Preventive Treatment of Hysteria

Categories: Diseases of The Nervous System

In order to be successful in this line
of treatment the cause must be found and treated. An English physician

writes: "It is pitiable to think of the misery that has been inflicted on

these unhappy victims of the harsh and unjust treatment which has resulted

from false views of the nature of the trouble; on the other hand, worry

and ill-health, often the wrecking of the mind, body and estate, are

entailed upon the near relati es in the nursing of a protracted case of

hysteria. The minor manifestations, attacks of the vapors, the crying and

weeping spells are not of much moment, and rarely require treatment. The

physical condition should be carefully looked into and the mode of life

regulated, so as to insure system and order in everything. A congenial

occupation offers the best remedy for many of these manifestations. Any

functional disturbance should be attended to and a course of tonics

prescribed. Special attention should be paid to the action of the bowels.

The best preventive treatment is the one that is given early, when the

girl is growing from childhood to girlhood. It should be begun even

earlier. A weakly baby should be built up by proper food and outdoor life.

Dainties should not be given to such a child. When the child is old

enough, as some mothers think, to go to kindergarten school, keep the

little one at home. It is plenty early enough to send such a child to

school when she is seven years old. This early school work rushes the

child, makes it nervous. If you should happen to listen to the heart of

many young school children you would find it pounding away at a furious

rate. Do not hurry a weakly child. Do not hurry or rush a young girl even

though she is strong, from the ages of twelve to sixteen years. Our school

system does just that. Instead of taking life easy when she is nearing the

crisis (puberty) or is in that period, she is hurried and rushed and

crammed with her school work; the girl frequently goes to school during

this period, even when she is unwell and sits there for an hour or more

with wet skirts and sometimes wet shoes and stockings. Every day I see

girls of all ages go past my office here in this cultured city of Ann

Arbor, without rubbers, treading through the slush and water. Is it any

wonder they become sickly, become victims of hysteria and suffer from

menstrual disorders? Dysmenorrhea must follow such carelessness, and the

parents are to blame in many cases. Be careful of your children,

especially girls at this age, care less for their intellectual growth, and

pay more attention to their body development, even if it should happen to

be at the expense of their intellectual development. A healthy body is

better than all the knowledge that can be obtained, if it goes, as it too

often does, with a body that is weak and sick. Outdoor life is necessary.

Horseback riding is splendid; walking is also good exercise at a regular

time each day."