Mental illness, even today, is still a foreign concept for many people. Even though it is the year 2015, there is still a negative stigma that goes along with psychological disorders that needs to be addressed. The only way people can learn about mental illness is by having a complete understanding of the history surrounding it. The best way to eliminate the stigma is to educate people. When people are uneducated about a topic, then they often are scared of it. Mental illness is still a controversial topic around the globe but is slowly becoming an everyday thing. One time frame that can be focused on is the late nineteenth century. Before everyone knew what mental disorders were, they were abstract concepts where your mind could be "sick". It was hard for man people to understand what could be wrong with the brain and how it affects everyday life. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a significant part of the spread of knowledge of mental illness when she wrote the short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892). This short story sets a base of what society and doctors felt about mental illness in the late nineteenth century.

To understand how Gilman helped advance the knowledge of mental illness, one should learn about her personal struggle with depression. Gilman fell into a deep depression after she had her first child. She had a nervous breakdown and suffered from what is now called Postpartum Depression. Postpartum Depression by definition is "depression suffered by a mother following childbirth, typically arising from the combination of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue" (Mayo Clinic). This affects many people worldwide every year whether they know what it is or not. This severe depression led to a divorce from her husband and her ultimately leaving her daughter to pursue her writing (My Postpartum Voice). One major tool for Gilman was her writing, which pushed her to express her feelings in a healthy way.

Her nervous break down caused her to write about her experience, which ultimately helped society by spreading education about the topic of mental illness. One of her most famous pieces of writing about her situation is The Yellow Wallpaper written in 1892. It is a reaction to how she feels about not being taken seriously when she says she is sick. In her life the doctor she sees about her depression says that she needs to be on bed rest until she feels well again which only makes her have a mental breakdown (Simone 3). The doctor and her husband do not believe she is as sick as she claims. They also do not understand the realm of mental disorders because of the period of time they are living in. In The Yellow Wallpaper, she starts to describe the bedroom and how the yellow wallpaper is "revolting" to her and that she can't stand it (Gilman). The Yellow Wallpaper states how she sees a women slowly emerging from the wallpaper. The woman seems to be trapped behind the wallpaper and the patterns. This represents how Gilman feels trapped in her head and even in her house. The depression is holding her mind hostage and this is the only way she can express the horror in her mind. Her doctor belittles her depression, along with her husband, and this short story is the only way she can express her inner most thoughts. 

Gilman got a lot of criticism for The Yellow Wallpaper due to the fact that people did not understand what she was going through. Many doctors went against her and agreed with her physician because they still did not understand what was happening. In response to many of the critics, she wrote a reflection on The Yellow Wallpaper in The Forerunner. The article, "Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper," says how many doctors were mad that she talked badly about them. At one point she says "This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still-good physique responded so promptly that he concluded there was nothing much the matter with me" (The Forerunner). Her doctor told her bed rest was the cure and she believed him until she had a mental breakdown. The people around her did not understand her because they were not in her shoes. She is very distraught that the doctor would send her home pretending nothing is wrong with her when there clearly is something wrong. The Yellow Wallpaper was supposed to inform readers how she was feeling at the time and the article "Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper" was an explanation that touched upon people who do not understand mental illness. This article was another way she was spreading knowledge about her experience and mental illness in general. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the first advocates for mental illness in the late nineteenth century through her writing of The Yellow Wallpaper and her article in The Forerunner, "Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper". Gilman's writing spread knowledge of her experience with depression, which gives readers today a good idea of what the overall education level of society had about mental illness in the nineteenth century. Even now, there is still a negative stigma toward mental disorders that has been around since the late nineteenth century. Then and now, many people do not understand that mental health is as important, if not greater, than physical health. Gilman tried to prove how she was depressed through the writing of her mind being "trapped" and throughout the past few centuries people still have a hard time understanding that. Even though the stigma is not, or will not, be demolished soon, Gilman does an incredible job educating her readers on her depression and what she was feeling.

