As #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek draws to a close, here is a short thread to remind us that mental health issues are ancient, and that if you suffer from them, you are not alone.

Well before the dawn of psychology and psychiatry, people suffered from depression, anxiety, and more

Ancient Assyria and Babylonia had a rich medical culture that survives partly through diverse therapeutic texts and a manual composed of 40 clay tablets known to modern scholars as the "Diagnostic Handbook".

These works are written in Akkadian cuneiform and are ~3,000 years old.

A symptom that appears in the Akkadian Diagnostic Handbook is ašuštu "depression".

"If depression continually befalls him, he often sighs; he eats bread and drinks beer but it does not go well for him; he cries out, 'Oh, my heart!' and is dejected, he is sick with Lovesickness"

In 3,000-year-old Akkadian therapeutic texts, symptoms relating to anxiety are described in great detail in physical and psychological terms, including fear, insomnia, anger, weakness, and loss of appetite #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

"My heart has become exceedingly troubled, Heartbreak has seized me, I have become exceedingly afraid. May the king heal my heart"

Cuneiform letters find people describing symptoms of anxiety and asking for help or reprieve, like these words from a scholar to Neo-Assyrian king

Cuneiform texts show that even 1000s of years ago, people suffered from and sought treatment for anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. These experiences are as old as humankind itself. The more we talk about them, the less alone we feel #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

This short thread on descriptions of mental distress in ancient Mesopotamia has been getting a second wind, so here’s a short blog post for those interested.

“I am dying of a broken heart” via @Papyrus_Stories https://papyrus-stories.com/2018/10/10/i-am-dying-of-a-broken-heart/