Mental Health: A Dark Past and an Uncertain Future

History has shown us time and again what happens when people don’t know why something bad is happening. They panic. They look for the wrong solutions. They do things that, in hindsight, seem horrifying.

We’ve seen this before—plagues, witch hunts, mass hysteria. And now, I think we’re in a similar era with mental health—not knowing the real reasons behind our struggles, and in our desperation, making things worse for ourselves.

A History of Fear and Wrong Answers

There were two catastrophic illnesses that ravaged societies, mostly in Europe. The Bubonic Plague and the Salem Witch Trials hysteria.

The Plague: The Wrong Enemy

Imagine if people dealing with the Black Death knew that it was fleas that carried the disease, not the rats. Imagine if they realized that the reason doctors wearing wax-coated clothing didn’t get sick wasn’t because of the spices in their beak masks, but because their clothes blocked the infected fleas. But they didn’t know that. Instead, they slaughtered cats, thinking they were spreading the disease—when, in reality, the cats were helping by killing the rats that carried the fleas.



The Witch Trials: The Wrong Cause

Imagine if the Puritans had known that the real reason their children were sick, hallucinating, and convulsing wasn’t because some women had sold their souls to Satan—but because their crops were infected with a fungus that caused poisoning and hysteria. Instead of burning suspected witches at the stake, all they had to do was stop eating the damn fungus-infected crops.



Imagine the suffering of the people who were unjustly accused of being witches, a crime they never committed and yet faced a dark fate. They were mothers, daughters, healers — dragged from their homes, chained by ignorance, and burned by fear masquerading as justice. Their screams were not just of pain, but of betrayal — by neighbors, by silence, by a world that chose superstition over sense. Their bodies were set aflame, not because they were witches, but because they were different, defiant, or simply unlucky. It wasn’t justice — it was mass hysteria disguised in holiness, and every flicker of flame was a monument to how cruel humanity can be when it refuses to understand.

Lack of information led to chaos. People wanted an answer, any answer, so they latched onto whatever explanation seemed the most obvious, even if it was completely wrong.

And now I think… we are in the same era for mental health.

The Unknown War Inside Our Minds

Just like the people in the past didn’t know about bacteria, viruses, and toxins, I think most people today don’t really know the actual reasons behind their mental struggles.

If you feel lost, unmotivated, addicted, or stuck in self-destructive cycles, do you really know why? Or are you just guessing?

Maybe the real causes are things we haven’t fully figured out yet, like:

  • Environmental design – Maybe your setup makes failure inevitable.

  • Dopamine circuitry – Maybe your brain has been wired for instant gratification.

  • Subconscious beliefs – Maybe something you absorbed in childhood is silently controlling you.

  • The right therapy, support group, or guide – Maybe you’re missing a crucial piece that could completely shift your mindset.

Right now, we are like the people in the plague era. We don’t know the root cause, so we keep looking for “witches” to blame. We blame ourselves, we blame society, we blame bad luck—but what if the real answer is something we haven’t even considered yet?

A Future of Unprecedented Freedom—or Control?



Imagine 50, 60, 100 years from now. What if we actually figure out what drives human behavior?

What if we completely understand how to rewire our habits, eliminate addictions, and master self-control without struggle?

That would be an era of unprecedented freedom.

  • No more wasted potential.

  • No more cycles of self-destruction.

  • No more being controlled by things you don’t understand.

But here’s the problem…

If we crack the code on human behavior, who controls that knowledge?

  • What happens when corporations can predict and manipulate your every decision?

  • What happens when governments use it to control people, not free them?

  • What happens when the knowledge that could set people free is locked behind paywalls, only accessible to the elite?

We might be on the edge of a breakthrough—or a new kind of prison.

Learning from the Past

History has shown us that not knowing the cause of suffering leads to chaos, cruelty, and desperation.

The people in the past weren’t stupid—they just didn’t have enough information. And right now, when it comes to mental health, we are in the same situation.

We need to keep searching for the truth. Not just about mental illness, but about what truly drives us, what makes us stuck, and what sets us free.

Because once we figure it out, we need to make sure it leads to freedom—not just another illusion.


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