system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did those with mental disabilities (Autism, Down Syndrome) function in society before modern help centres and widespread awareness of these conditions?

My apologies if I have worded this wrong.
gpt
Historically not very well. 

Some cultures viewed them as touched by the gods and mostly ignored them, sometimes providing them with food. Others would see them as possessed by demons and would actively kill them due to a perceived (and at time legitimate) threat that they may pose. 

Many cultures would also leave any child with born deformities to die to exposure and so never had to deal with the mental disabilities that are associated with conditions that are obvious at birth such as Downs Syndrome. 

In more recent history they would have had better care than being fully ignored or outright killed by being put into Asylums that cared for them, but even that was not a great thing. Many times they were used for experimentation, and some of the treatments for them like electroshock therapy or lobotomies were horrid.