The Alaska daily empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1912-1926, 1922-05-02
PUBLIC IS BECOMING SANER ON
LOON|NESS; IS NOT CONSIDERED
TO BE CRIME FOR BEING OFF"

NEW YORK, May 1.-The public
is said to be becoming saner about
insanity. Families used to feel il
terrible stigma if any OF their kin
vas considered "a little bit off, as
tins saving went. But thousands Of
such people now go voluntarily to
free dispensaries ''for nervous and
mental disorders"
Last year 1858 persons in NeT
York state made $3.50 visits to the 40
such clinics conducted throughout
the state. Only five or six years ago
such a thing was unknown, accord
ing to officials of the State Chart
ties Aid Association, which is CO.
operating in the work.
This organization, pointing to sta
tist;cs which show the tuberculosis
death rate dropped about 81 per cent
from 1907, when the organized fight
on the white plague began. to 1920,
expects to show the same result; in
its battle against insanity
Cause for Disorders
The war and the business depres-
sion that has followed caused a con
siderable increase in mental disor-
ders, Aid Association officials q =
clared. They have found, however,
that serious worries and diseases
are not the only waves that shove
the mind off an even keel. Some
people become unbalanced by toe
much recreation, just as others skid
from the path of sanity because Of
overwork and domestic unhappile5s.
What the association intends ~ do
is popularize information concerning
the causes, treatment and prevention
of mental disorders generally It
contends that 40 per cent of the
10000 persons in New York state
who are now under treatment in asy
huns and hospitals for feeble minded
could have been saved from such
fate if the proper preventative med
sures had been taken in time. It
feels that since the asylums of the
country have a greater enrolllaent
than the colleges, the people ought
amined by competent physicians +
they feel queer or if acquaintance
SO consider them
Hopeful Signs
The most hopeful sign for cutting
down insanity is in the attitude of
parents and teachers toward chill
dren. in the belief of the Aid Ass ,ci-
alton.
'f we can help the queer chill
dren, we will have fewer queer
grown-u2s in the future" one Official
said.
Often the youngsters who are
backward and queer merely need to
have their tonsils or adenoids re-
moved, the doctors have found But
others have cOmplexes, inhibitions.
and a neurosis or two fretting their
young minds. In this connection, it
was said that some of the doctors al
the state hospitals make use of psy-
cboanalysis, while others do not be-
lieve in it. Patients upon consulta-
ton often are told how they are get
ting along Others are discovered to
be worse off than merely nervous"
as they most often describe their
own condition, and occasionally these
have to be sent to an institution.
Cultivation of health through pro
per habits of the mind and the cut
ting out of bad mental habits is one
idea that those working on the prob
lam hone To nut into the nul{ic'S
head. Brooding over being snubbed
by others. or misfortunes and in
juries is the thing the experts want
people to stop doing. Work instead
OF day dreaming, these experts say.
is pretty good way to prevent get.
ting lop-sided between the ears.