For much of human history, people with mental illness were thought to be possessed by gods or devils. Madness, as it was called, was believed to be supernatural, not natural. Some Greeks, including Plato, viewed mental illness as a kind of spiritual gift, a portal into new ways of seeing.
Imagine falling dramatically ill from an autoimmune condition that causes your body to attack your brain, only for everyone around you to assume you re going mad.
That is what happened to Queensland mum-of-three Elly Hawkins in April last year, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold in Australia. The doctors just kept telling me I was having this breakdown due to the pandemic, Ms Hawkins says.
Queensland mum Elly Hawkins fell ill with autoimmune encephalitis last year, the same condition explored in a the Netflix documentary Brain on Fire.(Supplied: Elly Hawkins)
It would take almost six months for Ms Hawkins, 35, to find a neurologist who knew what was really going on and diagnose her mystery illness - autoimmune encephalitis.
The road to happiness is paved with… self-help books?
Is the solution to mental wellness finally here, or is it just another fad?
In the 1980s, a psychological theory became all the rage in North America and started to be implemented in institutions across Canada and the United States. You might be familiar with it; it’s now known as the self-esteem movement.
It was based on The Psychology of Self-Esteem, a book originally published in 1969 by Nathaniel Branden, which essentially explains that the key to happiness and success is to work on building a positive self-image for everyone. As the literature on this topic grew, it caught the attention of Californian legislator John Vasconcellos, who loved the idea so much he started funding initiatives to make it a greater part of his state’s policies.
The Netflix movie Brain on Fire chronicles a woman's fight to be correctly diagnosed, ultimately saving her life. She helped me remember that I'm not alone.