How to calm a person in hysteria: treatment of hysteria in an adult, first aid

Problem Details

During a hysteria, the main thing is to understand how to calm down and relieve symptoms. Hysteria or a nervous breakdown is always accompanied by a storm of emotions. Human:

gesticulates;
cries;
screams;
tries to blame people nearby for his problems.

At the peak of tension, tremors of the limbs, lips, chin, seizures, confusion, temporary blindness and deafness may occur. Occurs at any age. The reason is the accumulation of negative emotions over a long period of time, nervous and physical exhaustion.

Hysteria always appears at the moment when there is a person nearby who will be a random spectator of an uncontrolled process.

Almost 8% of the population is susceptible to a disease such as hysteria. A severe form is hysterical psychopathy. Initial symptoms appear in childhood. During a nervous breakdown, the child falls to the floor, arches, screams loudly, and does not respond to treatment. The behavioral reaction is not feigned, it manifests itself spontaneously. If you have such signs, you should contact a neurologist.

Hysterical neurosis is a violent emotional reaction as a result of a lack of attention, conflicting demands between what a person can do and what society requires of him.

Household hysteria is a quality of character and is feigned.

A hysterical performance is designed for a specific person and is a method of manipulation. In such cases, the person at whom aggression is directed must ignore all attacks, otherwise he will turn into a victim.

What is female hysteria and how to deal with it

Any scene of hysteria causes unpleasant emotions and leaves a bad aftertaste. And even among eyewitnesses of the scene, not to mention its participants. What are the causes of female hysterics and how to deal with them?

In time immemorial, ancient healers called the disease, accompanied by uncontrollable outbursts of emotions, the word Hysterus, which is translated from Latin as “rabies of the uterus.” Doctors believed that this disease was unique to women with unstable hormonal levels. Today it is known that hysteria is by no means a female preference; men are also susceptible to it. However, according to statistics, for every 10 hysterical women there is one hysterical man.

What causes hysteria? As a rule, female hysteria comes from powerlessness and the desire to achieve from others what a woman has long wanted to receive. Hysteria in this case is the highest point, the threshold of emotional restraint, which a woman transgresses when she can no longer endure. This is a kind of valve for the release of accumulated grievances. This process is uncontrollable for the woman herself.

Hysteria is often associated with all sorts of female ailments and hormonal changes in the body.

Hysterics are divided into three categories:

1. Hysteroids are individuals who from birth have impulsive character traits, a developed and active imagination. These are artistic people who are easily excited and are good at the art of manipulation.

By the way, congenital hysteria often not only does not disrupt their adaptation in society, but helps them reach certain heights. One of the very illustrative examples of hysterics is Zhirinovsky. Hysteroids are not treated; the maximum that is indicated for them is psychotherapy aimed at correcting behavior.

2. Suffering from hysterical neurosis. This condition can be either congenital or acquired. Often its first manifestations can be noticed in childhood, when a child suddenly falls, begins to roar heart-rendingly and slams his arms and legs on the floor for the slightest reason. And it is precisely at these moments that you need to immediately deal with neurosis.

The main thing is to teach your child that you will not react to his seizures. Indifference is your best assistant against such escapades. A hysteric always needs an audience; without it, the intensity quickly fades away. And, of course, a child with signs of hysterical neurosis must be treated by a child psychologist. Otherwise it will get worse.

3. Suffering from hysterical psychopathy. These people are definitely not manipulators and blackmailers; their behavior is not a posture or an artistic stunt, but a severe form of mental illness.

Hysterical attacks in these patients are of a rough, brutal nature - with loss of consciousness, impaired motor functions (legs suddenly become paralyzed) and even a hysterical arc (when the body arches like a bridge).

Such people need serious psychiatric treatment.

How to stop a hysteria?

With the exception of serious medical cases where specialist help is needed, there are several quite effective methods for stopping hysterics.

If possible, just get out of sight, leave the hysteria alone, and the attack without “audience support” will stop on its own.

Sometimes, if the hysteria is not the most extreme, a simple glass of water offered to the person who has flared up can help.

A quick and sudden painful effect will help to end a mild attack. You can sharply squeeze the hysterical person’s hand, pinch him painfully, or even slap him in the face, although, of course, all these are extreme options.

It’s better to try to suddenly and quickly distract the hysterical person with something. For example, discreetly call his mobile phone.

If a hysteria is thrown by a person who is usually calm and restrained, but is explosive, do not try to argue, be silent, listen. He will calm down and regret his outburst.

And one more observation: in general, emotional outbursts are normal and useful if they are appropriate.

