I, too, think about 'then' versus 'now.' And I also think about 3rd-world countries and how I'm so fortunate to have access to medication and certain life conveniences (such as washing machines), and how bad I feel for those who don't have such access.

Well, no one has a perfect answer for such questions. It's almost as though we all have to go on faith...faith that we are where we need to be at any given time. Or something like that.

As justafriend pointed out, time was many people spent lifetimes in a psychiatric hospital - or were killed for their mental illnesses. And people in history, their lifespan expectancy was so much shorter than ours are.

Sometimes I just thank the universe for having access to psych meds. No, they are not perfect, but when I remember back to what my life was like without meds...it makes me sad...my life would have been much easier, had I had access to meds from a young age.