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Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution was formulated during a lonely and isolated life in England after his voyage to the Galápagos Islands. Scholars suggest he suffered from severe panic disorder, which gave him time to focus on his work. Researchers speculate that his mother’s death and early loss of a parent may have contributed to his anxiety.
Charles Darwin is well known for the five-year voyage aboard the Beagle that took him as a young man to the Galápagos Islands and for his subsequent contributions to the science of evolution. He explained his revolutionary theory of it, including a process he called natural selection, in his 1859 book on the origin of species. But what is less known is that Darwin lived a very lonely life after returning to England from the Beagle Voyage. Some scholars have suggested that he was afflicted with severe panic disorder that manifested itself in a variety of puzzling symptoms, including heart palpitations, shortness of breath, feelings of impending doom, hysterical crying, and severe nausea and vomiting. In a cruel twist of fate, his quiet, isolated lifestyle necessitated by his medical problems undoubtedly gave him time to formulate his groundbreaking theory of evolution. Darwin himself described this situation, writing in 1876 that “ill health, though it has wiped out several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society and from amusement.”
Charles Darwin’s Baffling Condition:
Over the years, researchers have speculated about Darwin’s plight. In 1997, University of Iowa doctors – one a psychiatrist, the other a radiologist – pored over his letters, books and journals and concluded that it was adding to panic disorder.
Darwin worried, author Claudia Kalb wrote in a 2016 book. “He worried about his children, his job, his deadlines, his reputation and, almost always, what was afflicting him.” .
Darwin’s mother often suffered from headaches and intestinal disturbances and died of an abdominal infection when her son was eight years old. Studies have shown that the loss of a parent early in life can increase the risks of depression and anxiety later in life.
