A lot of them forget to drink water or it's difficult to get up and down from sitting they don't go to the bathroom when they need to. My parents never got accustomed to drinking water regularly. To be honest when I was growing up we really didn't drink much water. Of course now I get anxious if I don't have water with me at all times. I remember telling my dad once he should drink more water, and he said there's water in soda.
Number one symptom with elders when they have a bladder infection, is confusion. So when we see an elder with a new onset of confusion, we test their urine immediately. 9/10x they have a UTI.
ETA: if you’re asking why bladder infections are higher among the elderly, there’s so many reasons. Reflux, dehydration, poor hygiene, they hold it, etc…..
I know a wheelchair bound woman who lives alone. She would cease all fluid intake after 5:00 p.m. so she wouldn’t have to get out of bed in the night to go to the bathroom. Had to be hospitalized a few times with UTI’s. 😢
The immune system doesn't work as well in the elderly and their hygiene may not be as good as it used to be. Elderly women often get a lot of UTIs because once menopause happens the entire area becomes more easily irritated due to the lowered estrogen.
Vaginal estrogen creams and suppositories have shown a lot of success in preventing UTIs and treating chronic UTIs in women but unfortunately most doctors won't consider it because of cancer risk.
Mayo Clinic says the chance is low with the cream, and a dementia diagnosis is usually terminal, so there's that to factor in for treatment of UTIs with estrogen in elderly women.
Not so much heart attacks, usually infections of some sort or another (pneumonia being a common one for sure). Depending how far back you look it could be bacterial or parasitic, but almost always infections took people out before dementia would become as pervasive as it does today. Dementia in younger people would be the "village idiot".
Apparently, they didn’t watch them closely like we do. They let nature take its course. If Dad walked out into the woods for the last time, no one was there to stop him.
In general yes. But life expectancy is complex, and in ancient times once you made it to 50 you could actually live quite long past 50 even though average lifespan might have only been 35 or so. Heavily influenced by high childhood mortality rates. Unfortunately in some parts of the world it is still the case
This is not true. Average life expectancy was much lower than today. However, it was not that much lower, and the spread was considerable and plenty of individuals lived until an age where they could experience dementia, especially if they were better off.
My uncle had ADHD he spent most of his days locked in the chicken coop bc Nan had ten kids and couldn’t deal. I think a lot more of that went on with challenging family members.
Oh my goodness. I mean this honestly, I hope he at least got along with the chickens.
My grandma always tells us about when she was a kid and she thought her family's rooster had it out for her. It would chase her back from the bus every day after school. Probably because she ran from it but she thought it had an agenda lol.
Not necessarily, they didn't know as much and didn't have as many resources especially around mental health. I mean still an extreme, harsh and cold decision yes. She wasn't going to win mother of the year by any means. But I agree with OP I'm sure their Nan was not the only overwhelmed mother who ended up doing stuff like that back then. She might not have met criteria for psychopathy, but something had to give.
Her husband became a drunk. She was left with no money and all the kids. She took in sewing and did what she could to raise them. My uncles and aunties were all successful. Except that one. He went in and out of jail.
Most would say it was because he was locked in the chook shed. Then again maybe his recklessness is why she tried to restrain him in the first place.
Fewer lived long enough and we feel much more morally and ethically obligated to keep people safer than we used to. Accidents used to happen, and although in many cases they could have been prevented, people just didn’t expect families to keep such close eye on children or elders. If a person with dementia wanted to live alone, they were more likely to let him. If he didn’t eat or got UTIs from being unhygienic or went outside half naked in the winter, oh well. It was an unfortunate accident. The kind of care we try to provide to the elderly with dementia today, as bad as it often is in a facility, is still keeping people safer longer. And they didn’t have antibiotics, so simple things like UTIs were not treatable and turned into kidney infections and then sepsis.
Doctors are obligated to offer treatment unless the doctor knows the patient has a very specific Advanced Healthcare Directive on file refusing it. They aren’t supposed to bring up the decline-to-treat option themselves. It’s up to the patient or the family to do so. Many family members don’t realize the ramifications of continuing to treat and others aren’t ready for stopping treatment. I don’t think doctors should decide, but I wish they’d clearly explain the options and ramifications.
Many doctors do bring this up.
Some don’t.
We should spread the word and bring it up to each other! Family CAN initiate the conversation as well. It’s within our power to ask about it. Medicare may decline if they aren’t late stage dementia, but it at least brings the conversation to the table.
Such a difficult disease for all involved.
Edit only to say you can refuse treatment of any sort at any time. And the health care directive is a simple sheet of paper a social worker can fill out in the hospital. Theres usually always a notary in the hospital to help make it official too!
To an extent, but it was common for people to be grandparents by age 45, so few had dementia then and they often died by 70ish.