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Getting rid of hysteria

Treatment of hysteria is carried out with the help of drugs and psychocorrection. It is necessary to distinguish it from epilepsy. The easiest way is to observe the patient's behavior in individual cases. During a hysterical attack, a person falls to the floor so as not to hurt himself, and with epilepsy, patients are often injured by falling to the floor, because they cannot control themselves and their body.

A hysterical attack is not accompanied by foaming from the mouth, voluntary defecation, urination, or biting the tongue. After a tantrum, a person can return to normal activities. After an epileptic seizure, the patient falls asleep and feels exhausted.

A psychiatrist treats painful (not feigned) hysteria.

Healing involves:

auto-trainings;
taking psychotropic medications: depending on the intensity of the manifestations, mild sedatives or tranquilizers, antidepressants are prescribed;
procedures that enhance immunity.

The main task of the immediate environment is to behave with restraint towards the patient and try to support. It is important to stop all provoking factors and help a person perceive stalemate situations with more restraint, without damaging the psyche.

What's going on inside the hysterical person?

It is impossible to say that those suffering from hysteria are absolutely and serenely happy. For this is a constant state of intense anticipation of some kind of trouble, tragedy and cataclysm of any scale, which is extremely exhausting for them personally and for everyone around them. The psyche of the sufferer (or sufferer) is full of fears and all sorts of obsessive thoughts that cannot be escaped.

The essence of this personality type is eternal panic when thinking not even about tomorrow, but about the day that has already arrived and the current one, in which something can happen. And if (suddenly!) nothing happens, so much the worse; an accomplished drama is better than foggy uncertainty. “Drama” can mean anything from missing hair clips to an alleged Martian invasion.

An attempt to work or serve for those suffering from hysteria ends disastrously: eternal stay “on sick leave” makes the employee undesirable to the enterprise and leads to dismissal. Which further strengthens the belief in one’s absolutely exceptional morbidity and absolute helplessness.

Illnesses are generally a separate “playing field” for the hysterical. The tense anticipation of troubles cannot but lead to some changes in health, and now it has happened! - the illness struck. A thorough analysis of it and comparison with what is “in the medical reference book” instantly leads to the conclusion about a serious or even incurable disease.

And if there is also a truly sick person in the family or someone has recently died... For the hysterical, the only possible conclusion arises: of course, I will be next (next).

Diseases. The indispensable and heaviest “brick in the wall”, which fences off the hysterical person from the world.

But about the extreme manifestations of hysteria, special mention should be made.

Stopping hysterics in adults

How to stop an adult's tantrum:

give me some water to drink;
make you wash with cold water;
give the person the opportunity to get rid of emotions;
listen, but do not force them to talk about problems;
do not say that all a person’s experiences are not important, do not ask them to calm down;
try to touch the person more, hug him, this will make the patient feel safe, focus on the situation;
put the person to bed when the emotional crisis subsides;
drop valerian and allow the patient to fall asleep if he makes contact.

Having become a voluntary or involuntary witness to a nervous breakdown, assess your condition. Make sure you can patiently bear all the accusations, complaints, screaming and fits. If you are not confident in your abilities, it is better to refuse the idea of helping a person.

But how then can we explain the man’s hysteria?

By the same mechanism: his brain and psyche, tired of “unweaving” the ingenious “lace” of female passions or struggling in their snares, put into action the male “uterus” - the prostate.
It protects its owner from female “terror” through “anti-terrorism,” powerfully activating the production of “hormones of anger, fear and despair.” Externally, the process manifests itself as a fit of male rage on the verge of rage.

Powerless rage, because what can a modest-sized male uterus do against all the power of a massive female one? And that’s why the man almost always gives in. Or runs away (including dying).

Help with a hysterical attack

Severe hysteria can provoke a fainting state. A person under the influence of his emotions does not hear those around him. First aid for hysterics is:

use ammonia;
sprinkle cold water on your face;
try to give the patient privacy.

First aid to stop a hysterical attack involves abruptly removing a person from a state of prostration, when he does not hear or see anything around him, but is concentrated only on his own emotions. This can be done with any sudden movement or sound. Use short phrases when communicating. Upon completion of the attack, a rollback effect begins, which is accompanied by drowsiness and inhibition of reactions. After a hysterical attack, a person may begin to clean the apartment and continue vigorous activity for several hours. Don't touch it in this state. The body itself is looking for ways to release energy; if you pester the patient with questions and offer to talk, this will provoke a new breakdown.

You need to gradually bring a person out of hysteria.

