Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1918 — SHELL SHOCK CURED [ARTICLE]

SHELL SHOCK CURED

Physicians Say Ailment Is “War Neurosfe.*\ Men “Scared Stiff” Often Get Rack to Normal in Ten Minutes. With the American Armies in France. —Shell shock isn’t shell shock after all. It’s war neurosis, so doctors have discovered. That takes all the prestige and distinction out of being shell-shocked, so much so that a lot of people who know about it won’t even admit there’s shell shock anywhere. Here’s why: Were you ever surprised speechless or scared stiff? Well, that’s the same thing goipg on within you as when you have so-called shell, shock. The fellow who went time after time to propose to his girl and couldn’t make his tongue work, had the same thing, only on a smaller scale than they do at the front. These discoveries about what they used to call shell shock are interesting and valuable, because they show that the victim merely has lost control over some faculty. He may stutter or his head may shake or he may have the trembles, but it’s far from being incurable. ' Just as the chap who wants to pro-

pose finally gets his tongue and gets the Idea over to her, so the shell-shock patient gets back to himself again. Doctors got busy and figured out just what ordinary shell shock is. Nobody is scared of it any more, since it can be cured,* sometimes in less than ten minutes. The best cure, it seems, Is to put your mind on practical and concrete work. Washing dishes, sawing a log, or knitting sox would be good for shell shock because they would give you something you can concentrate your mind and hands upon. In the shell-shock hospital they work on manual training objects, making toys, building boxes, boats or making designs. Anything one can concentrate on is good. Just figuring out what the proposition is has taken all the honor and danger out of shell shock, and since nobody’s scared of it, everybody gets well pretty quickly. Most of the boys go right back to the trenches and never get it again.