‘Hysteria’ is not just the title of a brilliant Def Leppard album (yup, I’m middle aged). Dictionary definitions characterise it as behaviour exhibited by a person, or people, experiencing uncontrollable or uncontrolled emotion, or psychological disturbance.
Sound like anyone you know? 😉
Chances are, if asked that question, the person who pops into your head is a woman. Assuming you haven’t hit the x button on your screen by now, I can suggest why: the word ‘hysteria’ originates from the Greek word hystera, meaning ‘womb’. Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician, postulated that the cause of such emotional or psychological symptoms was a ‘wandering womb’. In other words, errant wombs cause hysterical behaviour, and women have wombs; so, women get hysterical. By the same rationale, men don’t have wombs; so, men don’t get hysterical.
Wandering womb!! I love the cartoon image that conjures up, of a wee womb with its stick-and-handkerchief, off to seek its fortunes in the world! But I digress …
Today, even the most enlightened of us is, at least in part, a product of our social surroundings. Attitudes that informed so many centuries of medical, scientific and social practice are ingrained in our society. They are part of our culture, of our human nature. They are hard to shake. And that’s totally understandable.
Attitudes develop and change, of course. Although, maybe not at the same pace as medical, scientific and social knowledge, which give us the opportunity to challenge our culture, to question our human nature. And the knowledge we now have teaches us that we all, males as well as females, can suffer many kinds of pain, and exhibit a myriad of behaviours, resulting from damage to the delicate balance between body and mind. Endometriosis is just one such damage. Hysteria is just one such behaviour. Next time I encounter challenging behaviour from another person, I’m going to try first asking myself what might be making them behave like that.
There is no cure for endometriosis. Or Crohn’s disease, or Parkinson’s, or diabetes, or Multiple Sclerosis, or asthma, or the common cold. We can see into the far reaches of space, or into the atoms of the human body, but we still can’t see a cause or cure for so many of our illnesses. For endometriosis, we haven’t even developed a fail-safe means of identification yet. But, what we can all do, individually and collectively, is learn, and be kind.
As humans, we are fragile; yet, our shared humanity is strength. Learning is strength. Understanding is strength. Kindness is strength.
Π