When Homesickness Could Kill You

Changing Views on Mental Health

I’ve been thinking about what special things I can give to the supporters of the Ask Death Substack. I’ve decided to start sharing some of the essays and writings on how to live a good life in these changing times. So no imagined perspective of death in this piece. It’s just me writing on homesickness and how it’s wild history says something about how we view mental health today and just how much that has changed.  Please let me know if you would like to see more of these! - Hansa

When Homesickness Could Kill You

In the late 17th century, a squadron of Swiss soldiers became deathly ill while fighting wars far from the mountains they grew up in. Accounts of the disease said cases began with wistful sighs that became more frequent and progressed to heart palpitations, lesions on the skin, brain fog, loss of appetite, a refusal to eat and then death. The disease was not a new pathogen or infection. They believed a malady of the mind was to blame. The doctors on the case created a new diagnosis. Homesickness. They believed their soldiers were dying from an acute longing for home. 

The doctors didn’t have any remedies for the people they diagnosed with homesickness but to send them home. The medical literature is full of cases where terminally ill homesick patients miraculously recovered the moment the carriage carrying the sick patient's bed trotted down the road toward the town they were from. Sending the seriously ill home became the widely accepted remedy for severe cases of homesickness for the next 200 years. 

Homesickness points to a sea-change in how we model mental health. Back in the days of homesickness, we used to have a positive and community grounded view of mental health. People believed a person flourished surrounded by the family, friends and acquaintances they had in abundance in their hometown. Leaving those relationships to go to war or pursue a professional opportunity could be dangerous. Returning people to that setting where they had the most connections could heal them. Early theorizing on mental health had a robust view of social health that we emphasize much less today.