DISEASE OF THE MIND

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

DISEASE OF THE MIND

<3>"Doctor's Orders"

THE physical side of mental disease must not be overlooked. The brain requires nourishing blood to keep it in good working order. If the brain is exhausted and cannot be revived by rich blood, all sorts of fancies arise in the brain. If, at the onset of the disease, the patient can be taken care of, fed up, protected from worry, in an institution where all the thinking is done for him and he has no bother about money or anything else, it is almost certain that a cure can be brought about. No course should be neglected which niight obtain the patient food and rest. Above all, ask a doctor's advice either at his house or at a hospital, because he will very quickly understand the meaning of the fanciful ideas or delusions that t jio patient describes. V.'orrv is the dominant cause of insanity and, naturally, our first desire is to protect the patient from worry. No one can escape worry altogether, but, broadly speaking, the steadier the life, the greater care and economy exercised, the more particular a man is about his health, the less likely is he to fall a victim to worry. The Usual Delusions It is important that you should < recognise the earliest onset of insanity, i A few of the usual ideas of delusions 1 may be mentioned as danger signals. I First of all, tbere are delusions of persecution. The man complains that every- i one is against him; people in the street t are talking against him as they walk ] along; the preacher especially singles i him out to preach at him; paragraphs 1 in the paper are directed against his t character; and in a hundred other ways f the man shows he is the victim of < delusions of persecution. Such a man, <

By---A Family Doctor. goaded beyond endurance liy the treatment he fancies he is receiving, commits some crime which horrifies society. He should ha.\'p been under care. Then tbere are delusions about food; complaints are made that someone is secretly poisoning him. This mysterious poisoner follows him about and poisons his food at home and in the public eat-ing-houses. Such a delusion is a danger signal, left alone, the man will fix on some innocent person and do him or her some terrible harm. 1 hen there are a large number of cases in which the chief symptom is the hearing of voices. This is most dangerous, because they may tell the patient to commit some crime, and he dare not refuse. In answer to an inquiry about the commission of a crime, such a man will often answer: "The voice told me to do it." Another type is the religious form of insanity, when nothing will induce the patient to believe otherwise than that there is no hope of salvation for her; morbid beliefs of unpardonable sin fill her mind, and the whole day is spent in lamentations. Delay Is Fatal For the sake of the patient, for your own sake and for the prevention of crime, ask for medical advice early in the case. Delay is fatal. The responsi- : bility does not lie with the patient, i who is not in p, position to judge soundly; Hie responsibility rests with j the relatives and friends. Tragedies I i have heard described in Courts of justice ] might have been prevented; crime might 1 be diminished and the world made 1 sweeter if only the friends would under- < stand the imperative necessity of placing ] early cases of mental disease under control. . Improvement will follow. 1

If I can persuade von to fear the tragedy more than the act of placing the patient under care I shall have clone a good deal to prevent crime, and these paragraphs will not have been written in vain. Some of the methods that nature uses to ensure a healthy continuance of the race in the animal kingdom are well worthy of study, even if they cannot he exactly imitated by mankind. For instance, two stags will fight to the death for the possession of the female, and it is sure to be the biggest, strongest and healthiest that kills the other; the baby stags are born with a good inheritance of sturdy vigour. The Application Now, I do not say that we could really put up two suitors for a younsr lady's hand to fight or race for her, but I do say that we ought to learn from Nature that one of the first considerations for those who wish to see disease banished and health abound should be to see that it is the healthiest members of one generation that become the papas and mammas of the next. A process of selection is going on all the time. For instance, the cripple remains unmarried, while the girl with health and beauty is snapped up. There is room for a great deal more discrimination. You know, my dear young lady, if only you would pay half the attention to your own health and the health of your intended that you pay to the preparation of your trousseau, there would be a good deal less trouble in the world. In ten years' time (and they will fly by quickly) you will have a little family around you. Now, what is it to be? Will you be sitting by the bedside of a diseased child coughing its soul out by inches; will you have ruinous doctor's bills, a harassed and careworn husband, a home robbed of all its sweetness by the dread presence of pain and suffering; or, on the other hand, are you to be surrounded by a_ jolly, rollicking, rosy-cheeked crowd of kiddies, while your husband looks on. proud and happy? When suitors come courting you, take the healthy one, not the rich one.