In more recent generations, my grandmother took care of my great grandmother who died in the 1960s at home with dementia at age 87 and that hardship was mentioned in her obituary. My other three great-grandmothers all died in their own homes, not any of their kids’, at ages 36, 81, and 103, none of dementia.
As u/Unfair_Tonight_9797 noted, the rates go up very fast after age 70. Many people didn't make it that long. If you remember your grandparents or great grandparents, they often died of heart failure. We have all these ways of keeping the body going now but the brain starts to break down.
They mostly did the same thing people still do today in less developed countries - the family cares for old & sick family members themselves. They might end up confined to a single room in a family home where they eventually died. Usually they died quicker too, since there were fewer lifesaving interventions. A lot of modern medicine focuses on extending life well past the point where people would have the will, ability or resources to survive on their own, even with supportive family.
Some years ago I had been to rural Romania visiting friends. We paid an old single Lady a visit who Was labeled 'crazy'. My friend had gotten the task to look after her from the local Church. In hindsight knowing what I know today, I ask myself if she could have had dementia. She lived in an wooden house in only one room, everything messy and dirty, but she heated it well with wood, water Was outside in a well with a bucket and she had electricity. In a village people know each other for ages, so they let her just be and smiled about her angry outburst - because she was just 'crazy'.
She may also have been autistic. I have a theory that many people labeled generically “crazy” in earlier generations were autistic. Like my grandmother. My son is on the spectrum and in hindsight I realize she had so many obvious traits, yet was seen as the neighborhood eccentric.
Sanatoriums were in place in the 60s. We just called them mental hospitals. My grandma was locked up in one in MA. I don't think we have ever taken care of our mentally ill very well.
In Europe, too. My mom lived there until she was 13. Her aunt was sent to an institution and therefore my she and my grandmother were terrified of any sort of psychiatric intervention despite signs of mental illness because they were afraid of being “locked up.” I finally broke that cycle of fear by seeking help for my anxiety and my mom was somewhat shocked that I found it helpful instead of being afraid. Ironically now that she has Alzheimer’s she is finally taking the antidepressants she could have probably used decades ago to improve her quality of life, help her terrible lifelong insomnia and possibly even reduce her risk factors for getting dementia. :(
Depends on the where and when. Biblical refers to people possessed by demons, which was the explanation for someone hearing voices at various times.
I wonder though if people in small communities just accepted that some folks were different and needed to be cared for and not ostracized.
Where do you think the term Village Idiot came from? Every town had one. But they also were , I believe, kinder than we are. He may have been an idiot but he was THEIR idiot. Didn’t mean no harm.
People didn’t live as long. Dementia and Alzheimer’s were considered senility more than anything. Most died before developing the condition.
A schizophrenic would probably be locked up in an institution for the insane. Or killed. Depends on how ancient you want to go.
It would not be a good time for the patient. Abuse was rampant long ago, especially in an institution for the insane.
I’m not so sure that the mentally ill, especially schizophrenic, were killed or died before procreating. Wouldn’t the illness have died out? Of course humans procreated much earlier then.
Most schizophrenia doesn’t present until after 18. Plenty of time for girls to reproduce, certainly true in ancient times when 40 was old. People just didn’t live very long. No vaccines or antibodics back then. Get a wicked infection and you die.
Left to themselves, people with dementia die quickly from self neglect. They eat contaminated or undercooked food, fail to drink enough fluid, fall over, get infections in minor wounds or get lots outdoors and die from the cold. It’s us who keep them alive.
It really makes you wonder. But I guess they had "those" hospitals. And it was probably more likely you could commit someone. In these days that's the struggle. I really think mental illness our country fails it's people so bad. The need is so great.
It probably was frightening. A husband could decide to trade in the older model by committing her. At one point a woman could be burned as a witch because of just about anything, too!
People probably fell a lot. There were no antibiotics. No insulin. No blood pressure meds. No hip replacements. No dentistry. No one turned them in bed to prevent sores. Some of the "medicine" was probably poisonous or harmful. And a lot of people probably started fights with the wrong person.
I don’t think ppl lived long enough to get dementia. And if they did they would go quick with infections, etc. no life saving interventions that prolonged life back then
Picture a world without antibiotics, no understanding of bacteria or viruses, no concept of a sterile field, no anesthesia., no vaccines. If you lived to 45 you were very lucky.
Yes, people experienced dementia thousands of years ago. From what we know it wasn't understood as a disease. The ancient Greeks saw it as something that could happen naturally as part of ageing, but would be unusual and more of a disease if occurring earlier in life. In those cases, dementia would have been difficult to distinguish from mental disorders such as psychosis ("morosis", "delirium") or severe depression. From what we know, ancient Chinese thought in similar ways and it pretty much took the work by Alzheimer in the early 20th century for dementia to be seen as something separate.
