lments will, if
persisted in, establish nosophobia. The patient will come to believe
that she is not exactly well. She will establish the habit of feeling
sick. This will render her mind diseased and the diseased mind will in
turn suggest new and additional aches and pains, and she will soon not
know whether she is sick or well. The dread of disease will effect its
retribution and soon she will be, in fact, an unhappy and an
unsuccessful young wife.
Modern conditions unfortunately favor the easy development of nosophobia
in young wives. Our larger knowledge of the symptoms of diseased
conditions tends to render the analysis of localized pain more
definitely and more suggestively. Certain pains, we are told by hearsay
busybodies, mean certain serious conditions, and the category of these
diseases extends from indigestion to consumption and to cancer. To the
victim of nosophobia this suggestive knowledge is a constant terror and
an ever present nightmare. To the normal healthy mind they mean nothing
and suggest less.
The modern young housewife has a superabundance of spare time. The
utilization of the young wife's spare time is of the most momentous
importance as we have previously pointed out. It is the one commodity
which will speak in the after years in words of solace and cheer or in
regret and condemnation--according to how these precious moments are
spent. If these moments are not spent in a way best fitted to wholly
occupy the mind, the mental attitude--to which we previously referred,
and which is conducive to the cultivation of nosophobia--will have been
developed.
There are certain kindred conditions that may partly explain, to the
ordinary healthy person, the real distress of mind into which these
self-centered sufferers sink. The fear of a thunder storm, for example,
creates profound dread and distress of mind in some people. The dread of
dirt, of sharp instruments, of certain insects and animals, of darkness,
of an ocean voyage, and of great heights, are common examples of this
type of mind-distress of which the characteristic symptom is an
inexplicable and uncontrollable dread. The same system of
self-discipline and self-control is necessary to effect a cure of these
various forms of mind-distress as is necessary in the successful
treatment of dread of disease. To none of these other forms, however, is
attached the same degree of seriousness by the laity as they attach
unjustly to nosophobia. The cond
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