How did bipolar people live long, long ago?

I often try to picture that.

I understand that creativity, depression (used to be called dejection, despondence, melancholy, among other terms), suicidality, dark thoughts, feeling on top of the world, anxiety, impulsivity, rage and irritability, dysphoria and euphoria are states that do not depend much on how we live in the modern world.

But what about shopping sprees? Say, if you were a bipolar person living on a farm and producing your own food and sewing or mending your own clothes, where would that spree impulse take you?

I also understand that some of the stressors of the modern lifestyles and some of its aspects are conducive to bipolar - e.g. most of us (except for those living on Manhattan without a car) do not have exercise built into their routines by way of necessity - we have to commit to exercising instead. If you have to walk a mile to get drinking water, there is your minimum exercise and you do not have to even think about it. So to the extent to which exercise relieves depression and anxiety, the rural living was better. There was less sensory stimulation... no noisy stores... etc.

but still, the illness is powerful and we know that it was present in the past. I have not yet red Touched with Fire, but it is partly about how bipolar was experienced in the past.

And there were no medications.

So what did people do to channel that hypomanic energy in the absence of stores? Did they take on many crafts projects only to abandon them when hypomanic state would subside?

Or the impulse to start risky ventures. Say, an Egyptian slave could not start any ventures. So how did the symptoms manifest in a slave?

Does anybody else wonder out loud about that?

When I was pregnant with my daughter Julia, there was a problem during the pregnancy that would have necessitated a C-section. The problem resolved by itself shortly before term and I delivered vaginally. But during those months when I thought I would NEED a C-section (not opt for one, but NEED), I realized that had I lived a long time ago in a rural area, I would have had only a few months left to live.

I guess after that I am given to speculating about how I or other people I know, under different circumstances, would have lived if born in the past.

Interesting. I think hypo/mania in times before birth control and accepted sex outside of marriage would lead to a lot of men married to bipolar women thinking they had more children than they actually did, haha.

I think psychosis probably looked pretty similar. I'd imagine that paranoia probably had a more religious bent, rather than being about the FBI or the police.

It would probably be hard to go days on end without sleep if you live in a one-room cabin with your entire family in your bed, but maybe bipolar people waited for everyone to sleep and then got up and walked around outside?

I, too, thought of sleepless nights. But some civilizations had marijuana, which works pretty well for sleep.

I see the point about the religious bent of paranoia.

More broadly, religion could mask psychosis well - maybe some of the stories about miracles within the narratives of religion are accounts told by people who experienced psychosis.

I'm not sure they lived long enough to worry about it....if you only make it to 25 or 30 and are considered old maybe they just attributed it to dementia like we do with our elders today?

Its Interesting to me that we essentially exempt a group of people from rational thought just due to age.

I'm thinking the manic impulse would lead to chopping wood or hunting or something else productive just because there was so little to do.....there was likely a seasonality to it with planting and other farmwork in the spring and more depression in the winter.

A manic woodchopper? I can see that.

There are also activities (seasonal, as you said) that would go well with "sprees" - e.g. canning.

Another thing is that what we now call hobbies and crafts are essentially meditative and grounding, so that must have been a good mental exercise.

WIKIPEDIA has a long list of BP people as well as other list on the internet. Vincent Van Gogh - artist and Ernest Hemingway - writer are there. Among them many more such as Robin Williams. Many BP people are indeed creative. But I can only guess many years back, everyone just did not have a long life span. Probably many more health issues, diseases, and pledges. Early people, I can only guess, did not have the tools of recent history, and probably spent their time trying to survive working with animals and crops. When in depression or racing like crazy, I could not guess what happened. Not too long ago they were placed into mental institutions to rot out the rest of their lives being treated in unspeakable ways. If they were not already crazy, I think they went that direction. As I recall, correctly or not, all a family member had to do is get them taken away to such places where they may never have been released. I think many were put through untold horror. I also read it was cold as hell with little beading or clothing. Book I read - "Ten days in a crazy house." The lady who went in there was not crazy, but a reporter, and said even the sane was there. There was zero real help offered to anyone inside. No hope at all. She helped change laws years ago.

