Recovery month is a time to show our support for people in recovery, but it is also a time to reflect on the people and the facilities that have made recovery possible. Over the years, there have been many changes in the way we see and treat addiction and mental health illnesses.
Rehabilitation centers have not always been what they are now; in fact, the creation of effective treatment programs is a recent development in our society. When we look back, we see just how far we have come in our knowledge of addiction, treatment approaches, and cultural attitude towards those struggling with addiction and mental illness.
Ancient Times: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
From ancient times, cultures saw mental illness as a result of heavenly judgment or demonic possession. The belief that witchcraft or amorality caused mental illness pervaded throughout the Middle Ages.
Treatment during this time included a variety of bizarre and often cruel treatments to “get the demons out.” These “treatments” included exorcism, shaving the pattern of a cross in the hair, going to mass, drinking ice-cold water, and immersion in sulphuric fumes.
In the 5th century, Hippocrates was the first to implement treatment techniques not based on religion or superstition. Instead, he introduced the concepts of environmental change and the administration of substances as medications.
Unfortunately, there was already a strongly negative and superstitious attitude towards the mentally ill during his time. This attitude lead to the foundation of a stigma against the mentally ill that we are still struggling to break to this day.
Early Institutions: Deplorable Living Conditions
Psychiatric institutions first appeared in the United States during the Colonial era as a result of urbanization, but these facilities were far from perfect. People in colonial institutions were not treated as patients but rather as prisoners.
Conditions were filthy, and patients were regularly abused and neglected. Patients were put in closets, chained to the wall, poorly fed, and beaten. Again, the stigma persisted.
As mental health asylums gradually transformed from confining those with mental health disorders to treating them, psychiatrists began experimenting with different therapies for treating a range of diseases. Sadly, many of these exploratory treatments were unrefined often made things worse.
For example, one physician, Benjamin Rush, believed that psychiatric disorders originated from hypertension of the brain’s blood vessels and treated patients with bloodletting (draining blood from the body). Patients would typically calm down after bloodletting, not because the procedure worked, but because they were so weak and fatigued from the treatment.
Today
Thankfully, treatment for alcohol and drug addiction today is much more comprehensive, caring, and based on scientific research. The creation of medications and our growing knowledge of addiction lead to the development of individualized, effective treatment approaches.
While not all treatment centers are free from abuse and fraud, many do have a legacy of compassion and professionalism. The fruit of their work proves that people do recover.
It’s easy to be discouraged when we read the seemingly staggaring statistics about addiction in the news or encounter the stigma of addiction from those around us. Remembering our past, however, gives us hope to see just how far we’ve come.
Addiction treatment in our day isn’t perfect, but we have found treatment options that work. For this alone we have much to be thankful for.