Have you ever had a time in your life where you kind of went out of your mind, temporarily?

Have you ever had to sit or restrain your loved one (sister, brother, mother, father, etc.) because he/she are freaking out, or lashing out for no normal reason?

It is called Hysteria / Hysterical. I am sure you have heard of the term hysterical, meaning; exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement. unable to control your feelings or behaviors because you are extremely frightened, angry, excited, etc. Or an old-fashioned term for a psychological disorder characterized by conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization) or a change in self-awareness (such as a fugue state or selective amnesia).

Characteristics (meaning all of a sudden and you do not seem to have any control over the emotion or action):

• Uncontrolled freaking out
• Uncontrolled actions
• Uncontrolled laughter
• Uncontrolled crying
• Uncontrolled anger
• Uncontrolled yelling
• Uncontrolled rambling / speaking
• Uncontrolled amnesia
• Uncontrolled eating

The first reference dates back to 1900 BC to the ancient Egyptians (Kahun Papyrus) and identifies the cause of hysterical disorders in spontaneous uterus movement within the female body. Thus arose the idea of a female madness related to the lack of a normal sexual life: Plato, in Timaeus, argues that the uterus is sad and unfortunate when it does not join with the male and does not give rise to a new birth, and Aristotle and Hippocrates were of the same opinion.

In 1621-1675 Thomas Willis introduces a new etiology of hysteria, no longer attached to the central role of the uterus but rather related to the brain and to the nervous system. During the Victorian Age (1837-1901) many women carried a bottle of smelling salts in their handbag.

Sigmund Freud (1865-1939) the father of psychoanalysis provides a contribution that leads to the psychological theory of hysteria and the assertion of a “male hysteria”. Freud himself wrote in 1897: “After a period of good humor, I now have a crisis of unhappiness. The chief patient I am worried about today is myself. My little hysteria, which was much enhanced by work, took a step forward”. In 1889 he published his Studies on Hysteria with Joseph Breuer (1842-1925). The key-concepts of his psychoanalytical theory (the influence of childhood sexual fantasies and the different ways of thinking of the unconscious mind) have not yet been formulated, but they are already implicit in this text. Among the cases presented, we find the hysteria of the young Katherina, who suffers from globus hystericus.

The text does not refer to the famous Oedipus complex, which emerges through the study of male hysteria, developed after this treatise. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480686/

Triggers:

• Smell – Pheromones (over sensitive to an idea that your partner is cheating)
• Emotions – Fear, being lied to, feeling ugly, etc.
• Mis-shaped uterus, IUD, Post-partum
• Hunger
• Drugs and Alcohol not only creates an extra emotional shift but usually creates anger and grumpiness for days after

I personally remember two situations when I freaked out. One was when I was nineteen and after dating a guy for two and a half years we decided that I move in with him. About two weeks of living together he had phoned home saying he was not coming home. He said he was at a friend’s house (whom I knew) and was going to crash there. I had offered to go and pick him up and he declined.  I could hear voices and music in the background and knew he was lying. I decided to go drive over and see for myself.

He was not at his friends and I remembered there was a pub close by, so went and drove by. There was his car. I parked and went inside. I had never been in the place before and for some reason I just seemed to know where I was going. I remember seeing in a bit of tunnel vision and I remember walking to the back of the place and seeing his drunk friend first and then I saw my boyfriend drunker than I have ever seen playing pool with an also drunk girl.

All I did was turn around and walk out. I was just getting into my car when my boyfriend touched my arm and that is when I lost it. I started to yell and shake (not sure what I said). I got in my car a drove off and went home. I remember taking some of his pain killers to numb me and I must have fallen asleep. Crazy I stayed with him for another two months and then moved out. We never dated again. His actions made me act like somebody that I did not want to be.

The second freak out was at the age of twenty-four giving birth to my second child, a daughter. I had just gotten to the hospital and I was already dilated. Within 45 minutes of my arrival I was about to give birth. I remember the doctor telling me not to push (really, tell that to a body that has a mind of its own). All I remember thinking was that I was going to kill my baby. I freaked out and started yelling to save my baby. A few moments later I remember my doctor touching my shoulder and whispering to me to push. I immediately snapped out of the hysteria and pushed. My new born daughter came out not breathing and it took them 6 minutes to revive her.

I remember having a few laughing fits...  no crazy laughing, were I could not control it or stop it. I have had days and weeks of where it does not matter what I eat or how much, it does not seem to satisfy me or seem to feed me.

As a kid I use to sit on my sister so she could not hurt me when she got into one of her moods. My son has done the same to his sister. Unfortunately I know it runs in my family; my dad, his sister, me, my sister (my sister thinks my mom has done it too), and my kids. It has taken me to the age of fifty-one to figure out what is wrong with us.

Now I know the name of what the condition is called – Hysteria.

Mix hysteria with fear, pheromones, alcohol or drugs and now you have a problem.

How do you treat it?

• Do not drink or do drugs
• For women -If the uterus had moved upwards, this could be done by placing malodorous and acrid substances (pungent smell) near the woman’s mouth and nostrils like Indian turnip, while scented ones were placed near her vagina; on the contrary, if the uterus had lowered, the document recommends placing the acrid substances near her vagina and the perfumed ones near her mouth and nostrils.
• Get a chiropractor adjustment to make sure your spine is not pinching a nerve
• Sex, actually an orgasm
• Do not use fragrances with pheromones in it (axe, etc.)
• Melissa Essential Oil - also known as lemon balm oil, is used in traditional medicine to treat a number of health concerns, including insomnia, anxiety, migraines, hypertension, diabetes, herpes and dementia. This lemon-scented oil can be applied topically or diffused at home.
• The hysterical body should be treated with care (stress relief): aromatherapy, hot baths, massages, reflexology, meditation, exercise are the best prevention.
• Counselling – to find out what the persons triggers are. Fear is the main trigger to a hysterical expression of other emotional outbursts. If one of the triggers is a belief your partner is cheating on you, and they say differently; it just might be that you have a heightened sense of being able to smell pheromones and even if they subconscious have an attraction to someone you will know because of the smell they just gave off.