AWARENESS: May is mental health awareness month, and we came across something recently that calls for a closer look.

It’s a list of reasons for entry into the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, W.Va., from 1864 to 1889. It’s a reminder of how far we’ve come in recognizing what are mental illnesses and what are not.

Being a woman isn’t a reason to be forgotten in Trans Allegheny, like it was in the 1800s.

Many gender specific problems were defined as reasons for entry, too. Some are broad and puzzling, like female disease, while others are even more frustrating — fits and desertion of husband, imaginary female trouble, ill treatment by husband, desertion by husband, rumors of husband’s murder, and even taking medication to prevent conception.

The reasons weren’t all aimed at women, as many were aimed at people with an illness, strong beliefs in religion or politics, a tendency toward an immoral life — an opium habit, bad whisky, greediness or egotism — and so much more. 

Not very bright? That was a cause for admission, as were being bitten by a dog or rattlesnake and falling from or being kicked by a horse.

Do you read a lot? Well, novel reading was a cause for admission into the lunatic asylum.

A few reasons seemed to indicate a lack of anywhere else for a person to go, like if their sons died at war, if they were disappointed in love, if their sons got married, if they were self-abusers or victims of sexual abuse.

Asthmatics and epileptics faced admission to the asylum, as did gunshot victims and those with brain fever, dropsy, diphtheria, dissipation of nerves, gastritis, indigestion, scarlatina, smallpox, spinal irritation and sunstroke.