Kiboga Hit By Hysteria, Not Demons

Kiboga Hit By Hysteria, Not Demons-- For example if I am an army man and I fear going to the frontline, I will get paralysisBy Caroline Lamwaka On June 20, about 30 people in a remote village of Kiboga district developed hysteria. The villagers and district political leaders believed it was a wild attack by disgruntled demons. There had also been problems of hysteria in May. One of the victims, Annette Muhairwe, interviewed in The New Vision of July 4, said all of a sudden, she felt pain in the chest. Her head was aching and heavy. Sometimes, she could see snakes, then fire, but could not touch them. She said she felt better after being treated by a traditional healer. Since last year, several incidents of mass hysteria have been reported in Girls’ Schools.Dr Sheila Ndyanabangi, Principal Medical Officer in Charge of Mental Health, Ministry of Health, says somebody has hysteria when he/she shows certain behaviour or symptoms and signs of a disorder, when there is no evidence of disease. The person develops this behaviour unconsciously. She says there are three types of hysteria; attention seeking behaviour, conversion and mass hysteria.“In the attention seeking, the person may talk, walk, dress unusually or have other behaviour where there is an audience as a way of seeking their attention. The conversion hysteria is when psychological symptoms or problems are converted into physical complaints. The physical complaint is usually related to the target part of the body, which is supposed to solve the psychological problem. For example, if I am a student and I am going to sit exams, I become blind. If I am a soldier and I fear to go to the frontline and it is worrying me so much, I get paralysis, or if I am a young girl and I fear to put on weight so much, then I lose appetite completely and I cannot eat any food. At that point, the person is not pretending. The symptoms are there as a result of the psychological problems. When the psychological problems is solved, for instance, through counselling, the physical complaints go without other treatment”.Ndyanabangi said mass hysteria is any of the above conditions of hysteria affecting many people. Usually there is a lot of confusion and bizarre behaviour.“These conditions are more common in women and girls than in males. The way to know that it is mass hysteria is that these people have no signs of physical illness. All of them have a typical behaviour, which is similar. Most times, if you interview the people, you may trace the psychological problem associated with them. Whenever you remove the psychological problem, they improve.”Ndyanabangi says the best way to heal mass hysteria is to separate the people from one another. When you separate them, they stop because they are stimulated by what they see happening to their friends. Usually there is a local person who starts the hysteria.“In individuals, the cause is usually faulty upbringing of children, either neglecting them or overprotecting them. This leads to an inadequate personality. In upbringing, there should be a balance of protection and discipline. The child should be exposed to challenges, but should be protected and loved. A neglected child may do funny things to seek attention. Somebody who was overprotected may fear to face challenges.”Ndyanabangi says there are more reported cases of hysteria in the Western world than in Africa.Ends