Mental Disorders?

Question

I have to write some journal entries about a common person who lives with a mental illness. This person has to be in the time period before 1950. It has to be a made up journal entry that shows how these people suffered in this time. Any ideas? Any help to get started?
-I can write many journal entries of different days, or one long one about a period of time told in one day.
thnks

Answer 1

You could write about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This is a disorder that has existed no matter what zeitgeist people are living in - so it would be a good one to do b/c you could make it fit w/ any time period.
Look up common symptoms of OCD and embed them in the journal entries.
It would also work well b/c since those w/ OCD have obsessive thoughts over certain things, it would be easy to show this just by bringing it up a lot in the journal entries and speaking excessively over things that wouldn't be important to someone else.
It would be easier, too, b/c people with OCD are not (always) completely insane, so it would not be as difficult to write a journal entry from the perspective of someone who is not completely crazy.

To get you started, here is some background information about OCD:

It is an anxiety disorder where one experiences obsessive thoughts and/or compulsions over certain aspects of one's life.
These obessive thoughts cause anxiety b/c these thoughts are so exessive they interfere w/ one's life and cause stress. Those w/ OCD tend to be perfectionists, so it is also stressful for them if things are not done exactly as they want.

Common compulsions are: constant hand-washing, counting everything one does during the day, avoiding stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, and constant obession over cleanliness (such as one's kitchen floor, entire home, or self). Anorexia Nervosa is common among those with OCD b/c of obsession over food and b/c if a distorted body image exists, they want a 'perfect body' and go to extremes for this. (Anorexics themselves tend to be perfectionists.)

GOOD LUCK!

p.s. - movies where a character has OCD: Matchstick Men, As Good As It Gets, The Aviator

Answer 2

Times were so different back then for mental health issues. People were labeled harshly and often ignored. "Hardening of the arteries" was blamed for senility. That now is Alzheimer's disease. Children and adults were often locked in a room so the rest of society would not see the family's disgrace. People were also placed in filthy, unsanitary, infested institutions and used for experimental drugs or treatments such as "shock". Delayed learning and deafness was also considered a mental illness. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Right now our social justice group is working on fundraising ideas so we can place a memorium in cemetaries where mental health patients were buried without family or friend in attendance and in unmarked graves.

For more information, try contacting a mental health nurse or volunteer network. I am sure they will have more factual information than I could provide. Good luck with your project.

Answer 3

veterans with ptsd