EPILEPSY, HYSTERIA, AND NEURASTHENIA
THEIR CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, & TREATMENT
WEBMASTER'S NOTE: This work is presented for historical interest and subject background only. Many of the conclusions, attitudes, and treatments discussed here are those of an "expert" of another era, many of which have been overturned by science or are not acceptable in today's world.
[pg 115]
CHAPTER XXIII
WORK AND PLAY
Although most people would assume that epileptics are unable to follow a trade, there is hardly an occupation from medicine to mining, from agriculture to acting, that does not include epileptics among its votaries.
Outdoor occupations involving but little mental work or responsibility are best, but unfortunately just those which promise excitement and change are those which appeal to the neuropath.
A light, clean, manual trade should be chosen, and those that mean work in stuffy factories, amid whirring wheels and harmful fumes, using dangerous tools, or climbing ladders, must be avoided.
For the fairly robust, gardening or farming are good occupations, such workers getting pure air, continuous exercise, and little brain-work. Wood-working trades are good, if dangerous tools like circular saws are left to others.
For the frail neuropath with a fair education, drawing, modelling, book-keeping, and similar semi-sedentary work may do. Other patients might be suited as shoemakers, stonemasons, painters, plumbers or domestic servants, so long as they always work on the ground.
Some work is essential; better an unsuitable occupation than none at all, for the downward tendency of the complaint is sufficiently marked without the victim becoming an idler. Work gives stability.
Epilepsy limits patients to a humble sphere, and [pg 116] though this is hard to a man of talent, it is but one of many hard lessons, the hardest being to realize clearly his own limitations.
If seizures be frequent, the ignorant often refuse to work with a victim, who can only procure odd jobs, in which case he should strive to find home-work, at which he can work slowly and go to bed when he feels ill. A card in the window, a few handbills distributed in the district, judicious canvassing, and perhaps the patronage of the local doctor and clergy may procure enough work to pay expenses and leave a little over, for the essential thing is to occupy the mind and exercise the body, not to make money.
Very few trades can be plied at home and many swindlers obtain money under the pretence of finding such employment, charging an excessive price for an "outfit", and then refusing to buy the output, usually on the pretext that it is inferior. Envelope-addressing, postcard-painting and machine-knitting have all been abused to this end.
An auto-knitter seems to offer possibilities, but victims must investigate offers carefully.
Photography is easy. A cheap outfit will make excellent postcards, modern methods having got rid of the dark room and much of the mess, and postcard-size prints can be pasted on various attractive mounts.
If the work is done slowly, and in a good light, and the patient has an aptitude for it, ticket-writing is pleasant. Among small shopkeepers there is a constant demand for good, plainly printed tickets at a reasonable price.
On an allotment near home vegetables and poultry might be raised, an important contribution to the household, and one which removes the stigma of being a non-earner.
The mental discipline furnished by this home-work is invaluable, Neuropaths, especially if untrained, are [pg 117] unable to concentrate their attention on any matter for long, and do their work hastily to get it finished. When they find that to sell the work it must be done slowly and perfectly they have made a great advance towards training their minds to concentrate. Their weak inhibitory power is thus strengthened with happy results all round.
When the work and the weather permit, work should be done outdoors, and when done indoors windows should be opened, and, if possible, an empty or sparsely-furnished bedroom chosen for the work.
Recreations. These offer a freer choice, but those causing fatigue or excitement must be avoided, for patients who have no energy to waste need only fresh air and quiet exercise.
Manual are better than mental relaxations. Dancing is unsuitable, swimming dangerous, athletics too tiring and exciting. Bowls, croquet, golf, walking, quoits, billiards, parlour games and quiet gymnastics without apparatus are good, if played in moderation and much more gently than normal people play them. Play is recreation only so long as a pastime is not turned into a business. When a player is annoyed at losing, though he loses naught save his own temper, any game has ceased to be recreative.
