Depression. Alcoholism.\u00a0 Schizophrenia.\u00a0 Just a few of the mental illnesses that rage through the Irish American and Irish communities, yet the Irish will barely utter the terms themselves.\u00a0 Why is it that such a stereotypically cheery and happy lot such as the Irish and Irish Americans suffer so disproportionately from mental illness compared to other ethnic groups?\u00a0 After some research, I have compiled three potential theories as to why mental illness is so commonplace in the Irish Americans today: The Great Hunger, paternal age tendencies, and the Irish culture itself.<\/p>\n
The first theory is certainly the most commonly heard: epigenetic changes that arose from The Great Hunger contribute to higher prevalence of mental illness in the Irish.\u00a0 Oonagh Walsh, an Irish historian, strongly believes this to be the case, as it is known that both the Irish and the Irish diaspora have significantly higher rates of mental illness than any other ethnic group.\u00a0 She believes that the nutritional deprivation endured by the Irish during the potato famine of 1845-1852 was so extreme that it caused changes in gene expression that led to a higher likelihood of obtaining mental illness at some point in life.\u00a0 These genetic changes have now persisted for over a century and a half.\u00a0 Walsh\u2019s evidence comes from the Irish censuses of 1841 and 1900.\u00a0 Per the 1841 census, of the eight-million population, 1,600 were committed to asylums and 1,500 were in jails.\u00a0 Per the 1900 census, of the four-million population, 17,000 were committed to asylums and 8,000 were considered \u201clunatics at large.\u201d\u00a0 The numbers indicate a staggering increase in mental illness from before the famine to sometime after.\u00a0 However, a counterargument to this theory is that a series of \u201cDangerous Lunatics Acts\u201d enacted during this time period permitted the asylum of anyone considered mentally impaired enough to commit a criminal offense.\u00a0 These laws were horribly abused during their time, landing many more people in asylums than who actually needed to be there.\u00a0 Despite this counterargument, this theory is still in the running for a potential reason for the amount of mental illness in the Irish.<\/p>\n
A second theory is that paternal age during the Great Hunger contributed to a higher rate of schizophrenia.\u00a0 Patrick Tracey, an Irish American who lost two sisters to schizophrenia, visited Ireland to find out why schizophrenia was so prevalent in his family.\u00a0 During the 19th<\/sup> century, while Ireland was still under British colonialism, corrupt property laws made it financially inadvisable for a man to marry before inheriting land from his parents.\u00a0 Therefore, he would wait to marry until his parents died, which was sometimes up until his 50s.\u00a0 Then, he would find the youngest girl of age in the surrounding area to marry.\u00a0 The combination of the disparity in age and the increase in sperm mutations as age increases possibly contributed to a spike in schizophrenia.\u00a0 If increased paternal age caused higher rates of schizophrenia, it likely caused higher rates of other mental illness as well.<\/p>\n The final theory is one that I surmised based on the research that I gathered.\u00a0 The Irish have a tendency to suppress issues within themselves and the family so as to seem more \u201cnormal.\u201d\u00a0 In Maureen Dezell\u2019s Coming into Clover<\/em>, she comments on how it is common practice to talk about other families and the issues they\u2019re suffering through, but never to bring up the family\u2019s own problems.\u00a0 Patrick Tracey says that the Irish will say that someone is \u201caway with the fairies\u201d if they are suffering from a mental illness as a way to make light of the situation.\u00a0 If someone is told time and again that their mental illness isn\u2019t an issue and shouldn\u2019t be talked about, they\u2019ll eventually come to believe it.\u00a0 Lauren O\u2019Brien, a clinical social worker for the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, says that in 2012 Irish American suicides were on the rise in New York, particularly due to job loss during the Recession and illegal immigration status.\u00a0 The Irish who emigrate to America believe that they have to be 100 percent successful, and if they\u2019re not, they\u2019re a failure.\u00a0 Therefore, the multitudes of Irish who lost their employment during the recession felt increased pressure to be successful, which turned to depression.\u00a0 Because it\u2019s within their culture to not ask for help, their depression would worsen more and more until it led to suicide.\u00a0 A further pressure mounts if the immigrant is undocumented.\u00a0 Particularly in the current administration, undocumented immigrants are feeling that there is nowhere to turn if they need help.\u00a0 O\u2019Brien wants all Irish immigrants, documented or undocumented, to know that they are welcome at the EIIC to receive consulting services, free of charge.\u00a0 They\u2019ll even meet you in a mutual location if you\u2019re concerned of being seen walking into the EIIC.\u00a0 To all Irish Americans, and those of Irish descent who may be reading this, please know that you do not need to hide if you need help.\u00a0 There is no shame in asking for help, and there will always be someone there to help you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sources:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.irishcentral.com\/news\/irish-famine-triggered-mental-illness-in-future-generations-of-irish-says-historian-231885271-237787491<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.irishabroad.com\/news\/irish-voice\/Articles\/mad-irish280808.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.irishcentral.com\/news\/suicide-and-depression-major-problems-for-young-irish-in-new-york-174548571-237754921<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Michelle Casey Depression. Alcoholism.\u00a0 Schizophrenia.\u00a0 Just a few of the mental illnesses that rage through the Irish American and Irish communities, yet the Irish will barely utter the terms themselves.\u00a0 Why is it that such a stereotypically cheery and… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[64,63,62,65],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-behavior","tag-alcoholism","tag-depression","tag-mental-illness","tag-schizophrenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}