Random Thoughts #2: The Disturbing Reality of Mental Illness

Me and my girlfriend were taking a streetcar in Toronto, and if you live in the city, you know how common this experience is. A man clearly struggling with addiction started shouting and screaming, then suddenly broke into song before leaving the car.

As this unfolded, I looked around. The loud noise had pulled me out of my usual habit of zoning out, and I saw so many faces filled with disgust, hate, and fear.

That’s when I was struck by a thought: how sad it is that when we see someone who needs help, someone struggling with a disease (yes, addiction is a disease, look it up), our first instinct is to react with hostility. And I don’t mean entirely without reason. But still, it hit me again. This was something I had already learned and had been actively thinking about while writing my piece on fear for this blog. Since the beginning of human history, we’ve rejected and ostracized those dealing with illness or disability. As a species, when someone looks for help, too often we respond with fear and hate.

And then a third thought hit me, one that chilled me the most: this isn’t just any illness. It’s mental illness. Which means looking into one of the darkest chapters in our history: mental healthcare.

We’ve never been good at caring for those who need it, but this is where humanity’s cruelty truly stands out. Mental disorders have always existed, and history makes that clear. But for most people in the past, living with one meant a short, miserable life, unless you were royalty, and even then, it rarely reached the common people.

Even with limited records, a pattern emerges. Hate and separation were the norm. Mental illness was often seen as divine punishment or a mark of the cursed. And when society finally decided to “treat” it, things only got worse.

Lunatic asylums were created as medical facilities, but in reality, they provided no treatment, only cruelty. They were never properly managed and quickly became overcrowded, since patients almost never left. People were locked away in rooms, restrained, sometimes even in complete darkness. Sanitation and safety were nearly nonexistent. Food and water were provided in terrible condition, and medical procedures stripped away any shred of humanity.

This is where the myth of the “haunted asylum” began. Many of these places were later abandoned or demolished, but even as time moved forward, improvements were minimal and sometimes worse. Lobotomies became standard, and experimental procedures turned people into empty husks, obedient prisoners of their own broken minds. Tales of staff cruelty, sexual abuse, and neglect were common, while the public was shown only pristine, white-walled rooms that gave the illusion of progress.

But truth has a way of surfacing. Eventually, people saw the inhumanity of these institutions, and society began talking about better understanding and treatment. Still, modern facilities leave much to be desired. And beyond that, we made even the idea of seeking help terrifying. For generations, we taught people to fear mental illness, to see it as a plague. And we tricked those who needed help into trusting us, only to make their lives more miserable.

And this cruelty wasn’t reserved for the most severe cases. Even people with more manageable conditions like depression, anxiety, or identity struggles were subjected to these institutions, often driven to insanity by the very systems meant to “help” them.

We should strive to be better. But are we? That’s hard to say. I’m willing to listen to those who believe we’ve made progress, and also to those who believe we’ve done more than enough harm already.

Keep on thinking, looking, and learning.

Emilio Landazuri