Was Poe Mentally Ill?

Was Poe Mentally Ill?

After reading many of his famous works and researching his life outside of literature, I believe Edgar Allan Poe did have some sort of mental illness. While discussing Poe’s personal life, psychology undergrad Erica Giammarco writes, “He was described by coworkers and family as chronically melancholic, acquiring the nickname ‘the man who never smiles’…” (1). Typically, someone who displays this kind of unhappy behavior for an extended period of time would be diagnosed with a mental illness such as depression by a twenty-first century doctor. Poe was also a frequent drinker but began drinking extremely heavily after his wife’s death in 1847, and continued that behavior all the way until he was found drunk and completely out of it in 1849 days prior to his death (Giammarco 1). As we know, many individuals who struggle with mental illness turn to substance abuse in order to cope with their mental illnesses. Poe using alcohol as a means to cope with his possible depression seems extremely likely considering there was little to no medicine during the nineteenth century that could be used to treat an illness such as depression. Although we may never know how Poe died or whether or not he had an sort of mental illness, judging by his behavior, literature, and events leading up to his substance abuse, one can come to the conclusion that Edgar Allan Poe di suffer from a mental illness such as depression for most of his life.