Interesting post-my Mom recently sent me a bunch of old family letters dating back to late 1800s-both sides of her family were a little...quirky to sat the least. I read through a stack of her maternal grandfather's letters & he seemed to have been very paranoid & possibly schizophrenic from most of these writings. There were also many references from her maternal side about all types of "female aliments" called hissys, fits, nervy spells & long periods of melancholy-think about going through all those things & your day to day life & no therapy meds or even a remote understanding of what was wrong-wow. There were also 2 female relatives who "took to the bed" for many years from "nervous constitution". Makes for fascinating reading & makes me feel very blessed to live now with all the support & education available.

That would make for a very interesting read!

I think a lot of illnesses, both physical and mental, were self-medicated with alcohol. There is a huge number of alcoholics in past generations of my family anyway.

They were sent to the asylum..................
Ever watch the beginning of the movie Amadeus?
I feel like I belong there right now

Oh yes, that's it. The simple answer was they would have put us in the nut house. I think we'd have been classified as "lunatics" in England. On the census forms I think they had a tick box for "lunatic".

Great thread!

My maternal grandmother died at 43. She was described by some as being the life of the party, teaching my uncles how to do the twist and sneaking them drinks, etc. The years before she died, however, she "took to her bed," seldom coming out to cook or clean, ignoring my mother, drinking constantly. Everyone said she had a broken heart, because her sons both went to Vietnam. Her mood picked up in the last month when she decided to make my mom a graduation dress, sewing around the clock, never sleeping. She died of a massive heart attack. No one acknowledged that she might have been mentally ill. Sad, really.

I would imagine people who were seen as outside the norm, creatives, inventors leaders, might have had hypomanic episodes. Town drunks, eccentric witches who lived at the edges of town, might have been depressed. The rest were probably locked away, or driven out of town, or exorcised. And many others were probably never recognized as ill, but suffered in silence. Or dare I dream that there was once a time when any eccentricities were not pathologised and were simply accepted as part of the range of human emotion and experience. I think modern pressures and requirements of conformity contribute greatly to bipolar being classified as a disease state.

Great post! Really makes me think!

Imagine if all the forms nowadays had that tick box. We'd be screwed.

Totally. I did some research into my family history and they also had the delightful category of "idiot since birth". That was the category my great uncle was placed in when he was admitted to the "lunatic asylum".

Will have to keep my eyes open for that category as I am certain it will turn up during my perusal of family documents-wonder if my mom wrote that down beside my name...hmmmmm.

They probably clubbed each other over the head when they had angry mania

"idiot since birth". I know a few of those. But seriously, how would they classify a baby an idiot? We've come a long way since then. Well, not a LOOONG way, but we live in better circumstances.

They were the ones thought to be demonically possessed.

Hellboy

Great question.
First thing that popped into my head was risk takers...is that how running with the Bulls started? Someone in a manic episode and thought , Hey great idea..and the guys standing around thought, hey that looks like fun.

I don't think slaves lived long if they didn't do what they should. I think economic status was hugely imporatant in deciding if your actions were those of a lunatic or eccentric.

A stong minded woman or one who questioned status quo could be locked up by he father, husband or son. Women didn't necessarily have to accually have an illness to get sent to the asylum.

In some cultures the mentaly ill were thought to be possessed by evil and tortured other cultures thought they spoke for the gods treated them with respect. I know which culture I'd rather be born in.

Oh right, shopping sprees, maybe they ran around and collected leaves, twigs started building something then ran off to gather some more stuff to build something different or they just took off to explore beyond the boundaries, Marco polo anyone?

Can we all appreciate that "Patsy Cline" is replying to a thread on being "crazy?"

Maybe it was manic people who went around building the stone henges?

Hundreds of years ago it was a struggle to just live day to day, If someone was an "odd bird" the family handled it and if they had no family or were turned out , they likely died from lack of food or exposure. I do think its possible when you are faced with "get up and function or you will not eat or have a fire to stay warm type things , more people did get up and do things that had to be done.. do it or die... would be a good motivator I think.

Once hospitals showed up many people got tossed in there, but poor family's could not just drop there family members off , yes money talked back then too. Families also use to keep private things private and they often kept "odd birds" outta sight..

I feel there in a much higher % of people with MI now as opposed to then. All the processed foods, chemical treated preservitives and god knows what genetic alterations with crops and animals, soil contaminated with who knows what , etc

I am convinced that these things have caused a rise in MI. I will never change my mind on that fact.

I remember one of my episodes planting potatoes in moonlight. Probably they did just something like that

Reading this reminds me of a recent movie "Rocks in my pockets". Exactly about what you write - do it or die, and keep the odd out of family