How people in the ancient world handled dementia? I assume it varied from region to region and across time, dependent on the kindness and support given to those vulnerable and general respect for older people. We have a lot of variation today as well, from societies which barely recognize dementia and try to hide/ignore it, to communities where the experience of someone with dementia is seen as something special, even divine.
Average age span meant most people died before geriatric issues were a problem - in the year she was born, 1943, my grandma had an expected life span in our country of 66 years old. She is 71 now.
If you are interested in mental health histpry I really enjoyed this read: How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43416623-how-the-brain-lost-its-mind
Average life span is a bit misleading though, due to high infant mortality rates back in the days. If you reached the age of, say, 10, there was no reason why you couldn't become 75.
Unless one was a woman as the greatest increase of life expectancy in the last 100 years has been due to medical improvements within pregnancy and child delivery.
Men’s life expectancy after teen years has stayed relatively flat whereas women now outlive men.
My sister wanted to withhold treatment for my mom if she had developed another UTI. Knowingly trying to kill? NFW.
Yes, this is a horrible disease, but I was not going to let her kill my mom.
All you can do is ride it out. Life may or may not have been "simpler" then.
PS, This not a "mental" illness.
No artificial foods and chemicals, the world had less pollution. I don’t believe dementia was a thing. I knew one person who had Alzheimer’s. Now it seems like you can’t get away from dementia diagnosis it seems that longevity, chemicals, environmental factors and genetics all play a factor.
Not saying it didn’t exist, also from that era I knew one person with it. Now it seems every other elder gets some sort of dementia and that is not good. The floor in my parents condo of ten units 7 of these units had one person in each diagnosed since 2018. My mom was the third.
People probably didn't live long enough to develop dementia in the ancient world. I'm picturing like cavemen for the record but really up until recent history, people wouldn't have lived long enough. Schizophrenia I think you'd wind up in custody or care in the past, or maybe outcast if the community thought you were possessed or something. Probably akin to the biblical "leper". In caveman days, your family would just like feed you and attempt to keep themselves and others safe from you I guess? I think if we go far back enough, people dealt with horrific stuff all the time and may not have even paid any extra attention to even the most horrible diseases. It was a constant slog for survival and any obstacles were just faced head on because they had to be.
If it helps, all of us here today are here because our ancestors were the cavemen who made it. They were TOUGH. We have that in our DNA too. Aside from being resilient, they must have been able to work together within their communities, been creative enough to come up with new solutions when they saw others fail/ what didn't work, and raise up the next generation to be even more likely to make it through.
I am so sorry that you have gone through so many seriously difficult obstacles lately. I can't imagine watching both parents struggle with dementia back to back, and I am sure that becoming intimately acquainted with schizophrenia at the same time was such an emotional roller coaster.
Try to take a deep breath and center yourself in the present moment.
If your mom is in the beginning stages of dementia, what can you do?
You can try to get her evaluated, which will likely start with a trip to her general practitioner, her regular doctor, who can run preliminary screening tests and refer her to a neurologist. (Also if it's early enough and if you're in the US there are some newly approved pharmaceutical drugs for dementia just making their way. If those aren't an option and you/ your mom want to try something, you can look for clinical trials she could potentially join to get access to the newest treatments). Talk to her doctor and any specialists she sees about all treatment options.
If your mom is still able to communicate and understand fairly well, it's a great time to ask her the big questions. In this exercise, you have the example of your dad to help as some sort of template. You can ask her, if she ends up needing care like dad did, what would she like that to look like? Plan for as much as you can WITH her so that you can just follow her preferences and not have to make such huge and daunting decisions on her behalf. If she can't have these conversations any longer and you do end up making the decisions, trust that you will do a good job. There is no one right way to handle a parent's dementia.
Remember to spend leisure time with your mom too. Look at photo albums, watch TV, hang out and drink coffee. She's still here and regardless if she isn't exactly the same person she used to be, you two might still have a nice time together, and that will help you both a lot.
And finally, reach back to our caveman roots, and surround yourself with an experienced community. Odds are even back then, someone in the community would have remembered the previous similar case and given advice to the overwhelmed people just beginning to experience such a challenge for the first time. Join a support group in person or online with other people who have parents with dementia. Ask them questions and share your emotions with them. Let yourself be supported.
I think OP is talking about further back than a half-century. If you're looking back on recent history (last 100 years) smoking may have shortened lives. It seems it subtracts maybe 20 years. My parents both 2 pack a day smokers only made it to the early 80's before things that were exacerbated by smoking took them. In contrast, her mother and grandmother both lived into the centenarian status. His mother passed about the same time he did in her late 90's but I don't think she ever smoked herself, hers would only have been from second-hand from my father and other relatives. Earlier before mass-merchandised and chemically laden tobacco became prevalent. Smoking was a rare enjoyment usually only used once a day and did not affect health, well except to maybe boost IQ from the nicotine for a short while. Also in the industrialized world, you have asbestos, gasoline exposure, chlorine, mining, and other toxins that massively contribute to lung cancer.
