Hysteria It is a term with origin in French hystérie, although its further background takes us to the Greek language. Hysteria is defined as a disease nervous and chronicle which is more frequent in women that in the mens and that is characterized by a wide variety of functional symptoms. At present, however, medicine does not usually use this term.
Hysteria is a psychological disorder framed within the neurosis and of the somatization disorders . This means that the hysterical patient exhibits physical and psychological symptoms without organic origin and often developed for unconscious reasons. Hypochondria, somatization, dissociative amnesia and depersonalization are usually associated with hysterical disorders.
Among the many symptoms that people with hysteria have are the following: pain abdominal, back, thoracic, head, in the joints; amnesia; diarrhea; trouble swallowing; dizziness loss of sexual desire; vision disturbances; difficulty breathing; muscular weakness; nausea and vomiting It is worth mentioning that hysteria ailments usually extend over several years and interfere in all aspects of life, such as interpersonal relationships and work.
Other characteristics of hysteria are that it usually appears before reaching 30 years and that it occurs especially in people suffering from chronic pain and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). To identify the causes, physical and psychological tests are usually performed.
For a long time and until the end of XIX century , hysteria was associated with a supposed discomfort female linked to the sexuality . Doctors treated seemingly ill women with clitoral massages or indicating the use of dildos as they attributed the evil to what the Greeks called as burning uterus .
These practices are no longer part of the medicine and hysterical symptoms are considered to appear in both women and men. Today hysteria is usually understood as a passing state of nervous excitement which is produced by an anomalous or extraordinary situation. For example: “The arrival of the Mexican singer unleashed the hysteria of his followers”, "I don't like the hysteria that arises around the actors".
In popular language, the word hysteria usually has one of two possible meanings: a mood characterized by disturbance, which may be temporary or common in a certain person; a deceptive and manipulative attitude. The first of these meanings, on the other hand, may have a positive or negative connotation, depending on the case; for example, accusing a person of hysterics and telling him that his way of being is difficult to bear is the opposite of talking about shouting hysteria at good news.
Hysteria can also be associated with a state of transient nerves in the face of a stressful and difficult situation to cross, such as being faced with a phobia; For example, if a person suffering from vertigo is forced to walk over a very high bridge or near a ledge, they can live a true nightmare and go through a attack hysteria, understood as an alteration to the point of not being able to regain calm for several minutes.
On the other hand there is hysteria as an attitude of the one who seeks confuse and manipulate to its surroundings. People who act this way often create false expectations in those around them, then let them down and cause them pain. In each case, the reasons that drive an individual to psychologically harm someone who has not apparently attacked him respond to different experiences that probably marked him in his first years of life.
