What the Ancient World Can Teach Us About Mental Health

The World Health Organization estimates that roughly 280 million people around the globe live with depression, while around one billion experience some form of mental health problem.

Mental health difficulties affected people in antiquity too. How, then, did those in the ancient world respond to them?

As we shall discover, several ancient ideas about mental health continue to resonate, although some of the treatments they used may now seem questionable.

1. Our mental state matters

Conditions including depression were known in the ancient world. Homer, the poet associated with the Iliad and the Odyssey who lived around the eighth century BC, is said to have died after declining because of depression.

By the end of the fifth century BC, Greek physicians understood that the content of our thoughts could partly shape our health.

In the Epidemics, a medical work composed around 400 BC, an unidentified doctor stated that our habits of thought - alongside lifestyle, clothing, housing, physical activity and sex - were the chief factors determining health.

2. Mental health problems can cause illness

Another anonymous author in the Epidemics recorded the case of Parmeniscus, a patient whose mental condition deteriorated so severely that he became delirious and ultimately lost the ability to speak. After remaining in bed for 14 days, he recovered, although the text does not explain how.

The renowned physician Galen of Pergamum (129–216 AD) later noted that a poor mental state could often lead to physical illness:

It may be that under certain circumstances 'thinking' is one of the causes that bring about health or disease because people who get angry about everything and become confused, distressed and frightened for the slightest reason often fall ill for this reason and have a hard time getting over these illnesses.

Galen also wrote about patients with mental health problems, including people who became gravely unwell and died. One such man had lost money:

He developed a fever that stayed with him for a long time. In his sleep he scolded himself for his loss, regretted it and was agitated until he woke up. While he was awake he continued to waste away from grief. He then became delirious and developed brain fever. He finally fell into a delirium that was obvious from what he said, and he remained in this state until he died.

3. Preventing and treating mental illness

People in the ancient world used a wide range of methods to prevent and treat mental illness.

Aristippus, a philosopher of the fifth century BC, advised people to concentrate on the present in order to avoid mental disturbance:

concentrate one's mind on the day, and indeed on that part of the day in which one is acting or thinking. Only the present belongs to us, not the past nor what is anticipated. The former has ceased to exist, and it is uncertain if the latter will exist.

Clinias, a fourth-century BC philosopher, reportedly played his lyre whenever he noticed anger rising within him, using music to soothe himself.

Physicians had their own ways of responding to mental health problems. Many urged patients to alter their habits and lifestyles to influence their mental state.

Their recommendations included starting a new exercise routine, changing one’s diet, travelling by sea, attending philosophers’ lectures, playing games such as draughts, and undertaking mental challenges comparable to today’s crosswords or Sudoku.

For example, Caelius Aurelianus, a physician of the fifth century AD, believed that people experiencing insanity might benefit from a varied diet containing fruit and light wine.

Doctors also prescribed medicines derived from plants. Hellebore, for instance, was administered to people with paranoia. Yet ancient physicians knew this herb carried risks, as it could provoke poisonous spasms that sometimes killed patients.

Galen and some other doctors took a somewhat different approach. He considered mental problems to arise from an idea that had become fixed in the mind. In his view, recovery required removing that idea, and he wrote:

a person whose illness is caused by thinking is only cured by taking care of the false idea that has taken over his mind, not by foods, drinks, [clothing, housing], baths, walking and other such (measures).

He believed the most effective response was to turn patients’ attention away from such false ideas by introducing fresh thoughts and emotions:

I put fear of losing money, political intrigue, drinking poison or other such things in the hearts of others to deflect their thoughts to these things […] In others one should arouse indignation about an injustice, love of rivalry, and the desire to beat others depending on each person's interest.

4. Supporting mental health takes effort

In general, ancient thinkers held that maintaining a healthy mental state demanded effort. When people felt anxious, angry or despondent, they believed they needed to pursue something that produced the opposite feeling.

They thought this could be done through an activity that directly counteracted the emotion then being experienced.

Caelius Aurelianus, for example, suggested that people living with depression should take part in activities that made them laugh and feel cheerful, including watching a comedy in the theatre.

However, the ancients did not consider one isolated activity sufficient to restore a healthy mental state. Instead, they saw a broad transformation in how a person lived and thought as essential.

We plainly share much with our ancient ancestors when it comes to mental health problems. Much of their thinking appears just as pertinent today as it was 2,000 years ago, even though modern methods and medicines differ.

If this story has raised concerns or you need to talk to someone, please consult this list to find a 24/7 crisis hotline in your country, and reach out for help.

Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, researching Greco-Roman antiquity, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.