Mental Health Care Treatments Past to Present

Life for women in the 1800’s was a certain dull and aggravating thing I assume. They had to be cautious and quiet, and they always had to work hard, and they definitely had to be respectful of their husbands or fathers. If they didn’t they faced the threat of being put in the insane asylums. Some women were put in the asylums for something like not being submissive enough, others were locked away for depression (See Emma Riches post), and alcoholism. Something that I find very shocking is the fact that women would get locked up for menopause! Can you imagine that if you are a woman? Its not something that you can prevent, you can try to hide it and I expect women in the 1800’s did so to their very best ability but yet what if the man of the house came across it and figured something was wrong and had her sent away? That’s crazy!  The doctors can somewhat be to blame for them all going to the asylum in the first place, the doctors had no idea how to deal with the problems so the solution was the asylum.

Many woman who actually were sane and were put in the asylums lived the rest of their lives in cold,dirty quarters if they were among the many that stayed and died there. The asylum was a place that held only things needed to provide life and those things were the ones that provided a very poor life. The food was not a very hearty, healthy meal. The rooms they were kept in were cold, and the asylum wasn’t a place that radiated cleanliness. Sickness was something that moved rapidly and violently through the asylums.

So when you look at it women had a higher chance of getting put in an asylum than men did.

Citation

Sansone, Tina. “Women and the Insane Asylum.” Tennessee Genealogical Society. TN Genealogy Society. Web. 13 Feb 2014. .