Asylum Antics

Episode 21

When you hear asylum what do you think of? Usually your mind goes to some horrible scene in a movie - Sweeny Todd, From Hell, Beauty & the Beast, Changeling, etc. What if we told you they weren’t too far off. Asylums, although created with the best intentions, didn’t have the proper execution or funding in most cases causing patients to believe they were living in a nightmare.

Danvers State Hospital, located about 20 miles from Boston, MA, was the epitome of what a mental health institution should have been at the turn of the century. However, after budget cuts and over-crowding the standards dropped drastically causing more harm than good for their patients.

Imagine knowing you are in an institution with over 100 years of “service” , and yet there are dark secrets around every corner. There are rooms, halls, wings that have been abandoned, for years, while you lay your head a few hundred feet away. Being it’s 2024 you may be in a better situation than patients a few decades ago, but you can always ask the ghosts their thoughts on the matter.