Show daydreaming day dreaming in mild form not injurious by DR JAMES W BARTON it TT T IS by no means an un common experience for most practicing physicians to have a worried mother consult them as to the reason why her child is falling failing HEALTH ineis schoolwork or failing COLUMN to show the t normal liveliness of others of his own age in many of these cases the mother speaks of daydreaming day dreaming spells others will complain that for longer or shorter periods the child will sit with a preoccupied manner often staring vacantly into space and possibly grimacing or smiling to himself when he Is supposed to be doing some task or supposed to be reading or even listening to the radio when spoken to the child gives a start before answering the child seems to prefer sitting alone rather than taking part in the activity of other children I 1 am quoting dr H R brillinger hamilton in an article t on day drea dreaming ming in the canad canadian fan medical association journal in its mild form daydreaming day dreaming is normal dr barton the bright child in the class completes its task and while waiting tor for the others to perform theirs engages in daydreaming day dreaming the child who is not so bright who has difficulty with his school task sits and daydreams instead of working at his task may be serious daydreaming day dreaming in an exaggerated or advanced form can be serious and parents teachers and physicians must be on the alert to get this exaggerated form in its early stages daydreaming day dreaming is just imagining and may act as a spur to greater effort on th the other hand daydreaming dream in g where where the child imagines ZI he is accomplishing great things or performing p arming great deeds really satisfies the child who in real life with other youngsters actually has an inferiority complex sometimes the childs surroundings or circumstances give it an infer inferiority arity complex and in daydreaming it makes up for this in its own mind sometimes there may be some slight light s defect in hearing vision or personal appearance that the child tries to overcome by imagining itself to be absolutely free of all defects there are some cases where infection teeth or tonsils is lowering its fighting forces dr brillinger s tates states that daydreaming day dreaming is normal but it readily becomes abnormal which is a sign of early mental illness when treated early the results are usually very gratify gratifying in FI blood pressure scare or not the story is told of a country physician who has wonderful success in treating pneumonia patients it t was stated state by y some w who 0 thought they knew that this physician called ed all heavy colds pneumonia and as practically all cold cases recover anyway this was the real reason that he was so successful in the treatment of pneumonia my own opinion is that this ghyst physician knew that if he told the patient that he just had a cold he would woul want to be up and about in a day or two which would not only mean that the cold would hang on but might bring on bronchopneumonia broncho pneumonia or pneumonia in other words the physician thought it wise to scare scare the patient to prevent complications now that blood pressure is so much discussed some physicians it if blood pressure Is high try to scare their patients into living a quiet life rightly stating that a quiet life may double their years on earth I 1 believe it will be agreed that this may be just the proper advice in some cases if some patients were allowed to live their own lives they would overwork overeat and get overexcited dr henry M thomas jr johns hopkins hospital baltimore in the baltimore number of medical clinics of north america states scare into being good it is true that some indi individuals ideals must be scared into being dovd good but among the high pressure group these are few and far between many many more need reassurance and this comes in the form of optimistic explanation of the cause of high blood pressure most patients want to know the actual figures if the reading is a couple of points above or below the last readying ing they are relieved or distressed accordingly released by western newspaper union |