Bedlam | The Shocking History Behind Bethlem Hospital, London's First Mental Asylum

Comments · 658

• DK

  @dk6723_2 · 2 years ago

  Having lived with a chronic mental illness for most of my life, I&apos;ve always been acutely aware of the horrors my predecessors had to endure. Now that I am well, I try to smile twice as much each day, I try to take the rough moments with as much grace and gratitude for my freedom as I can, I try to be twice as grateful for the opportunity to be content, and well, and happy, that I have. Our NHS now is not far off Bedlam at its worst, frankly - if you are physically ill, it&apos;s brilliant, but if you have a mental illness, both the system <b>and</b> the people who work in it are callous beyond description.

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• ST

  @Steve-ys1ig · 2 years ago

  It is actually nice to hear of the Doctors who genuinely cared and tried to help the patients (even though by today&apos;s standards the treatments may have been crude or useless) instead of just hearing about the horror stories we normally hear about Bedlam.

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• JO

  @josephjones1527 · 2 years ago

  You need your own show on the History Channel! You make every story so interesting you need to be made mainstream and broadcast to millions

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• RI

  @richdorak1547 · 2 years ago

  Man is capable of such cruelty. &nbsp;Truly heartbreaking story .

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• DI

  @Dionaea_floridensis · 2 years ago

  I worked as a nursing assistant in a middle-tier nursing home for old folks with dementia. We&apos;d often receive new residents from low-end nursing homes and often the state they&apos;d be in would leave our nursing staff apoplectic. Malnourished, given the wrong meds, left to sit on their waste. Appalling

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• RO

  @robinrobyn1714 · 2 years ago

  I&apos;m a Yank, and here in the United States, we use the term &apos; bedlam &apos;, to signify a loud, unruly, situation. I can remember, us kids, being boisterous and someone walking into the room, exclaiming -&apos; It&apos;s bedlam in here!!!&apos;

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• KE

  @keithadams1538 · 2 years ago

  You are right Kevin people don&apos;t change. 20 generations takes us back to the medieval period.

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• GR

  @greenghoul157 · 2 years ago

  As someone who&apos;s always been struggling with mental health my heart goes out to the people who were institutionalised in asylums like Bedlam, I can&apos;t imagine the suffering of those poor innocent souls, wonderful storytelling as always

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• GO

  @Goldengirl48 · 1 year ago

  As a nurse, I have worked in both the mental health wards ( locked wards) and the skilled &nbsp;nursing homes. Many of the people who are in these places are there because families are either unable to cope with their family members or even &nbsp;unwilling to take care of them. The fear of them is very real. The person is unable to care for themselves and are sometimes mentally unstable. Mental health care has come a long way, but it still has not addressed the stigma of being diagnosed as mentally ill. If they are released to fend for themselves in a world that still does not understand nor accept the person who has mental health issues, they struggle to survive in a very fear ridden world. Working with patients who have complex mental health issues can be both challenging and rewarding. There seems to be no real middle ground between in-patient care and out-patient recovery. There is a missing link. There still is a lot of work still to be done to understand the human mind.

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• JO

  @jodieg6318 · 2 years ago

  Bedlam and mental health in the Middle Ages is one of my special interests because I think the concept of mental health is something we take for granted like it emerged fully formed in modern times when it has a very long and very complicated history in both medical and social terms. <br><br>In terms of the Medieval the idea I find most interesting is that mental issues were treated either as &nbsp;physical ailment like the flu or a spiritual one in that madness being caused by a tormenting spirit; &nbsp;it&apos;s something elves/fairies are infamous for doing in many folklores around the world. Elf-shot, being struck by an elf&apos;s arrow is where the term &apos;stroke&apos; comes from and in many a medical document the symptoms of a stroke are often attributed to a magical ailment. For me those kinds details just remind me how far back the idea of mental illness/health goes.

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• RI

  @Richard-fv7rq · 2 years ago

  Poor lot, we’re in a bad state mentally and treated terribly 😮

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• CH

  @christinebutler7630 · 2 years ago

  I used to teach some.of this history to my undergrad students in Psych 101 classes, who came in so very righteous about the evils of &quot;medicalizing&quot; mental illness and decrying the use of medications to treat severe chronic mental illness.<br>Meds were the game changers that allowed people with psychotic disorders to live outside the walls for the first time in centuries.

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