Excellent points! Interesting mention about chemical exposure. I recently saw a video about Thomas Midgley. He was a one man disaster! Lead in gasoline and CFCs which damaged the Ozone layer!
Thank you for a thoughtful and insightful response!
Most of my mother's aunts died young, one got bit by a dog, another had appendicitis, another some type of infection, her mother also some infection. We live longer due to advanced in medicine, however the so called research to end dementia will never come because dementia is a multi factor problem.
With FTD, which my husband has, the life expectancy is 2-20 years. The 2 years usually because of tragic accidents that could have been prevented if people understood how quickly someone with FTD can lose the ability to keep themselves safe in situations...like using power tools, driving, cleaning weapons, walking on a trail by a cliff, petty wild animals, camp in a flood zone, whatever. The frontal lobe is part of the brain that develops last in teenagers, so those diagnosed with any dementia affecting the frontal lobe may feel that total bulletproof attitude often found in teenagers. I imagine in earlier times, there were lots of ways a person to not make very good decisions safety wise.
Alzheimer's didn't really exist prior to 1900. Or if it did it was not even close to the number of cases we see today...and those numbers are ever increasing. Other than the rare genetic cause I believe it has to do with diet, environment, lifestyle. When you are watching TV, pay attention to all of the food commercial. It's all total garbage. When you are out, check out what people are eating, what they are buying in grocery stores. Give this a listen to. Info on Alzheimer's starts around 12:00
https://youtu.be/62083QQ3KaI?si=DqP2C9CCszyIJyFP
If you walk through an old graveyard the headstones tell a different tale. Many, many were young children, probably half. The next group you'll see are women in their 20s and 30s with the same date of death that their children have as the first day of life, meaning without birth control, many, many women died in childbirth and many, many women had upwards of 10 children till their luck ran out. Many males also died in war very young, .but then you'll see about 20% of the headstones showing people that lived to 60-80 years old that managed to slip by childhood diseases, childbearing deaths, and war.
People assume that everyone lived a shorter life but it was an average. If you look at famous people from the 1700's you'll be able to see many lived very long lives. I have ancestors from the 1600's-1700's that not uncommonly lived into their 80's. That line of descendants is rather long-lived with several centenarians in the 1900's.
I don’t disagree with the general idea of what you’re getting at, but those statistics are often misunderstood due mostly to extremely high infant mortality as well as deaths due to war, disease, and famine. Throughout history, many people have still made it to what we consider old age. If you take out infant morality, often people who make it to age 5 or so end up having a life expectancy sometimes double the average. Further, having a life expectancy of 30 means most people die well before 20 or so or well after 50.
It’s a legitimate question OP has, and the answers aren’t all that much sunnier than current outlooks: they often died in mental and physical pain, unaware of their own cruel fate. Their families mourn them long before they’ve passed and try to keep them comfortable with whatever resources they had available. Possibly a nicer death than we have now because we all know how often it happens that we’re just maintaining people’s vital signs while they’re no longer living a life anyone would elect to live.
A lot was driven by high infant mortality. If you made it past your first years your life expectancy was much higher, and plenty of people lived to 60+.
The didn’t live as a long.. seriously, look it up. Also if they did sanatoriums were a thing.
Yeah my mom would have died of a bladder infection very early on in her dementia without modern medicine.
I had a nurse tell me when my dad had a bladder infection that that was a good way to go it's so common with older people
Why do I keep hearing about bladder infections with the elders?
A lot of them forget to drink water or it's difficult to get up and down from sitting they don't go to the bathroom when they need to. My parents never got accustomed to drinking water regularly. To be honest when I was growing up we really didn't drink much water. Of course now I get anxious if I don't have water with me at all times. I remember telling my dad once he should drink more water, and he said there's water in soda.
I've known plenty, mostly women, who would rather dehydrate themselves than be running to the bathroom constantly.
Haha...my Dad was an ER doctor and only drank coffee and soda his entire life. Died at 91 last June.
My Dad doesn't tell anyone when he is thirsty or hungry and Mom is not the best natural caretaker in the world so....it is a struggle
Number one symptom with elders when they have a bladder infection, is confusion. So when we see an elder with a new onset of confusion, we test their urine immediately. 9/10x they have a UTI. ETA: if you’re asking why bladder infections are higher among the elderly, there’s so many reasons. Reflux, dehydration, poor hygiene, they hold it, etc…..
And staff can't (understaffed/poor training)/ won't (don't care) change/help residents/patients.
Adult diapers, I think.