As soon as the energy runs out, the person needs to be given the opportunity to sleep. Do not relieve symptoms with alcohol. Do not support the patient's inappropriate actions, but also do not insist that he is wrong. Try not to point out to a person his inadequacy. It is important that those around you understand that in the current circumstances such a reaction is the norm. You can talk to the patient only after he has had enough sleep and will adequately perceive the information provided.

Frequently repeated attacks require medication and correctional psychological treatment.

It is recommended to stop hysterics of an everyday nature, that is, feigned ones, by indifference on the part of the listener. The fewer witnesses to such manipulations, the faster they will end. A clear example of this behavior can be seen in children who throw a tantrum on the street or in a store, demanding a toy, chocolate, etc. The more strangers there are around the child, the stronger the hysterical attack.

“Yes, sir, such a neurosis!”

Contrary to the generally accepted opinion that hysterical neurosis is simply a form of female bitchiness, the categorical conclusion of medical science should be cited: hysteria is one of the varieties of neurosis, because it does not have any organic substrate (if this is not the case, it is no longer hysteria).

It has long been noticed: this pathology is burdened with natures that are overly impressionable, refined, “airy”, “fluttering in the clouds” of daydreaming - and absolutely cut off from sinful earthly life with all its dirt and mold.

Raised with copious tears and sighs from novels and movies, these “muslin young ladies” are simply unable to endure the touch of rough, materially dense life, the slightest breath of it simply knocks them off their feet - there is no need to talk about direct coercion and violence at all.

For these are, for the most part, individuals raised under the gaze of a whole series of generations of similarly educated women - mothers and grandmothers - who are ready to run for a thermometer or an enema at the slightest change in the “princess’s” facial features.

Accustomed to their own, “innate” weakness, “sickness” and helplessness, living with an eye on who to lean on (more precisely, who to hang on), people of this type never live their own lives - their heads are full of other people’s, operetta-like ideas about what as it should be ideally.

And these ideas are so strong and resourcefully tenacious that the hysteric becomes a real despot, imposing them on everyone around him - whoever dares to offend a fragile “porcelain doll”, it is better to give in. As a person grows up, she gets used to believing that it simply cannot be any other way.

And this fragile butterfly (and a tenacious leech rolled into one) is brought into life, where you have to somehow act and say something. What to do if your legs can’t hold you up?

Yes, just falling into the arms of the first suitable compassionate representative of the opposite sex - your head is spinning, they say! She was really dizzy, and for good reason.

After all, these naive dreamers never have any idea of their own about specific everyday affairs - the “drive belts” of life; they are worried and frightened even by the very prospect of having them. Their credo is “yes, but...”. And this, said in a weak voice in which tears tremble, “but” categorically excludes the possibility for them to do anything on their own.

Having fallen into someone else's heartily open arms, hysterical people remain in them for the rest of their lives - they are “too weak” to walk on their own feet.

Having settled comfortably in a quiet, “windless” place, a fragile butterfly can bring offspring - and after that don’t say a word to it at all: I am for you, not sparing myself, and you...! Or something similar. But this comfort is purely external, because in the head of such a cut personality there is real soda.

Self-calming

If hysteria does occur, you need to follow simple steps:

recognize the fact that hysteria has begun and it is inevitable in this situation, try to express it out loud to yourself or to those around you;
throw out your emotions, try to be alone at this moment;
scream, hit a punching bag, do squats, tear paper;
do not restrain yourself even after 30 minutes. you will see how the emotional outburst will subside;
restore strength using any method convenient for you;
analyze your behavior and the reasons that provoked it;
try to eliminate the reasons as much as possible or adjust your attitude to certain factors.

If it happens frequently, go to see a neurologist. The doctor will explain in detail how to calm down in a stalemate and help change your attitude towards the stress factor. It may be that the reasons for the behavioral reaction developed in childhood. Such problems are solved with the help of anchoring on positive aspects, meditation, affirmations and other methods of suggestion.

How to prevent the development of hysteria

First of all, it is necessary to shift the emphasis in life from the patient’s ego, which is painfully inflated by excessive attention, to other, no less important aspects of existence. It is necessary that the child being raised is as open to the world as possible and finds his rightful place in it, and does not languish in anxious loneliness on a “pedestal” that is inaccessible in height for him to be able to jump onto it.

Any suggestion of exclusivity, pain, or helplessness should be excluded from verbal communication and the customs and traditions of the family. It should be taken into account that this process is not quick, often requiring the re-education of several generations of the parents themselves.

When preparing a child for independent life, it is worth resolving the issue of rational professional guidance with the possibility of eliminating occupational hazards in the form of additional neuroticization of the individual at work.

