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Sinity's avatar

> Let’s say that based on family stories, you suspect that your great-grandfather had ADHD. (And let’s pretend for the moment that ADHD is real.) He almost certainly would not have been as conscious of his condition as he would today, given that there wasn’t even a shorthand for it. But would he have suspected that something was off? Would he have considered himself different—even less—than others?

> The progress answer says: Yes, he suffered in the shadows of the ignorant society around him. But the solution problem says: Nope, he probably didn’t notice anything at all.

> Remember, the mind must first attend to something, and then classify it as a problem or opportunity, before it tries to solve it. Without much of a mental health infrastructure around him—most notably, without a bona fide diagnosis—your great-grandfather likely had no clue that anything was amiss.

Eh, reading Wikipedia article on History of autism... yeah, autist in the past wouldn't have a concept explaining their issues - they would definitely notice these issues tho.

> [1908AD] Swiss-American psychiatrist August Hoch of the New York State Psychiatric Institute defined the concept of the shut-in personality. It was characterised by reticence, seclusiveness, shyness and a preference for living in fantasy worlds, among other things. Hoch also said they had "a poorly balanced sexual instinct [and] strikingly fruitless love affairs"

or

> A more concise definition of the introverted type was given by Jung in February 1936

> He holds aloof from external happenings, does not join in, has a distinct dislike of society as soon as he finds himself among too many people. In a large gathering he feels lonely and lost. The more crowded it is, the greater becomes his resistance. He is not in the least "with it", and has no love of enthusiastic get-togethers. He is not a good mixer. What he does, he does in his own way, barricading himself against influences from outside. He is apt to appear awkward, often seeming inhibited, and it frequently happens that, by a certain brusqueness of manner, or by his glum unapproachability, or some kind of malapropism, he causes unwitting offence to people...

or

>Autistic attitude. All children in this group remained aloof from their environment, adapt to their environment with difficulty and never fully integrate into it. Cases 1, 2 and 3 immediately become the object of general ridicule among the other children upon admission to school. Cases 4 and 5 had no authority among their classmates and are nicknamed "talking machines", although their general level put them significantly above the rest of the children. Case 6 even avoided the company of children, which traumatized him. The tendency to loneliness and the fear of people can be observed in all of these children from early childhood onwards; they stay apart from the others, avoid playing together, they prefer fantastic stories and fairy tales.

Does it really help to not have a way of conceptualizing such problems coherently?

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Ram's avatar

i'm from india and mental health issues are relatively scarce here compared to the western world.

i don't exactly know why but maybe some reasons being -

1. mental health issues are still a stigma so maybe people are dissuaded from even trying to find out whether they have a 'problem'.

so majority of indians i'm guessing don't even know that mental health is a problem.

2. india is one of the most socially integrated countries i'm guessing. we have joint families, lots of relatives, lots of friends.

but there is one section of india that is increasingly becoming similar to the western countries and that is priviledged teens. because they have the internet and the time to wander on it and they have started talking about mental health based off of western content.

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