way back when you were not able to speak about your problems it was a snap out of it attitude, it was there belive me but in those days we would be locked up in a nut house if we said how we felt, it went on alot i bet its better to be around now is widley excepted now as a mental illness, but one that alot of people suffer with meds help you able to cope with teh thoughts and there are not highly addicted now, ages back valium was given highly addictive.

You know I do remember one thing my grandmother told me "If the world was an open book, one glimps of it would drive you insane" Maybe thats how she looked at things, out of sight out of mind.

Yep, back in the day we would all have met up in the mental institutions around the globe. God in britain they even put women who were suffering from postnatal depression away, some of those never seen the light of day again. Members of my family have also suffered from anxiety and depression but as they were the generation above me, they again were told just to pull themselves together and get on with things. Also families never used to communicate they way that they are begining to now, they would always have kept their mental problems to themselves to save being stygmatised, thank goodness we live in the times that are begining to change all that!! (i hope)

Sometimes I think maybe it is hereditary. My mother had it and now myself and both my sisters live with anxiety. Maybe our mother's reactions to anxiety bestowed it upon us. I often think if I lived a hundred years ago however, that the stresses from society and my environment would not impact me as strongly as they do today.

Oh I assure you, it was very well known about "back then". Have you ever seen the bio movie on the actress named Francis Farmer? If not, I suggest you rent it. She didn't necessarily have "anxiety" or "panic disorder".............. I don't know exactly what was wrong with her, in fact, I think it was her more her mother......... but you can see from that movies from the 1930's how women were treated in mental hospitals.

My maternal grandmother was committed in 1932 to a state mental hospital. She developed pneumonia within 2 weeks and died at the age of 26. Personally I think she was overdosed with thorazine.

Her sister, my great-aunt, was committed to the same hospital 2 years later. She was a ripe ole' age of 22. The reason my great-aunt was committed was due to "promiscuity" which I understand "can" be a symptom of bi-polar. Or maybe there was nothing wrong with her, who knows. All I know is that she was there for 5 years. In the 1930's once committed, if you were single woman and did not have a father or a husband to take "custody" of you, you would be there for life. My great-aunt had neither. She died of a liver disease after being there for 5 years. I had to do a lot of research and find the old transcripts, and then made a trip up there as my great-aunt's body was never even claimed. She was buried there.

This "cemetery" was one of the most dismal things you've ever seen. It mimics an unknown military cemetery except instead of white pretty headstones, it had old gray cracked ones. Each one had a number on it. Luckily, they had kept good files of who was buried in which number. I had taken an old antique metal cemetery basket of flowers and had long spikes to put it into the ground. I never even knew this woman existed until about 5 years ago when I started researching my background to see where this might've come from. I had no idea. There was that sad sad cemetery and I left her with beautiful colorful flowers. I whispered to her that someone had finally come to see her and that I was sorry it took me so long. At that very moment, a white feather came down from the sky and fell onto the flowers. A sign? I don't know but it's something that I will never forget.

I know during my research that back then it was considered "evil". If you acted even just a little different from what was considered "normal", you were committed. I believe that my great-aunt just sort of danced to the tune of her own drummer. She was born before her time. She wasn't your typical "leave it to beaver" woman and because of it, she was committed by a judge to the state mental hospital where she stayed for 5 years and died.

As for my grandmother, on her death certificate it said that she was schizophrenia. Were they right? Who knows.............. I don't believe it. "Family" from then don't talk about it because the elders still believe it to be "evil". My grandmother was not buried IN the family cemetery, she was burned OUTSIDE of it because she was "evil". All I really know about her is she had a 3 year old son (my uncle), and then was pregnant with my mother. She evidently was very sick during the pregnancy with my mother and remained so after her birth. They kept sending her to the country quack and Lord only knows what she was being treated with. When my mother was only 8 mos old, my grandmother was finally taken to the closest hospital. She had an infection which they claimed they cured, but then sent her straight to the mental hospital. So my belief is, she had whatever kind of infection for at least over a year, and it finally caused her to develop brain damage or whatever.

I researched all this, ordered transcripts, visited with those that still lived in the area that were still alive and none of it painted a pretty picture. Those that are/were still alive that remembered either one might as well have just slammed the door in my face. They didn't want to talk about it. It was a true "evil stigma" back then and those that didn't have it, they fear (even now) that if they talk about it, they will be cursed or a lot of them told me that some things are better left unknown. I kept hitting dead ends and after about a year finally had to give up.

So it was known about, it was suffered by women, but if the had strong supported families, it was hidden from others. If they didn't, they ended up where my grandmother and great-aunt did.

Watch the Francis Farmer movie. See how women were treated in mental hospitals back then. Francis Farmer finally was forced to have a lobotomy. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't one of the Kennedy daughters also given a lobotomy??

So yeah............ we've come a long way, but based on health insurance acceptance, society acceptance, research, life insurance acceptance, there still remains a stigma.

Thanks to this site,we are able to talk about generations that have suffered from this illness, and sometimes makes it easier to understand WHY US??? Thanks for the replies and god bless.

maybe they just didnt talk like we do back in the old days. i reckon my nanna had 'issues' she died last year,was in her 80's an although we were quite close, there were things we never talked bout an thinking back she had some strange ways! there was a row of shops bout 15 seconds walk away from her home, and inthe 13 or so years she lived there she never went to those shops! if when she was taking clothes out of the washer, she wud drop an item on the floor, even if the floor had just been mopped, she wud put that item back in the laundry, cos it wud be 'dirty'! stuff like that, an she was so nervous an seemed to avoid talking to people; neighbors, an going to functions an stuff - she never knew bout my anxiety problems, it wud hav worried her sick, so we kept it from her. but i wonder now shes gon, did she have some of the same stuff as me going on? but just never sed anything??? maybe she felt at times like she was 'going mad' (like we do!) an was scared to say anything for fear of being locked up! cos lets face it, if we hadnt had it drilled into us that we wer ok an not cracking up! the men in white coats wud av come for us ages ago!!

Here's a link to Francis Farmer's lifestory, but you really need to see the movie:

http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/frances/index.htm

Scary. I definitely have a "defiant and rebellious will"............ I call it INDEPENDENCE.