Health

HYSTERIA Hysteria is one of the psychological disorders where there is excess undue emotions and selective amnesia. Closely linked to all this is an attention seeking behaviour. Often there is psychosomatisation, i.e. the person is not actually sick but presents with and manifests all symptoms of some illness. It may be an illness, he or she may have experienced before or witnessed in a family member or close friend. As per literature, hysteria is said to develop at a young age and more in females. But ask any doctor working for some years in medical wards. They will testify that you can encounter both boys and girls with hysteria. It is possible that in the olden days, when women did not receive equal education and opportunities like men and were suppressed in society, behaving in a hysterical manner would have been the only way to vent out their suppressed anger and frustration.Same thing stands today. The affected person may not be actually victimized but imagines him or herself to be victimized and seeks sympathy and attention from others. There are multiple causes for hysteria. Excess fear, depression, avoidance of a particular situation, mental stress, childhood abuse, sexual repression, are some of the reasons why somebody starts getting hysteria. Excess idleness is yet another reason, why an individual starts behaving in such manner. Apart from this, it may be a hereditary trait running in some families. Whatever the reason, but it is mostly the weak minded people who develop this kind of personality disorder. The person exhibits overt excess emotional or unconventional or sexually suggestive behavior. Psycho somatisation is closely linked with hysteria. The individual may knowingly or subconsciously mimic some illness. Severe headache, palpitations, sudden mutism, paralysis, epilepsy, unconsciousness, even pregnancy are some of the types of sickness, which a hysterical person may exhibit. They do all this to seek attention and the,” illness”, serves this purpose very well. Anxious friends or family members rush such a person to the hospital immediately. The difference between hysteria and organic illness can be made out very well, when in case of a conscious person, the site and character of the discomfort changes on prolonged questioning and examination. When there is, “hysterical”, unconsciousness, an individual is very careful so as not to hurt himself while falling, “unconscious”. Further all tests done for a suspected illness turn out to be negative, thus confirming that the person has hysteria.Those having a hysterical trait, tend to have these attacks of illness repeatedly, though the time interval may vary. They may exhibit the same disease pattern or mimic different maladies at different times.It is very important to bring these people into the main stream. Treating them is necessary to make them productive citizens of the society.First thing needed is a very patient physician. The physician should be ready to listen to all, “ailments”, of the patient in all details. Usually this becomes cumbersome in heavy consultations but becomes worthwhile as the person puts his trust in the doctor. In no way he should be mocked at or criticized. In the same way he or she has to be explained very patiently that there is really nothing wrong with him or her. An educated person can be shown the results of physical tests done and explained very well that all tests are normal and there is nothing wrong with the body. Prevention of relapse is the next important measure needed to cure hysteria. This needs constant monitoring of the affected person and reinforcement of counseling at variable intervals. Keeping the individual physically and mentally busy is very beneficial in preventing relapses. He should be kept away from addictions as alcohol or any addictive substance weakens the mind and tends to induce and aggravate hysteria. Psychotropic drugs should be used to the minimum in treatment of a patient with hysteria.Last but not the least it is very important that the close ones ignore small physical complaints of the person. Because gaining attention is the main objective of a person having hysteria and giving undue attention to all his, “problems”, will aggravate hysteria. E-mail-rachna212002@yahoo.co.uk