Everything must be done so that the individual can believe that he is capable of life without the care of parents and patrons.

And for this, she needs to be unobtrusively but demandingly encouraged to take the first few independent steps as early as possible. For any journey begins with standing on your own feet. And, as Tsiolkovsky once aptly said on another occasion, “you can’t live forever in a cradle.”

Treatment of hysterical neurosis

Psychocorrection and strengthening of the nervous system will help cure hysterical neurosis. At psychotherapy appointments, the doctor does not pay much attention to complaints, otherwise seizures will become more frequent. The goal of treatment is to correct the perception of oneself and one’s place in society, to find and eliminate the root causes.

Drug treatment boils down to taking general strengthening drugs. Increased excitability requires treatment with plant-based sedatives. “Valerian”, “Motherwort”, “Persen”, “Hawthorn” are suitable. Tranquilizers help quickly calm a person who is hysterical. They are used in particularly difficult cases, for example, when a person has suffered a significant loss (a loved one has died, witnessed an emergency, etc.).

To restore normal activity of the nervous system, vitamin complexes and nootropic drugs containing active acids necessary for the construction of nerve cells are indicated.

Water massage for healing

To treat hysteria, treatment with water jets was introduced; relieving tension through water jets of a certain power turned out to be productive. This is how a method of treating hysteria in women and men with water massage appeared.

Treatment of hysteria with water massage involves a fairly intense effect on the entire body, bordering on pain. Today such procedures are rarely used. The patient can independently perform a shower massage for relaxation or take baths with herbal infusions. Before taking a shower, it is advisable to scrub your body. It relaxes muscles well and invigorates a contrast shower, especially after physical activity.

Treatment methods have been refined and modernized. When the functioning of the central nervous system is impaired, the muscles of the collar zone, spine, and limbs spasm; exposure to water helps relieve cramps. It is important to be careful, such a massage involves sadistic actions that cause pain, this can provoke more serious deviations.

Sedation and “lying down”, or the treatment of seizures

Treatment of hysteria and hysterical neurosis should be comprehensive and include the use of psychotropic drugs, psychotherapy, restoratives, and physical therapy methods; Spa treatment courses are useful.

With the development of neurotic states, especially those accompanied by affective (including depressive) disorders that cannot be treated on an outpatient basis, “lying down” is indicated - hospitalization in the department of a psychiatric hospital for “calm neurotics”.

The arsenal of drug therapy for hysteria includes the use of tranquilizers, the best effect of which is obtained by dosed, hourly use per os:

Diazepam – Seduxen, Oxazepam – Tazepam, Chlordiazepoxide – Elenium from 10 to 30 mg/day;
Phenazepam from 1 to 3 mg/day;
Meprotane – Meprobamate from 200 to 800 mg/day.

What to do in case of massive hysteria?

In case of persistent obsessions, massive hysterical disorders, intramuscular and, in case of inpatient care, intravenous drip administration of tranquilizers (Diazepam, Chlordiazepoxide) or connection to therapy with small doses of antipsychotics are justified:

Etaperazine from 4 to 12 mg/day;
Chlorprothixene from 15 to 50 mg/day;
Thioridazine – Melleril from 10 to 50 mg/day;
Neuleptil – Propericiazine from 10 to 20 mg/day.

Or the use of drugs with a prolonged period of action - Fluorophenazine-decanoate (Moditen-depot) from 12.5 to 25 mg 1 time/2 weeks.

Patients with predominant manifestations of asthenia are effectively treated with a combination of tranquilizer-Piracetam (Nootropil) or tranquilizer-Aminalon.

The severity of affective (depressive) disorders requires a combination of a tranquilizer and antidepressant (Amitriptyline with Chlordiazepoxide and the like).

Cases with persistent sleep disturbance are treated with Nitrazepam (Eunoctin, Radedorm) from 5 to 15 mg, Phenazepam from 0.5 to 1.5 mg, Teralen from 5 to 10 mg, Chlorprothixene 15 mg.

What to do if a 2-3 year old child is hysterical - advice from a psychologist:

Dr. Komarovsky has his own view on children's hysteria:

How to help yourself?

When a tantrum occurs, the best way out for the person who has “lost it” is to work through the situation.
In other words, you should not push your hysteria inside and suppress your emotions. It’s better to throw them out and, figuratively speaking, “enjoy your hysteria.” That is, it is necessary to discharge completely. It’s another matter if hysteria is close, but it’s not there yet. In this case, you need to switch to something, try to distract yourself. The rule here is this: the stronger the internal tension, the more powerful the method of distraction should be.