ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Prairie madness

Imagine you are on a big flat field with tall grass and there is no one around for miles. This place goes on and on without anything changing. No trees, no rocks or hills, just grass. You start to feel like you can't escape, like you're lost and stuck there forever. That feeling of being trapped and isolated is what prairie madness is.

Prairie madness is the name given to a mental condition that affected early settlers in the great plains of North America. These settlers were often far away from any towns or cities, and would spend long periods of time alone on the prairie. This isolation and lack of stimulation made some people go a little bit crazy.

The constant sight of endless grass, the extreme weather and the lack of company made people feel lonely, anxious and depressed. They would experience hallucinations, hear voices that weren't really there, and become paranoid about imagined dangers. Sometimes they would forget their own identity and lose touch with reality altogether.

This was a real problem for many settlers, and it was not well understood by doctors at the time. It was thought to be caused by the harsh environment, but we now know that it was more likely due to the lack of social interaction and mental stimulation that humans need to be healthy.

In summary, prairie madness is a condition that affected people who lived in the great plains of North America a long time ago. It was caused by isolation and lack of stimulation, which made people feel lonely, anxious and depressed. While doctors didn't understand it back then, today we know that it was due to the need for social interaction and mental stimulation to be healthy.