Blog Post 11: The HYSTERIA

 

People suffering from HYSTERIA are likely to be associated with HYSTREONIC mind set or HYSTERICAL Individualism. Such humans are, self centred, dramatic and eccentric in nature. Their personality seems to be open minded, attractive and social on the outer front, but they are equally narrow & fickle minded on the inner front. Such people are expert at getting their work done by their sugar coated talks. They are well versed at over exaggerating any activity due to which they can easily manage to gain people's attention.

HYSTERICAL people gain popularity easily. But their friendship cannot last long due to their selfish nature. At some point of time, their self centred nature somehow starts reflecting. HYSTERIC people always try to show their supremacy over others, wherever they find a chance to do so. They have a habit of imposing themselves on others. For example, if a hysteric person comes to stay as a guest at anyone’s house, he/she slowly starts dominating the members of the house by imposing their wishes on them. They start using the household things without the permission of the house members, also force them to bear their expenses by their sweet talks. After a point of time, when the householders object or protest, the HYSTERIC person by ignoring their own behaviour, shed false tears and silence the members of the family. HYSTERIC people are generally uncomfortable doing anything against their own wish.

 

Such people are over exaggeratedly expressive about their feelings and also very stubborn. As quickly as they believe in something or develop faith in any person, they also loose their trust and faith quickly over things and the people too.

 

Like every mental illness, the strings of this nature can also be somehow associated with childhood. Children who grow up in a very loving and safe environment, can develop a HYSTERIC personality in future. Some children are born unstable, fickle minded and stubborn. Generally it’s a reaction of their nervous system. So it is important for the parents to recognize these symptoms carefully in their children at early age. These children very well know how and when to get aggressive or show their loving nature to get things done according to their wish. If parents do not pay attention to it, then it may get difficult for them to handle the children later. And when they grow up, they apply the same formula everywhere, with their colleagues at office place, relatives at home, and also their friends outside. Due to such self centred nature, they talk sweetly in front of the people to get their work done and say ill words for the same people behind their back. 

BOSSES with such nature in the office encourage their employees to do good work and once done, take the credit and prove themselves suitable for appreciation and promotion in front of the management. The people who follow them are their favourite. But all this does not last long. Actually, such externally successful and stubborn-looking people always carry an inferiority complex internally. They have no faith in their own ability and their own worth. That is why, instead of doing hard work, they get their work done from others by false exaggerations and sugar coated talks.

People of HYSTREONIC nature do not have a good relationship with their family members, their friends and colleagues for long. People suffering from HYSTERIA express their mental stress and conflict through two symptoms:

1) HYSTERICAL CONVERSION: It translates mental stress into physical symptoms.
2) HYSTERICAL DISASSOCIATION: Here the person try to get away from the conflicts.

 

In HYSTERICAL CONVERSION, if something is not in accordance, the person becomes calm, dumb, blind or immobile. But there is no physical defect in it. It is just a pretence. The real reason behind this behaviour is mental stress. By doing this, their only intention is to gain attention of the people. Such a person always wants to remain in limelight being the centre of attraction.It is like a dramatic situation. In any dramatic play, an actor performs more efficiently when his/her acting gets noticed by the audience. Similarly, more the attention given to the person in this mental state, he/she will show more physical symptoms. It is their sole aim to attract maximum attention of the people. This is commonly seen in small children also. Children always use this technique to get their favourite things from their parents.

 

In HYSTERICAL DISASSOCIATION, there is no coordination   between the person’s feelings, his thoughts & his actions. They  sometimes also forget unwanted things or events. Apart from  this, they are even unaware of the actual situation. 

 

Then there is one more state of mind termed as FUGE STATE. In this state, the person creates an impression of forgetting his identity. He suddenly disappears from his place of residence, village, city and settles in another city or village using some other name and identity. And when he is brought back or after coming back himself, he/she create amazing stories about getting kidnapped etc. Also makes excuses of not remembering anything about that particular time frame. By the way, when a person's mind is under stress, he always wishes to leave everything and go away. But in this state, it is done purposely. The shortened form of FUGUE STATE is also possession. This feeling is mostly visible in women especially in rural or backward areas. For some time, these women speak in different voices, tone and manner. This situation is often termed as ghostly possession or hindrance.

 It has been observed that the HYSTERIA is found more in women and children as compared to men. The reason behind is, for a long time especially in older times, women were suppressed by the male dominated culture. And when this intolerance increased, women would become HYSTERIC and get things done as per their wish. They used to pretend to be some goddess’s avatar or acting as if the goddess has chosen that particular woman as a medium to get her wishes fulfilled by people of that woman’s family. Actually by acting in this manner they could get a chance to express the grief of inner self in front of male dominated society. But such HYSTERIC symptoms are not seen in today’s women because they have become educated, independent and self-reliant.

 

There are six main steps to overcome HYSTERIA:

 

1) The patient has to be kept away from relatives causing anxiety and trouble.

2) To calm their mind, by giving medicines & injections if required. 

3) By counselling, the symptoms found in the patient can also be removed.

4) If the symptoms occurring in the patient are related to a situation, then appropriate changes are made in that situation.

5) After resolving the conflict and problem arising in the patient's mind, the patient is also offered help to eradicate the root cause of such conflict arising in the patient’s mind.

6) This ailment should not be neglected nor it should be promoted too much. It needs be handled with a proper balance.

 

HYSTERICAL patients also have the habit of speaking white lies to show off their dominance,  and experience among people. When such patients, start showing off their knowledge and expertise in everything, one needs to mellow down the person by making them realise (without hurting them) that everybody around is of the same worth. But while doing this, if proper precaution is not taken, such patients can feel insulted and can become more HYSTERIC to overcome it.

 

Many times the feats related to HYSTERIA are also misunderstood with that of EPILAPSY. But there is a lot of difference between the two.

 

The following symptoms appear in EPILAPSY:

1) One can suffer from the feats anytime, anywhere.

2) The patient starts moaning while in the phase of the feat.

3) One can get hurt. His/her tongue can get stuck in the teeth and get cut, teeth can also  break.

4) The hand and legs get straight and stiffened.

5) They might urinate in the course of the feats.

6) Such shocks or feats last for one minute and the patient feels exhausted after the shock or the feat has passed. 

7) During that time the patient does not remember anything and he faints.

 

The following symptoms are seen in HYSTERIA:

1) The shock or feat occurs in proper senses.

2) The patient safely falls on the ground.

3) The patient does not bite the tongue and does not even urinate in clothes.

4) The shock or feat can last from 15-20 minutes to hours.

5) After emerging from the shock, they do not even feel tired and they remember all the events during that time.

 

Basically all this happens because the blow of HYSTERIA is false and pretentious, just to garner people's attention. Most of the times, when anything happens against the will of the patient or any event causing tension in their mind, then he/she resorts to it to get things done according to their will. Even they can sometimes threaten to commit suicide to get things done as per their wish.

 

Measures on HYSTERIA can happen at both social and personal levels. There are people of HYSTERIC PERSONALITY everywhere in the society. By reforming the society, by changing their thinking, by promoting women's education, by giving women equal status and respect in the society, the existence of HYSTERIA can definitely be reduced to some extent atleast in women. In this way, the patient will be able to support ideological considerations rather than resorting to HYSTERIC symptoms to express the feelings hidden in their mind.

 

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Keep reading to gain information and awareness about mania & bipolar disorder in the next blog titled The MANIA | BIPOLAR DISORDER. Till then stay safe and healthy, MENTALLY & PHYSICALLY 😊.

- (KD Blogs)

 ✍ © Kunal Deshpande.