From that episode dates as typical an anhedonia as I have ever
seen. Gradually he became sleepless and woke each day more tired
than he went to bed. The food displeased him, and he grumbled
over what were formerly trifles. He wearied easily, and nothing
seemed to move him to enthusiasm or desire. He gave up friendship
after friendship, because the friends annoyed him by their noise
and boisterousness. He dreaded the roar of the guns and the
shriek of shells with what amounted to physical agony. He brooded
alone, and though not melancholy in the positive insane sense,
was melancholy in the disappearance of desire, joy, energy,
interest and enthusiasm.
Fortunately the armistice came at this time. S. was examined and
discharged as well because he made no complaints, for he was
anxious to get home. This was his one great desire. At home, with
a nice bed to sleep in, good food to eat and the pleasant faces
of his own people, his "nerves" would yield, he had no doubt. But
he was mistaken; this was not the case. He became no better, and
though he tried his old "job," he found that he could not find
the energy, enthusiasm or concentration necessary for success. He
was then referred to the United States Public Health Service,
where I saw him, and he became my patient.
My first problem was to restore the power of sleeping. This I
succeeded in doing by means that were entirely "physical." With
that accomplished, the man became hopeful of further results, and
this enabled one to bring about a desire for food, again by
physical means, medicine, in short. The problem of awaking S.'s
interest simmered down to that of finding an outlet for his
ambition. The Federal Vocational Board granted him the right to
take up a business course in a college. Though he found the study
hard at first, he was encouraged to keep on and told to expect
little of himself at first. This is an important point, for if a
man holds himself to a high standard under conditions such as
those of S., then failure brings a discouragement that upsets the
treatment. At any rate this method of readjustment, with its
reliance on medicines to bring sleep and appetite and on training
to bring hope and relief from introspection, worked splendidly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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