Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia by Isaac G. Briggs
page 41 of 164 (25%)
page 41 of 164 (25%)
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Duty that should be done to-day he leaves to be shirked to-morrow; he is easily discouraged, timid, and vacillating. Extremely self-conscious, he thinks himself the observed of all observers. If others are indifferent toward him, he is depressed; if interested, they have some deep motive; if grave, he has annoyed them; if gay, they are laughing at him; the truth, that they are minding their own business, never occurs to him, and if it did, the thought that other people were _not_ interested in him, would only vex him. He is extremely irritable (slight noises make him start violently), childishly unreasonable, wants to be left alone, rejects efforts to rouse him, but is disappointed if such efforts be not made, broods, and fears insanity. The true melancholic is convinced he himself is to blame for his misery; it is a just punishment for some unpardonable sin, and there is no hope for him in this world or the next. The neurasthenic, on the contrary, ascribes his distress to every conceivable cause save his own personal hygienic errors. A neurasthenic, if epileptic, fears a fit will occur at an untoward moment. He dreads confined or, maybe, open spaces, or being in a crowd. When he reaches an open space (after walking miles through tortuous byways in an endeavour to avoid it) he becomes paralysed by an undefinable fear, and stops, or gets near to the wall. He fears trains, theatres, churches, social gatherings, or the office. Other victims fear knives, canals, firearms, gas, high places, and railway tracks, when the basic fear is of suicide. Many patients have sudden impulses--on which the attention is focussed with abnormal intensity--to |
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