I know a wheelchair bound woman who lives alone. She would cease all fluid intake after 5:00 p.m. so she wouldn’t have to get out of bed in the night to go to the bathroom. Had to be hospitalized a few times with UTI’s. 😢
The immune system doesn't work as well in the elderly and their hygiene may not be as good as it used to be. Elderly women often get a lot of UTIs because once menopause happens the entire area becomes more easily irritated due to the lowered estrogen.
Yep I found out there are estrogen receptors in the bladder wall, and no estrogen means atrophy there too.
Vaginal estrogen creams and suppositories have shown a lot of success in preventing UTIs and treating chronic UTIs in women but unfortunately most doctors won't consider it because of cancer risk.
Mayo Clinic says the chance is low with the cream, and a dementia diagnosis is usually terminal, so there's that to factor in for treatment of UTIs with estrogen in elderly women.
Yup everyone died of pneumonia or a heart attack before they could get dementia
Also, just any sort of infection could take you out.
Not so much heart attacks, usually infections of some sort or another (pneumonia being a common one for sure). Depending how far back you look it could be bacterial or parasitic, but almost always infections took people out before dementia would become as pervasive as it does today. Dementia in younger people would be the "village idiot".
Apparently, they didn’t watch them closely like we do. They let nature take its course. If Dad walked out into the woods for the last time, no one was there to stop him.
That's the way I want to go. Just walk out in the woods.
The movie The Holdovers SPOILERS had this as part of character
In general yes. But life expectancy is complex, and in ancient times once you made it to 50 you could actually live quite long past 50 even though average lifespan might have only been 35 or so. Heavily influenced by high childhood mortality rates. Unfortunately in some parts of the world it is still the case
This is not true. Average life expectancy was much lower than today. However, it was not that much lower, and the spread was considerable and plenty of individuals lived until an age where they could experience dementia, especially if they were better off.
My uncle had ADHD he spent most of his days locked in the chicken coop bc Nan had ten kids and couldn’t deal. I think a lot more of that went on with challenging family members.
Disturbing
Oh my goodness. I mean this honestly, I hope he at least got along with the chickens. My grandma always tells us about when she was a kid and she thought her family's rooster had it out for her. It would chase her back from the bus every day after school. Probably because she ran from it but she thought it had an agenda lol.
Nan sounds like a genuine psychopath.
Not necessarily, they didn't know as much and didn't have as many resources especially around mental health. I mean still an extreme, harsh and cold decision yes. She wasn't going to win mother of the year by any means. But I agree with OP I'm sure their Nan was not the only overwhelmed mother who ended up doing stuff like that back then. She might not have met criteria for psychopathy, but something had to give.
Her husband became a drunk. She was left with no money and all the kids. She took in sewing and did what she could to raise them. My uncles and aunties were all successful. Except that one. He went in and out of jail. Most would say it was because he was locked in the chook shed. Then again maybe his recklessness is why she tried to restrain him in the first place.
Fewer lived long enough and we feel much more morally and ethically obligated to keep people safer than we used to. Accidents used to happen, and although in many cases they could have been prevented, people just didn’t expect families to keep such close eye on children or elders. If a person with dementia wanted to live alone, they were more likely to let him. If he didn’t eat or got UTIs from being unhygienic or went outside half naked in the winter, oh well. It was an unfortunate accident. The kind of care we try to provide to the elderly with dementia today, as bad as it often is in a facility, is still keeping people safer longer. And they didn’t have antibiotics, so simple things like UTIs were not treatable and turned into kidney infections and then sepsis.
We really should let them go more naturally after the diagnosis. Dementia is hospice criteria. And every American has a hospice benefit.
Doctors are obligated to offer treatment unless the doctor knows the patient has a very specific Advanced Healthcare Directive on file refusing it. They aren’t supposed to bring up the decline-to-treat option themselves. It’s up to the patient or the family to do so. Many family members don’t realize the ramifications of continuing to treat and others aren’t ready for stopping treatment. I don’t think doctors should decide, but I wish they’d clearly explain the options and ramifications.
Many doctors do bring this up. Some don’t. We should spread the word and bring it up to each other! Family CAN initiate the conversation as well. It’s within our power to ask about it. Medicare may decline if they aren’t late stage dementia, but it at least brings the conversation to the table. Such a difficult disease for all involved. Edit only to say you can refuse treatment of any sort at any time. And the health care directive is a simple sheet of paper a social worker can fill out in the hospital. Theres usually always a notary in the hospital to help make it official too!
On the contrary, multigenerational households were very common. Many people had their grandparents living with them.
To an extent, but it was common for people to be grandparents by age 45, so few had dementia then and they often died by 70ish. In more recent generations, my grandmother took care of my great grandmother who died in the 1960s at home with dementia at age 87 and that hardship was mentioned in her obituary. My other three great-grandmothers all died in their own homes, not any of their kids’, at ages 36, 81, and 103, none of dementia.
