She was clearly having issues with depression, which lead to depressive psychosis. However, all her symptoms were diagnosed as “female hysteria”, a mental disorder that was only attributed to women. The symptoms for hysteria such as dizziness, irritability, hallucinations, fever, suffocation, and headache are all diverse and may stem from a wide variety of other mental illness. But, due to the preconceived notion that women are hysterical, she was never given the correct cure. Instead the narrator was given a rest cure, which then made things worse, and most certainly did not serve as a cure to her illness. Her misdiagnosis ruined her life, just like the cases of thousands other women who are told that “it’s just all in their head”. The assumption that women are hysterical is more than just untrue. It’s toxic, destructive, and perhaps even
She was clearly having issues with depression, which lead to depressive psychosis. However, all her symptoms were diagnosed as “female hysteria”, a mental disorder that was only attributed to women. The symptoms for hysteria such as dizziness, irritability, hallucinations, fever, suffocation, and headache are all diverse and may stem from a wide variety of other mental illness. But, due to the preconceived notion that women are hysterical, she was never given the correct cure. Instead the narrator was given a rest cure, which then made things worse, and most certainly did not serve as a cure to her illness. Her misdiagnosis ruined her life, just like the cases of thousands other women who are told that “it’s just all in their head”. The assumption that women are hysterical is more than just untrue. It’s toxic, destructive, and perhaps even