African American Mental Illness

Throughout time mental illness has been looked upon in numerous ways from people. The time period in history can tell us a lot about the ways people were living and how they believed behavior affected certain mental illnesses. In my writing I will describe a man who is mentally ill during the early 1700’s. I will also describe an African American in a Georgia asylum and also a middle-class woman in a water treatment spa in upstate New York. I will detail what each of these individuals does on a daily basis such as their hygiene, what kind of clothing they wear and also how the person may interact with others. I will also analyze the person’s behavior and why they are deemed as mentally ill. I will also include what kind of treatment a person …show more content…
Neurasthenia was often classified as an illness that was mostly associated with middle-class women as well as upper-class women. This illness according to the University of Virginia “The best educated, most cultured Americans were suffering from a new, distinctly American condition that was destroying their health. They had migraines, poor digestion, fatigue, depression, and even complete mental collapse in alarming numbers. They suffered from neurasthenia – nervous exhaustion.” The belief about this person’s mental illness was that she had a breakdown from all of the pressure in life. Perhaps it was too big of a burden being an important figure in the household. Working in a stressful environment and having too much success could attribute to neurasthenia. Mental fatigue and muscle weakness was a big part of this illness. Doctors and people of this time may think it was a normal case of another woman with a weak nervous system. Bed rest was very important in order to help cure this condition. The rest would help heal the muscles and also being in the water to relieve muscle pain. Sometimes the water would be freezing cold or extremely …show more content…
The local town doctor would provide natural herbs in order to try and help cure the mental illness. This was one diagnosis that they had for mentally ill people. These concoctions perhaps possessed something that was supernatural as mentioned by author Albert Deutsch. It was very difficult as real doctors were not around in colonial times. Anyone from the town could learn about herbs and prescribe them as medicine or to try and cure mental illnesses. This made it extremely difficult to cure