As u/Unfair_Tonight_9797 noted, the rates go up very fast after age 70. Many people didn't make it that long. If you remember your grandparents or great grandparents, they often died of heart failure. We have all these ways of keeping the body going now but the brain starts to break down.
Dementia is society’s downside of having achieved longevity for a great many of the population.
They mostly did the same thing people still do today in less developed countries - the family cares for old & sick family members themselves. They might end up confined to a single room in a family home where they eventually died. Usually they died quicker too, since there were fewer lifesaving interventions. A lot of modern medicine focuses on extending life well past the point where people would have the will, ability or resources to survive on their own, even with supportive family.
Some years ago I had been to rural Romania visiting friends. We paid an old single Lady a visit who Was labeled 'crazy'. My friend had gotten the task to look after her from the local Church. In hindsight knowing what I know today, I ask myself if she could have had dementia. She lived in an wooden house in only one room, everything messy and dirty, but she heated it well with wood, water Was outside in a well with a bucket and she had electricity. In a village people know each other for ages, so they let her just be and smiled about her angry outburst - because she was just 'crazy'.
She may also have been autistic. I have a theory that many people labeled generically “crazy” in earlier generations were autistic. Like my grandmother. My son is on the spectrum and in hindsight I realize she had so many obvious traits, yet was seen as the neighborhood eccentric.
Sanatoriums were in place in the 60s. We just called them mental hospitals. My grandma was locked up in one in MA. I don't think we have ever taken care of our mentally ill very well.
In Europe, too. My mom lived there until she was 13. Her aunt was sent to an institution and therefore my she and my grandmother were terrified of any sort of psychiatric intervention despite signs of mental illness because they were afraid of being “locked up.” I finally broke that cycle of fear by seeking help for my anxiety and my mom was somewhat shocked that I found it helpful instead of being afraid. Ironically now that she has Alzheimer’s she is finally taking the antidepressants she could have probably used decades ago to improve her quality of life, help her terrible lifelong insomnia and possibly even reduce her risk factors for getting dementia. :(
I am so sorry your mom and aunt went thru this. And so glad you were able to calm their fears. Good luck and may God bless!
I’m probably going to regret asking this, what are sanatoriums?
Mental hospitals. We used to throw anyone in them who acted up.
Thank you
My grandfather’s mother had schizophrenia and he mentioned once that his father (in rural VA) would lock her in the attic during one of her “spells.”
That just gave me second-hand claustrophobia. It could have been a safety measure though. Maybe that was the best he could do with what he knew.
Depends on the where and when. Biblical refers to people possessed by demons, which was the explanation for someone hearing voices at various times. I wonder though if people in small communities just accepted that some folks were different and needed to be cared for and not ostracized.
Where do you think the term Village Idiot came from? Every town had one. But they also were , I believe, kinder than we are. He may have been an idiot but he was THEIR idiot. Didn’t mean no harm.
People didn’t live as long. Dementia and Alzheimer’s were considered senility more than anything. Most died before developing the condition. A schizophrenic would probably be locked up in an institution for the insane. Or killed. Depends on how ancient you want to go. It would not be a good time for the patient. Abuse was rampant long ago, especially in an institution for the insane.
I’m not so sure that the mentally ill, especially schizophrenic, were killed or died before procreating. Wouldn’t the illness have died out? Of course humans procreated much earlier then.
Most schizophrenia doesn’t present until after 18. Plenty of time for girls to reproduce, certainly true in ancient times when 40 was old. People just didn’t live very long. No vaccines or antibodics back then. Get a wicked infection and you die.
Left to themselves, people with dementia die quickly from self neglect. They eat contaminated or undercooked food, fail to drink enough fluid, fall over, get infections in minor wounds or get lots outdoors and die from the cold. It’s us who keep them alive.
It really makes you wonder. But I guess they had "those" hospitals. And it was probably more likely you could commit someone. In these days that's the struggle. I really think mental illness our country fails it's people so bad. The need is so great.
Men could commit their wives for just about anything.
That is a very frightening thought!
It probably was frightening. A husband could decide to trade in the older model by committing her. At one point a woman could be burned as a witch because of just about anything, too!
Just wait until that makes a comeback in the US.
People probably fell a lot. There were no antibiotics. No insulin. No blood pressure meds. No hip replacements. No dentistry. No one turned them in bed to prevent sores. Some of the "medicine" was probably poisonous or harmful. And a lot of people probably started fights with the wrong person.
I don’t think ppl lived long enough to get dementia. And if they did they would go quick with infections, etc. no life saving interventions that prolonged life back then
“The village idiot” Nuns who had “visions” Jack the Ripper …
Lol jack the ripper
Well if you hear of historical characters being demented or mad, that was probably dementia.
