Before it Had a Name

Long before OCD became a diagnosis, people struggled with unwanted thoughts they couldn't seem to escape. Thoughts that felt disturbing, frightening, or completely at odds with who they were. In this episode of Before It Had a Name , we explore the history of obsessive-compulsive disorder, from early religious interpretations of intrusive thoughts to the modern understanding of obsessions, co...

Long before autism became a diagnosis, there were children who experienced the world differently, children overwhelmed by noise, comforted by routine, or struggling to connect in ways others expected. But for much of history, those differences were misunderstood. In this episode of Before It Had a Name , we trace the evolving understanding of autism from early descriptions of “withdrawn” children...

Long before PTSD became a diagnosis, people were already living with the lingering effects of trauma, a body that stayed on alert, memories that refused to stay in the past, and reactions that didn’t make sense even to the people experiencing them. In this episode of Before It Had a Name , we explore the evolution of trauma from “shell shock” in World War I to combat fatigue and eventually post-tr...

For as long as schools have existed, there have been children who struggled to sit still, focus, or follow expectations, long before ADHD became a diagnosis. In this first episode of Before It Had a Name , we trace the history of ADHD from early twentieth-century classrooms to factory floors and wartime psychology. Behaviors once interpreted as moral failure gradually came to be understood in term...

Long before depression was defined as a medical diagnosis, people were already describing a persistent heaviness that went beyond ordinary sadness. In this episode of Before It Had a Name , we trace the history of depression from ancient ideas of melancholia and black bile to industrial-era “nervous exhaustion” and modern understandings of mood disorders. Across centuries, the experience remained...

Long before anxiety became a diagnosis, people were already living with a persistent sense of unease, a mind that couldn’t fully relax, and a body that seemed to anticipate danger even when none was present. In this episode of Before It Had a Name , we explore the history of anxiety, from early philosophical ideas about fear and temperament to the nineteenth-century “age of nerves” and modern unde...

Before It Had a Name explores the history behind mental health diagnoses like ADHD, depression, anxiety, and trauma. In this trailer, you’ll hear what the show is about and why the experiences we recognize today existed long before they had names. Hosted by mental health counselor Jon Watkins, this narrative podcast examines how culture, science, and society have shaped our understanding of the hu...