22:28

As mentioned...drink, asylums, have a breakdown. Werent there also lots of mamas little helper drugs?

EmmaEmerald · 02/01/2023 22:28

MorrisZapp · 02/01/2023 21:38

Took to their beds with 'nerves'

Yes, I think this would have been me 25 years ago if anti-depressants didn't exist. I reckon I'd have done that, lived with my parents and then found a way to off myself.

Onnabugeisha · 02/01/2023 22:29

MajesticWhine · 02/01/2023 22:11

Nah. Antidepressants are taken by a wide range of people including those with a mild or moderate problem. 14.7% of the population in England took an antidepressant in 2021/22. A very tiny percentage in comparison would have been institutionalised in the days before antidepressants.

Show quote history

But a higher % were institutionalised then than are now.

EmmaEmerald · 02/01/2023 22:34

Onnabugeisha · 02/01/2023 22:29

But a higher % were institutionalised then than are now.

Show quote history

That's what I thought!

I know when SSRIs came into widespread use, shrinks in America said they had patients who had been going round in circles with the same problems for ages, and SSRIs stopped the circling and they began to move forward with their lives.

I could not have had any kind of career without SSRIs though I do also love Valium for sleep. I'd prefer a z drug but all the good stuff is restricted.

JamSandle · 02/01/2023 22:35

EmmaEmerald · 02/01/2023 22:28

Yes, I think this would have been me 25 years ago if anti-depressants didn't exist. I reckon I'd have done that, lived with my parents and then found a way to off myself.

Show quote history

I think this would be me also. Medication has helped save me.

GordonShakespearedoesChristmas · 02/01/2023 22:37

Died.
Locked up in asylums/ psychiatric hospitals
Suffered horrifically
What do you think happened?
It's like saying what did people with diabetes do before insulin.
They died.
What's your point?

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 02/01/2023 22:40

Took Laudanum - it was widely available in 18 /19th Centuries.

WhatDoYouWantNow · 02/01/2023 22:45

People used to -

commit suicide (many still do)
end up in Psychiatric institutes (many still do)
self-medicate with alcohol and/or drugs (many still do)

Namaste6 · 02/01/2023 23:11

@MorrisZapp yep.

Puffin87 · 02/01/2023 23:13

They don't work for everyone. I tried them for over a decade - every SSRI that existed - with no benefit.

Onnabugeisha · 02/01/2023 23:15

Puffin87 · 02/01/2023 23:13

They don't work for everyone. I tried them for over a decade - every SSRI that existed - with no benefit.

That is true, did you see the psychedelic mushroom studies?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63475630

There may be something for you in the near future. Fingers crossed 🤞

trythisforsize · 02/01/2023 23:16

drank gin
took laudanum
became hermits
got used and abused
died of self neglect/harm
became artists/poets

Sugarplumfairy65 · 02/01/2023 23:21

My mother in law suffered from pnd back in the 1950's and was sent for some kind of electric shock treatment. She was so traumatized by it that she was on valium for the rest of her life.

justasking111 · 02/01/2023 23:26

LivingOnAPrayerYes · 02/01/2023 21:48

Just talking about a great aunt over Christmas who would go for electric shock 'therapy' for her depression. (40 to 50ish years ago)

My MIL had PND 1951 she did spend time in a home and they wanted her to have electric shock therapy. FIL said no. She was an alcoholic after that until the age of 64 when after a hospital scare she never drank again

DatasCat · 02/01/2023 23:26

Read a biography of Virginia Woolf. Her life story is a sad one of breakdowns, revolving ‘rest cures’ based around confinement and overfeeding, culminating in suicide. The first wife of one of Woolf’s contemporaries, TS Eliot, was also bipolar. Eliot found it so horrific he left her - it didn’t reflect well on him, but neither had much in the way of support.

justasking111 · 02/01/2023 23:28

My granny a nurse during the war said afterwards people fell apart in the peace. Home bombed, food shortage still. Many many suicides

Staffielove23 · 02/01/2023 23:29

Suicide unfortunately 😢

GinoVino · 02/01/2023 23:30

People killed themselves. Or they were put into asylums, given lobotomies or murdered. Especially women.

FlorenceAndTheVendingMachine · 02/01/2023 23:30

Well, some people would've no doubt fallen between the cracks, but SSRIs etc aren't really known for being that effective in all honesty.

Exercise is always shown to be equally effective in studies and in past generations people were far more active and physically fit. There wasn't any Netflix, PlayStation, or even television going back a few generations.

I remember reading an article about a study of 17 million Americans and the long term outlook of those with depression was no different between the groups who took medication and those who didn't.