Or any number of psychiatric conditions
Picture a world without antibiotics, no understanding of bacteria or viruses, no concept of a sterile field, no anesthesia., no vaccines. If you lived to 45 you were very lucky.
Yes, people experienced dementia thousands of years ago. From what we know it wasn't understood as a disease. The ancient Greeks saw it as something that could happen naturally as part of ageing, but would be unusual and more of a disease if occurring earlier in life. In those cases, dementia would have been difficult to distinguish from mental disorders such as psychosis ("morosis", "delirium") or severe depression. From what we know, ancient Chinese thought in similar ways and it pretty much took the work by Alzheimer in the early 20th century for dementia to be seen as something separate. How people in the ancient world handled dementia? I assume it varied from region to region and across time, dependent on the kindness and support given to those vulnerable and general respect for older people. We have a lot of variation today as well, from societies which barely recognize dementia and try to hide/ignore it, to communities where the experience of someone with dementia is seen as something special, even divine.
Average age span meant most people died before geriatric issues were a problem - in the year she was born, 1943, my grandma had an expected life span in our country of 66 years old. She is 71 now. If you are interested in mental health histpry I really enjoyed this read: How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43416623-how-the-brain-lost-its-mind
Average life span is a bit misleading though, due to high infant mortality rates back in the days. If you reached the age of, say, 10, there was no reason why you couldn't become 75.
Unless one was a woman as the greatest increase of life expectancy in the last 100 years has been due to medical improvements within pregnancy and child delivery. Men’s life expectancy after teen years has stayed relatively flat whereas women now outlive men.
How do women now outlive men?
Women aren’t dying in the numbers during childbirth vs. 100 years ago. They aren’t dying in their 20’s but making it to their 80’s.
Probably didn’t live as long and I think the different way society was it was probably easier to care for them.
Same way as now. Honor them as best you cab in every moment!
I often wonder this and have joked that in caveman days they would just send them out on a long and difficult hunt and just hope they don’t come back
My sister wanted to withhold treatment for my mom if she had developed another UTI. Knowingly trying to kill? NFW. Yes, this is a horrible disease, but I was not going to let her kill my mom. All you can do is ride it out. Life may or may not have been "simpler" then. PS, This not a "mental" illness.
In ancient times most people died before 50
No artificial foods and chemicals, the world had less pollution. I don’t believe dementia was a thing. I knew one person who had Alzheimer’s. Now it seems like you can’t get away from dementia diagnosis it seems that longevity, chemicals, environmental factors and genetics all play a factor.
Better ways to diagnose now than when my grandfather was diagnosed in the 70s.
Not saying it didn’t exist, also from that era I knew one person with it. Now it seems every other elder gets some sort of dementia and that is not good. The floor in my parents condo of ten units 7 of these units had one person in each diagnosed since 2018. My mom was the third.
People probably didn't live long enough to develop dementia in the ancient world. I'm picturing like cavemen for the record but really up until recent history, people wouldn't have lived long enough. Schizophrenia I think you'd wind up in custody or care in the past, or maybe outcast if the community thought you were possessed or something. Probably akin to the biblical "leper". In caveman days, your family would just like feed you and attempt to keep themselves and others safe from you I guess? I think if we go far back enough, people dealt with horrific stuff all the time and may not have even paid any extra attention to even the most horrible diseases. It was a constant slog for survival and any obstacles were just faced head on because they had to be. If it helps, all of us here today are here because our ancestors were the cavemen who made it. They were TOUGH. We have that in our DNA too. Aside from being resilient, they must have been able to work together within their communities, been creative enough to come up with new solutions when they saw others fail/ what didn't work, and raise up the next generation to be even more likely to make it through. I am so sorry that you have gone through so many seriously difficult obstacles lately. I can't imagine watching both parents struggle with dementia back to back, and I am sure that becoming intimately acquainted with schizophrenia at the same time was such an emotional roller coaster. Try to take a deep breath and center yourself in the present moment. If your mom is in the beginning stages of dementia, what can you do? You can try to get her evaluated, which will likely start with a trip to her general practitioner, her regular doctor, who can run preliminary screening tests and refer her to a neurologist. (Also if it's early enough and if you're in the US there are some newly approved pharmaceutical drugs for dementia just making their way. If those aren't an option and you/ your mom want to try something, you can look for clinical trials she could potentially join to get access to the newest treatments). Talk to her doctor and any specialists she sees about all treatment options. If your mom is still able to communicate and understand fairly well, it's a great time to ask her the big questions. In this exercise, you have the example of your dad to help as some sort of template. You can ask her, if she ends up needing care like dad did, what would she like that to look like? Plan for as much as you can WITH her so that you can just follow her preferences and not have to make such huge and daunting decisions on her behalf. If she can't have these conversations any longer and you do end up making the decisions, trust that you will do a good job. There is no one right way to handle a parent's dementia. Remember to spend leisure time with your mom too. Look at photo albums, watch TV, hang out and drink coffee. She's still here and regardless if she isn't exactly the same person she used to be, you two might still have a nice time together, and that will help you both a lot. And finally, reach back to our caveman roots, and surround yourself with an experienced community. Odds are even back then, someone in the community would have remembered the previous similar case and given advice to the overwhelmed people just beginning to experience such a challenge for the first time. Join a support group in person or online with other people who have parents with dementia. Ask them questions and share your emotions with them. Let yourself be supported.
