Why mental health is scary to talk about

1 in every 3 days of sick leave in work is from feeling stress, anxiety, depression or insecurity. Between 1/6 and ¼ people in the UK experience mental health problems at some point in their lives. The number of prescriptions for snit-depressant drugs increased from 9 million in 1991 to 34 million in 2007. Though conversations about mental health have grown and become more open since 1991, the increase is far too significant to be just about attitudes changing.

The following poem is one of my favourites that highlights how easy it is for people struggling to go unnoticed.

Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith

Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning.

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Poor chap, he always loved larking

And now he's dead

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,

They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always

(Still the dead one lay moaning)

I was much too far out all my life

And not waving but drowning.

I've been reading ShaunAllan's book Sin over the Christmas holiday, which begins in a mental Asylum. It got me thinking... where does the idea that 'mental patients' are dangerous come from? Are Asylums still a modern day 'thing'; And where does the idea that we should fear them come from? Why are mental health issues STILL surrounded by stigma?

To attempt to answer these questions, I'm looking back to where mental health first started being addressed.

In the 1950's around 150,000 people were committed to Asylums in the UK. At their peak, there were 100 institutions around the country. A common story in this time was that patients were not actually mentally unwell. In many cases, they were abandoned by families or had no one to take care of them in times of mental distress. Though of course there were many people who were genuinely ill and needed help.

Conditions were bad, with huge dormitories, nothing to occupy time, locked doors and limited outside time. Common treatments to 'cure' mental illness were electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy's, considered new science and revolutionary, they were common procedure. Another common treatment was insulin injections, where the patients who needed to 'calm down' were injected with insulin, with the hopes of sending them into a coma where the brain could 'reset' itself and the patient would wake up with a clear mind. Insulin is the substance in your body that eats sugar to keep your blood sugar levels stable. Too much insulin and the body goes into a coma and you are unable to wake up. In 42 cases people died.

The creation of the NHS in the 1948 saw the government include mental health into the treatments that were covered by the new system, making the study and profession of mental health more desirable and legitimate. This sparked the creation and research of new drugs and occupational therapy (literally therapy by occupying the patients time in the day so they were not idle!) But drugs were not available for common use until the 1960's.

In 1959 the new government produced the Mental Health Act which stated that there should be a compassionate approach to treatment. "A new approach to mental sickness, so it is no longer an illness with a stigma, but one which would be treated with the same sympathy and understanding as any other physical disability." (Patricia Hornsby MP)

In 1961 there was a pledge to tear the Asylums down, after the public began to learn about the atrocities and poor treatment of patients in them. However, they remained standing for many more years to come.

In 1969 a BBC documentary found that conditions inside the Asylums were still disturbing. Tablets and medicine developments had meant that by this stage they were being routinely used- alongside the same treatments of the past. Though the tablets are not the same as those that we know of today. Sedative drugs used to calm patients produced a sedation like that of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. They sedate you, but they also make you physically rigid, and physically and mentally slow you down. This was also the time where doctors started experimental brain surgery, in the hopes of 'burning out' problem areas.

At this point the public opinion was beginning to shift to the idea that these Asylums were now becoming a part of the problem, not the solution. The rebellious mood of the 60s in Britain was captured in the drive to shut down the Asylums that were beginning to be viewed as just another arm of the 'establishment' that needed to be brought down.

Though the mid 70s still found the Asylums all open. Only due to the recession that hit the UK did Asylums start to close due to huge health care spending cuts. People started to be slowly removed back into the community to be cared for by there. It was often charities that had to pick up the work of caring for the patients as they often had nowhere to go.

In the 1980's the asylums began to close for good. By 1990 100,000 patients had been discharged to the communities, with psychiatric support. Under the new system there were still beds available in psychiatric hospitals for the very worst cases, but institutional care no longer existed. The 'User

Movement' in the 90's campaigned successfully for patients who were mentally ill to still have a say in their own care and treatment.

But my mother recalls growing up in Wakefield where there was an asylum. The giant walls surrounding the building created a fear of the people inside, and when it was announced that it was being shut down and the patients were being released into the community there was a huge backlash. With the shelter of the asylums gone, old patients had to deal with the stigma held by others of having a mental illness.

In 1992 this stigma became a reality when a recently released psychiatric patient killed someone in London. Panic was sparked, and public perception was changed for the worst. People feared that there were now thousands of people with mental health problems running about that may harm others. With the view of 'safety first' the government passed a law that gave Doctors the powers to force patients to take medication, or risk losing their freedom.

Little has changed since then.

Asylums were demeaning and devaluing places, but the community's patients were released into were- and are- no better.

So, is it any wonder that as a society we are afraid of mental illness?

Firstly, that admitting we have one would lead to a stigma you can't shake off, and that in the very recent past used to end up in becoming sectioned- and secondly, that because of this, Asylums were feared, and therefore those who were inside it were feared too.

It is ingrained in us, due to our history- and every country has a similar story- to fear the mind.

But I leave you with this thought. I was reading a paper today that proposed a new way of looking at mental illness.

What if mental 'problems' were not in fact problems, but human nature? Not to be 'cured'... And if treated as such, would they become accepted?

To end things with a smile, here are some cute puppies.