To think it takes something serious to trigger 2 weeks in a psychiatric hospital?

[SnuckIn]

I found out my mum spent 2 weeks in a psychiatric hospital when I was 2 years old.

i asked my Dad what triggered it he said “stress.”

I think it takes a serious trigger event for someone to go into a psychiatric ward for a fortnight

My mum is long dead btw
AIBU?

Depends a bit on how old you are. It wasn't always a last resort thing, was used as first option for a long time

Ah thank you.

She’d have been around 44 - in the mid 70s

Now yes but depending on how long ago it was i think it was sadly quite common for people to be admitted to hospitals.

I wouldn't read too much into it

My Mum was in and out of psychiatric wards in.the 80/90s with stress and depression. I remember her being admitted when I was 18 for 'a rest'. Today I don't think she would be. Not downplaying what your Mum went through but I think today my Mum wouldn't be admitted to a ward.

I know at least four women who have spent time in in-patient psychiatric care. The threshold for treatment as an in-patient wasn’t as high in the 70s as it is now.

Ah thanks everyone! Hadn’t realised this

Then I'd say no, wouldn't have been something of the level it would now require. Purely a guess but something along the lines of ptsd or postnatal depression would be my first thoughts

Now it would. A long time ago, no.

Women used to be locked up for being promiscuous. Someone I know worked in MH hospitals before care in the community, and there were lifers in there for things like sex outside marriage, teen rebellion, underage pregnancy and non conformity.

Misogyny is still rife in the medical profession but was particularly horrific for women or 'hysterics'. Your husband could get you locked up.

It could have been something minor like being overwhelmed, especially if she was only there for a couple of weeks.

You can't really compare any hospital admission now with 50 years ago, mental health, physical health, childbirth, broken bones or respite. Hospital admissions were easier, quicker and for longer. Hopefully your mum benefited from the opportunity that she had at that time.

Care in the community has backfired spectacularly. Money is being wasted in keeping people in homes of their own that they don't have the ability to maintain. This means that money to treat short term mental overload is not there now where respite care may be appropriate. Your Mum was likely one of the lucky ones.

Two weeks isn’t very long to be in a psychiatric hospital though so it probably was just stress or depression which was quickly treated. Nothing to worry about OP

Can't you ask her?

I've never been in a psychiatric hospital but I could get admitted if I said I needed a break from my caring duties as they were getting on top of me (private hospital, of course).

I also know people who have gone for treatment, help to get on basic medications when they're having trouble.

Two weeks isn't necessarily that long for a psychiatric hospital if it were something serious. But who knows?

There was a teaching assistant at my primary school who went into one voluntarily after her divorce. I only know as my mum knew her because my brother was the same age as one of her kids. I wouldn't have guessed she had any issues, but then I was very young at the time. My mum must've told me years later, probably shouldn't have done as it's private but there you go.

I can't imagine wanting to go into one voluntarily as I don't think it would help me but I guess she was struggling after her divorce and hopefully it helped her. You could do that sort of thing then, very doubtful you could now. My brother has MH issues and the ease at which he was sectioned 25 years ago compared to trying to get him help these days is stark.

Treatment for mental health began to change for the better in the 70's. Don't get me wrong, the dignity and treatment patients received was still a long way away from what we consider acceptable in modern medicine.

But there were still Victorian Asylums in use.

The 70s was a pivotal decade for mental health treatment. More effort went into scientific based evidence for some conditions and research went into how people live day to day with mental illnesses. But some psychiatrists were skeptical that any mental health condition could be managed within the community.

Mental health was still very much seen as a stigma, and people were excluded in society. They were seen as "less than" or uneducated.

People were still being admitted for conditions we would absolutely manage within the community these days. The treatments used were still very poor and destructive. ECT was still in use, as were lobotomies, insulin shock therapy and restraining patients. They were still sedating people who didn't need it, leaving them with no memory and feeling like zombies. Psychiatrists were confrontational and intimidating.

So in answer to your question, your Mum may or may not have needed to be institutionalised. I suspect that spending only two weeks there meant that she wasn't showing signs of anything too severe.

Did your Dad know your Mum in the 70's? If so, just ask more questions.

Lucky?! I hardly think so. Do some research!

My mum had spells in a psych unit and she was very ill indeed by the time she was admitted and admission was always at the point everyone else was at total breaking point. I wouldn’t totally buy the ‘it was just stress and they admitted anyone in the 70s’ version as given your age you’d be looking at the early 80s anyway.

I have quite vivid memories of visiting mine as a 4 year old and how horrible it was. It wouldn’t have been a place someone would have popped in for a rest due to a bit of ‘hysteria’.

Is there any way that you could access the facts of her medical records? Sorry if that's a stupid suggestion for confidentiality reasons.

She's dead.

Women had very few rights in the 70s. It was still legal for a man to rape his wife.

Your dad probably had to sign the committal papers.

An uncle of mine was admitted for six weeks for stress in the late 70s. It sounded brilliant! He was sedated for about 12 hours a day to ensure plenty of sleep, fed very healthy meals, and took long walks around the gardens. He had talking therapy every day. Came out fully recharged. You'd pay a fortune for that nowadays!

@PreferMyAnimals She says in her very first post that her Mum is dead

Many many years ago, my poor nan had 5 children and a husband who by all accounts made my nans life a misery, including affairs in which he ended up leaving my nan for someone else, she ended up having a breakdown, and she had to be admitted to hospital, in which those days someone as in nans case, was her dad, had to sign a paper giving permission to take my nan in and

" treat her" my nan was signed away for 25 years, and as unbeilavable as it sounds they apparently done that to many many people, in which they become, as my nan did, institutionalised, I saw a documentary on the subject and yes it was very real, the hospitals for breakdowns and depression were like prisons, bless her when my aunt was able to get her home, my nan was like a little child, heartbreaking, and all because of the stress of her bastard husband. She had had her own business before all that happened, my great nan and grandad had thankfully money and took all 5 children in, 2 eldest of them my mum and her sister were told they were going to live in Australia for a better life, when it came to it they couldn't do it and kept all 5 together.
Later after I was born my own mum had a breakdown in the 60s and my brother had to sign my mum away but thank god the system had changed and my mum was kept in while having treatment and close eye on her, til she was well enough to come home, I think that's why the hospitals for mental health today have such a bad reputation, but unless you're a danger to yourself or others then you just have medication or counselling, what a difference a century makes, how cruel was it to do this to humans. My nan bless her lived til she was 94, saw 3 of her own 5 children pass away before she left us to.

As everyone else has said. My paternal grandmother spent months in a psychiatric hospital for post natal depression. My father (the oldest of 4 and about 10 at the time) recalls it being about 6 months because he is pretty sure he did a couple of terms in the local primary school. The children were all farmed out between various cousins. Another aunt of mine- now possibly 68 or so spent 2 weeks in a psychiatric hospital because of PND. Then a little later she spent another few weeks in hospital again for PND. I was a child and was told that it was because she had 'trouble breastfeeding and felt low about it'.

Someone else I know - his mother in the early 1960s spent three years in a psychiatric hospital which was first triggered by PND after her third was born. He and his siblings lives with his grandparents.

I certainly think it was more common. Normal women's reactions to the stresses of life were often seen to be something fearful and shameful and they needed to be medicated or hospitalised or imprisoned out of it.

As other PP have said the trigger for an inpatient stay was much lower. However, be wary of vague terms such as "stress" "nerves" etc, because serious mental health conditions were also stigmatised back then.
My own grandmother spent stints in institutions for "nerves" which was actually either bipolar or scizophrenia, we found out after she passed away from her younger brother.