As you may have already noticed, one of the required sources this semester is Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House.

For those of you who do not know, Nellie Bly was an American journalist who committed herself to Blackwell’s Island Asylum for the Insane to witness asylum life and treatment first-hand.

You know that saying, “Not all heroes wear capes?” In my personal opinion, the statement applies to Nellie Bly.

Here are my reasons as to why this author is unique and interesting to me;

#1: She does not sugarcoat or glorify anything. In her book, Bly directly describes her experiences inside Blackwell’s Island for the insane. Short, sweet, right to the point. Exactly how it should be.

#2: She is probably the only author in which we have read so far who feels some sort of sympathy for the patients. From the very beginning, we see that Bly is enormously concerned with how the patients are treated. In fact, in her introduction, she states how happy she was when, shortly after her visit to the asylum, the city of New York dedicated a total of $1,000,000 to the care of the insane. Compared to what has been done about mental health in the past, that is a BIG DEAL.

#3: She does not focus on the patients for what they have been diagnosed with, but rather the fact that they are human beings; living, breathing creatures that deserve to be taken care of. For the first time since our readings, we finally have someone who has knowledge of the full picture; these are people who need REAL help, and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their condition.

Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly

Whilst we are a few weeks within the semester, I have one question to ask: how is everyone? Are you all doing alright? Drinking plenty of water? Getting some fresh air, making good decisions? Good!

Anyways, the post for this Thursday is going to be about grounding; one of the most infamous methods of easing panic attacks. From my personal experience with my anxiety, I have found that this method has worked in helping me stay rooted, and has helped me focus on the now.

Here’s how it works: when you feel a panic attack on the way, look for:

5 Things you can see

4 Things you can touch/feel

3 Things you can hear

2 Things you can smell

1 Thing you can taste

This method will help you develop a sense of where you are, and will allow you to focus on something other than worrying.

Also, don’t forget to B R E A T H E.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: This post is not meant to encourage suicide, nor is it meant to discuss it. This has nothing to do with suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is experiencing real suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255. You are not alone.

At some point in our lives, we have all experienced a moment in which our brains begin to think of doing the unthinkable; something that we would never think of doing. For instance; imagine yourself standing atop a very tall building. You glance over the edge to see the traffic and life thousands of feet below you. All of a sudden, you hear a voice in the back of your head; “Do it. Jump.” You know that you’d never do it, but here you are thinking about it. What is up with that?

Don’t worry, you’re not crazy. In fact, it’s pretty common for the brain to think of such things. As it turns out, there is actually a term for it; known as, in French, l’appel du vide, or more commonly known as “the call of the void”, is the term used to describe the sudden impulse to do something drastic.

While there is not an exact reason as to why this thought process occurs within the brain, one theory suggests that the brain immediately thinks of impulsive thoughts, such as jumping off the edge of a building, is because the scenario is the strongest choice in which one can make in a certain situation.

What do you think?

Sources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/call-of-the-void#is-it-normal

~I would also recommend Daniel Howell’s YouTube video below!~

~Daniel Howell, “EVIL THOUGHTS,” YouTube video, 4:45, posted by Daniel Howell, December 9, 2013, accessed on September 13, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6nuxmV6Zko~

For this Tuesday’s blog post, I have decided to explain my experience with my own personal mental health notion: anxiety.

The first time that I began to take notice of my anxiety was around my years of high school. I would constantly worry about things that were beyond my control. Even to this day, I still continue to do so. One of the main features that I’ve noticed about my anxiety is that it typically tends to revolve around the question “What if…?” What if I don’t get this done on time? What if I don’t meet these requirements? What if I’m just not good enough?

In order to kind of break the cycle, I would participate in a few high school plays in order to give my mind something to focus on, rather than worrying. I’ll never forget in one of the plays that I was in, one of my classmates described her anxiety; and it was possibly the most accurate explanation of anxiety that my ears had ever heard. While I cannot remember exactly what she said word for word, her description went along something like this: Everywhere you go, there is water pouring in; through the cracks of the walls, up through the floor, dripping from the ceiling, leaking under the doors. But the thing is; you’re the only one who can see it.

Even though I do still have anxiety, and have panic attacks here and there, I have found different ways to manage it, such as grounding, breathing, and distracting myself by baking and cleaning.

So according to the syllabus, we must post something to our blog every Thursday that is related to the class or our project at hand. Since I am in love with video games, I thought that this post would be cool and unique!

So I am not sure if any of you have heard of the game known as White Enamel, but it is pretty interesting. Although it is unplayable now since Adobe has left the chat, the developers of the game are still trying to find a way to make it accessible to players.

White Enamel is horror-based story game that is divided into different parts. Each part takes the player into the world of the fictional Glenfield State Penitentiary. The player goes into each section and is bombarded with real audios from real patients of asylums (warning; they are not happy sounds). The players is also greeted with images of the inside of old asylums as well.

Whilst playing the game, one cannot help but feel a wave of sympathy for the patients; they were treated more similar to animals rather than human beings, and were not given proper treatment. It is something about the screams and the images that stick with you throughout your gameplay.

Now, why did I choose this game? Simple; what one witnesses throughout playing the game is the reality of how those with mental health concerns were “treated” in the olden days, and further provides evidence of how far we as a society have come regarding the approaching of mental health and treatment.

Image Credit: ░W░H░I░T░E░ ░E░N░A░M░E░L░ ░U░P░D░A░T░E░. September 15, 2020. Facebook . https://www.facebook.com/whiteenamel/photos/10158953444263120.

Website Credit: “White Enamel.” White Enamel. Accessed September 2, 2021. http://www.whiteenamel.com/.

My questions for the Grob Reading:

1. Could the negative concept of mental health; which entailed that mental illnesses were a personal problem rather than a societal problem; correlate with how we treat and recognize mental illnesses today?
2. Based on how mental health has been approached throughout centuries, was mental health ever approached in a respectful/ helping manner?
3. What was “insanity” considered back then?
4. What factors would people look for to diagnose a mental illness?

~I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help with this work.~

Blog Home Header Image: Morin, A. (2021). A Display of Different Mental Health Issues . Very Well Mind . https://www.verywellmind.com/definition-of-mental-illness-4587855.

Introduction Image: Awesome bt21 desktop wallpapers. WallpaperAccess. (n.d.). https://wallpaperaccess.com/bt21-desktop.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Erica Banks and I’m a senior at the University of Mary Washington! This blog is specifically for one of my classes: History of Mental Health in the U.S. Please stay tuned for more blog posts and things!