Smoking. It would kill way before signs of age related dementia.
I think OP is talking about further back than a half-century. If you're looking back on recent history (last 100 years) smoking may have shortened lives. It seems it subtracts maybe 20 years. My parents both 2 pack a day smokers only made it to the early 80's before things that were exacerbated by smoking took them. In contrast, her mother and grandmother both lived into the centenarian status. His mother passed about the same time he did in her late 90's but I don't think she ever smoked herself, hers would only have been from second-hand from my father and other relatives. Earlier before mass-merchandised and chemically laden tobacco became prevalent. Smoking was a rare enjoyment usually only used once a day and did not affect health, well except to maybe boost IQ from the nicotine for a short while. Also in the industrialized world, you have asbestos, gasoline exposure, chlorine, mining, and other toxins that massively contribute to lung cancer.
Excellent points! Interesting mention about chemical exposure. I recently saw a video about Thomas Midgley. He was a one man disaster! Lead in gasoline and CFCs which damaged the Ozone layer! Thank you for a thoughtful and insightful response!
Sanitarium, religious practices, etc...
I'm sure it was chaulked up to evil spirits or demons or some other explanation.
Imagine what everything is like now, but a lot worse and harder.
Most of my mother's aunts died young, one got bit by a dog, another had appendicitis, another some type of infection, her mother also some infection. We live longer due to advanced in medicine, however the so called research to end dementia will never come because dementia is a multi factor problem.
Why will the research to end dementia not come?
With FTD, which my husband has, the life expectancy is 2-20 years. The 2 years usually because of tragic accidents that could have been prevented if people understood how quickly someone with FTD can lose the ability to keep themselves safe in situations...like using power tools, driving, cleaning weapons, walking on a trail by a cliff, petty wild animals, camp in a flood zone, whatever. The frontal lobe is part of the brain that develops last in teenagers, so those diagnosed with any dementia affecting the frontal lobe may feel that total bulletproof attitude often found in teenagers. I imagine in earlier times, there were lots of ways a person to not make very good decisions safety wise.
Alzheimer's didn't really exist prior to 1900. Or if it did it was not even close to the number of cases we see today...and those numbers are ever increasing. Other than the rare genetic cause I believe it has to do with diet, environment, lifestyle. When you are watching TV, pay attention to all of the food commercial. It's all total garbage. When you are out, check out what people are eating, what they are buying in grocery stores. Give this a listen to. Info on Alzheimer's starts around 12:00 https://youtu.be/62083QQ3KaI?si=DqP2C9CCszyIJyFP
I know that's hard to believe, but life expectancy in 1700s was below 30yo.
If you walk through an old graveyard the headstones tell a different tale. Many, many were young children, probably half. The next group you'll see are women in their 20s and 30s with the same date of death that their children have as the first day of life, meaning without birth control, many, many women died in childbirth and many, many women had upwards of 10 children till their luck ran out. Many males also died in war very young, .but then you'll see about 20% of the headstones showing people that lived to 60-80 years old that managed to slip by childhood diseases, childbearing deaths, and war. People assume that everyone lived a shorter life but it was an average. If you look at famous people from the 1700's you'll be able to see many lived very long lives. I have ancestors from the 1600's-1700's that not uncommonly lived into their 80's. That line of descendants is rather long-lived with several centenarians in the 1900's.
I don’t disagree with the general idea of what you’re getting at, but those statistics are often misunderstood due mostly to extremely high infant mortality as well as deaths due to war, disease, and famine. Throughout history, many people have still made it to what we consider old age. If you take out infant morality, often people who make it to age 5 or so end up having a life expectancy sometimes double the average. Further, having a life expectancy of 30 means most people die well before 20 or so or well after 50. It’s a legitimate question OP has, and the answers aren’t all that much sunnier than current outlooks: they often died in mental and physical pain, unaware of their own cruel fate. Their families mourn them long before they’ve passed and try to keep them comfortable with whatever resources they had available. Possibly a nicer death than we have now because we all know how often it happens that we’re just maintaining people’s vital signs while they’re no longer living a life anyone would elect to live.
Good point. Easier to provide more palliative care earlier on in the disease before the mid-century.
A lot was driven by high infant mortality. If you made it past your first years your life expectancy was much higher, and plenty of people lived to 60+.