Mental illness in women has only recently been accepted and understood. In the mid-1800s, women with any form of mental illness were diagnosed with “hysteria” or “neurasthenia,” isolated from their families and normal lives and subjected to cruel and unusual treatment. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of many women who was diagnosed with neurasthenia and then sentenced to "rest cure", a medical treatment that often broke women's will and forced them to submit to diagnosis and treatment. 'a male doctor. As a result of the rest cure, Gilman suffered a transformative nervous breakdown. Because of her experience, Gilman was inspired to reveal the details of her own story to save other women from her terrible fate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayCharlotte Perkins Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper, uses her personal experience with the remaining cure to advocate for women's rights and fight for change treatment of mental illnesses in women. The rest remedy originated in the early 1800s and was developed by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. Its treatment has become the standard of care for neuralia in the United States and the United Kingdom (O'Sullivan). This remedy for neurasthenia and hysteria included a highly regulated treatment program. Treatment includes a high-fat diet to increase blood supply and gain weight, twenty-four-hour bed rest, massage to prevent muscles from atrophying, and restriction of anything that might stimulate the brain, such as reading, writing or even thinking for yourself. Sometimes, “if rebellious, women are force-fed through the nose or rectum, or in rare cases, whipped to ensure obedience” (Felluga). The patients, almost all women, reported suffering and loss of mind during the eight-week torture treatment. Charlotte Perkins Gilman underwent rest treatment after the birth of her son while suffering from what we now call postpartum depression. She was bedridden for hours and separated from her son for weeks. Gilman detailed in her autobiography that she "nearly lost [my] mind." The mental agony became so unbearable that [I] sat silently, moving my head from side to side” (Gilman 96). Alone and abused, she noted that it was "not physical pain, not even the slightest 'headache,' just mental torment" (Gilman 96). The treatment she was forced to endure was mental degradation aimed at breaking her spirit, will, and self-esteem. When she felt the most intense side effects, she would cry for hours, crawl under beds and hide in closets to escape the torture and distress of what had become her life. (Gilman 96).Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, the doctor who treated Gilman, even had an unpleasant reputation among his peers and other patients. He believed that “male domination was therapeutic” (O'Sullivan) and that it was healthy for women to bow to men – this would increase their fertility. “Mitchell believed that intellectual achievement was detrimental to a woman's overall health, particularly her reproductive function” (Felluga). Mitchell looked at and treated women as if they were good for only two things: getting pregnant and taking care of the children they gave birth to. He was cruel to his patients, threatening them if they did not improve ordid not get out of bed, he woke up a patient by “threatening to go upstairs with her” (Martin). Even his friends commented that “a note of contempt creeps into his descriptions of his neurasthenic patients. “She was a pale, weak creature, who had no more breasts than the average hen at a boarding table. Nature had wisely forbidden this being to increase it. race" (Martin). Not only were his comments degrading and inappropriate as a medical provider, but he was also known for harsh and unorthodox treatments, during which he chased a woman away from her home, dropping her in the middle out of nowhere and force her to come all the way back as treatment (Martin His overall goal of treatment was to break the patient's will enough for women to submit to the patriarchy and return to their feminine duties at the time). Part of these feminine duties he imposes would be his rule that women do not read, write, or participate in anything intellectually stimulating during treatment, because they are not enough. mentally strong to handle information unlike their male counterparts. She was told to "lead as domestic a life as possible...to lie down for an hour after each meal. To have only two hours of intellectual life a day." And never touch a pen or a brush or a pencil as long as you live” (Gilman 96). .Because of this horrible experience for Gilman, she wanted to share her story with the world. “Gilman's short story highlighted the rest cure as a symbol of the paternalistic nature of 19th-century medicine and the suppression of female creativity” (Martin). Not only did she write The Yellow Wallpaper, but she also included some details of her agony in her autobiography. Her goal was to denounce the indecency and mistreatment she had suffered in order to raise awareness and save other women from the same fate. “Gilman condemned the Rest Cure and, by extension, the harmful treatment of women by doctors, most of whom were men at the time” (The Neurasthenia Rest Cure and Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell). Her story eventually spread enough and gained enough attention that it was able to change the way rest treatment was prescribed. These patriarchal ideas continue in Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper when she introduces John, the narrator's husband. Throughout the story, the narrator relies on John for everything, including decision-making and diagnosing his “nervous state.” This reinforces the idea of ​​how men control women and how women cannot take care of themselves and think for themselves. When the narrator tried to talk to John about his cousin's visit, he immediately said no, then she ran into the room and cried (Gilman page no.). It didn't matter what she wanted; the final decision was always made by her husband. Due to the Victorian era and stereotypes, women were expected to be caregivers and housewives. (O'Sullivan). At that time, in the 1800s, it was unfortunately widely believed in the medical world that relying on a man or finding a man was the cure for nervous breakdown, neurasthenia and hysteria (O'Sullivan) . . Gilman made sure to portray the men in her story as figures of power and might, and her own ghost character as a powerless being without a voice of her own. In his book, Gilman wanted to highlight and draw attention to the way in which rest treatment reinforces male dominance and the way in which doctors mistreat women's mental illnesses. After Gilman's success with.