A Compendium of Insanity<\/a> is a book written by John B. Chapin, M.D., LL.D. and published in 1898.\u00a0 Chapin (1829-1918) was an American physician and mental hospital administrator. He was an advocate for the removal of mentally ill patients from the almshouses in New York State to a hospital setting and helped to pass a state law that provided hospital care for the patients.\u00a0 Here is an excerpt from the book which answers the question that I often ponder:\u00a0 am I suffering from Simple Melancholia?\u00a0 (It turns out, yes – yes, I am!)<\/p>\nSymptoms of Simple Melancholia.\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\nThe patient is observed to be sad and dejected. There is a sense of depression that cannot be explained, a vague fear of some impending trouble, an unaccountable gloom that overshadows every relation the patient may hold to his various interests. While he seems to have an appreciation of his condition, he cannot throw off the gloom that oppresses him. He loses his interest in his business, secludes himself from his friends and family, reviews his past life, reproaches himself for his past mistakes and shortcomings, and indulges in retrospection and forebodings. Life seems to him undesirable and unendurable. The simplest daily transactions are burdensome. The most trivial occurrences are distorted to the detriment of the patient. The slightest exactions or exertions, as rising, dressing, exercise, and taking food, are avoided. The gait is slow, the gaze is downcast, obstacles that seem impossible to remove are made to every suggestion for mental or bodily effort. Everything is opposed, nothing is proposed, and the patient desires to be left alone. [Opening lyric of my next single \u2013 DeSpair<\/em>] If the history and temperament of the patient are known, many of these manifestations maybe recognized as exaggerations of his normal characteristics. The conversation is deliberate and coherent, and the patient can, and often will, furnish a connected history of his own case. Thus far the emotions and feelings are principally affected, but the judgment may not be impaired to such an extent that clearly-defined delusions are formed.<\/p>\nOn a physical examination of a mild case of melancholia the facial expression is one of sadness and misery. The face may be pale and sallow. The eye has lost its accustomed expression. The appetite is not good, and food is taken sparingly. [This was obviously in the days before good comfort food. \u2013 DeSpair<\/em>]\u00a0 There is no fever\u2014the temperature may even be subnormal. The tongue is pale or flabby and coated. The bowels are constipated, the urine is scanty and high-colored, the skin is dry and harsh, and the pulse is slow and soft. The pupils are quite susceptible, and perhaps are more than normally dilated. The patient is, and has been for some time, probably, insomnious. The blood may show an excess of uric acid; the hemoglobin may be from twenty to forty per cent\u00a0 below normal, and the blood-corpuscles one million or even two millions below the average of five millions per cubic millimeter. In women, the function of menstruations is usually suspended.\u00a0 [We should be so lucky! \u2013 DeSpair<\/em>]\u00a0 A decline in weight has probably been going on for several months, attracting little attention, and may amount to a loss of twenty, thirty, or forty pounds below the average; so that it should always be a subject of serious concern if mental depression is accompanied with decided loss of body-weight. The patient may complain of dull pain or a sense of fulness and pressure at the vertex or in the frontal or occipital region\u2014a symptom arising from the stasis of the cerebral circulation, or fulness of the sinuses. The physical condition of the patient is usually below the average or normal standard. It may be noticed that not an organ of the body is performing its function in a normal manner. The case has all the aggravated symptoms of neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, but there is superadded a melancholy more or less profound.<\/p>\nIt is usual to discover that there has been some strain from mental or physical overwork, such as comes from constant and prolonged application without change or rest; from exhaustion attending the puerperal state; or there is physical and nervous exhaustion from ill-health, sexual or other excesses, or the alcohol-or opium-habit.\u00a0 For all purposes of diagnosis, treatment, and management, it is a safe course to assume that from some cause, even if not apparent, there has been defective or altered nutrition of the brain or of some portion of it, or that damage has been done to its cellular organization.<\/p>\n
An attack of simple melancholia may run a course of several months without other mental disturbance than the presence of depressing ideas. The emotions are principally affected, but the intellectual faculties may not be involved to such an extent that clearly-defined delusions appear. The danger to be guarded against from the commencement and throughout the attack is suicide. The danger of such a tragic end at this stage may be even enhanced from the fact that the intellectual faculties are still intact, and a disposition to end a condition that seems intolerable is more likely to be executed than at a later stage, when the patient is likely to be more carefully guarded and the will-power is more or less impaired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today’s Ill-fated Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The British emigrant ship Omega, with 345 passengers and crew aboard, lost her masts in a severe storm in the Atlantic in February 1848. In danger of foundering, the Omega transferred nearly all her passengers and crew to three passing vessels. One of those vessels subsequently sank in heavy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8957,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955\/revisions\/8957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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