I've been trying to figure out what I want to write for my next post, and I think I've finally got it. I am working on something, and I came across a person from the 1800's who died from epilepsy and one other thing. It said she was in a lunatic asylum.
Did you know that if I had been born in the early 1900's and prior, I would have been called a witch, put into a lunatic asylum, gotten a lobotomy, and if they were *really* nice, put me in a place for epileptics. I'm not kidding. In the 1600's during the Salem Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts (for which I have relatives that were both convicted "witches" and accusers), they would have considered me a witch because of my "fits" (I really hate that word). Most likely I would have been drowned, been one of the 19 people hanged, or even like the poor man, Giles Corey, who was pressed with rocks. Of course this is if the seizures hadn't killed me or fried my brain by that point.
I found out that I could have been thrown into a lunatic asylum in the 19th century and beyond, simply for having epilepsy. I watched a video about lunatic asylums that I will share below, and patients with epilepsy would often receive a "special diet" that was different from the others. Apparently they were not to be given foods that would "upset them" (the amount of quotation marks I have to use is crazy). Things such as corned beef with cabbage, and "heavy, indigestible foods." These places were literal torture, and I am sure the seizures would be even worse if I was in one of them. The stress, torture, malnutrition, etc.
In 1935, when the genius doctor named António Egas Moniz invented the lobotomy, he would have looked at me and said, "Sara is the perfect candidate for this groundbreaking procedure! She has a myriad of mental health issues and epilepsy!" I am sure I would have come out of the surgery either dead or with no bodily functions. Look at what happened to Rosemary Kennedy! I would like to think that my family wouldn't have had me get a lobotomy, but if it was normalized then and an option to help, maybe they would.
I discovered that one of my great-uncles married a woman whose cousin had epilepsy and ended up in a place called the "School for Feeble-Minded and Colony for Epileptics." Great name, huh? It changed purposes several times. This particular girl I am talking about was born in 1893, and the first seizure she had was at a year old, which temporarily paralyzed her right side. She was affected in every aspect of her life: having to miss school and other activities, having a hard time writing, weakened memory, and wearing protective padding on her head. She lived with several family members for a while until her dad decided to put her in the Colony in 1909. This makes me angry every time I think about it, and I know I'm technically not related to her, but I am close to this one. The things she went through daily, I also struggle with. She was just tossed into that place and stayed there until she died in 1920 at age 26, from either pneumonia or the result of a seizure (unsure which is correct). I was 26 when I discovered her, so it was hard. I think there's a mixture of things that bother me, but I really hate the thought of this girl enjoying her life with her family, then being thrown into that institution, if that is what they want to call it. I can almost feel the betrayal, and I am wondering how she felt. I understand it was a different time, but I don't imagine it would feel any less painful to have your family put you in this place just because you have epilepsy and they don't know how to handle you. I researched the place and it was supposedly a "nice place" that was also a school, and they say that they were supposedly "helping families cope with having a child with a disability." Something tells me these kids didn't get a lot of visitors, and I don't think my "relative" did either.
What I am saying is that my life is difficult, living with epilepsy. The unpredictability of the seizures, modern medicine only doing so much. I will say I am grateful I am not in some lunatic asylum or being strapped down or hanged. We seem to have progressed thus far. Maybe one day they will actually use the donated money to research and find better treatments.
