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(IANS)
Lately, the girls in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district have been acting very strange, and experts have dubbed it a ‘mystery illness’.
As per accounts, the female students of class IX and X at a government school in Biltikuri panchayat under Jaitwara tehsil of Shahdol district started to fall sick on the school premises. Stranger still was the fact that they would remain perfectly healthy at home.
Villagers were quick to fall prey to superstitious beliefs, with some locals claiming that ghosts had been unleashed in the school. Experts, on the other hand, think that this is a psychological issue and probably a case of mass hysteria.
After the bizarre incidents took place, the senior classes of the school were shifted to the adjacent middle school building.
“More than seven girls started behaving awkwardly in school. This happened after several years. When the school started, a similar problem was reported, but after a religious ritual, things improved. Probably someone had sent ghosts there. The girls affected are healthy and at home,” the sarpanch of Biltikuri village, Shivkumar Panika, told TOI.
All incidents were reported in a span of a fortnight, and the girls were rushed for treatment to PHC in neighbouring Bijuri panchayat. Dr Bhupendra Singh, who treated the girls, said, “it has been happening for the past 15 days. And it is not the same set of girls behaving awkwardly daily. Mainly they become semi-conscious and start pulling others’ hair. On December 14, it happened in front of me too. This seems to be some psychological issue as we have done all pathological tests, and they are normal. I visited the homes of the girls on Friday as well as Saturday; they are fine.”
“There are certain things that we do not speak about but keep in our mind. These give us stress; when this stress is above the threshold of the personality holding it, it transforms into physical symptoms. It is called conversion disorder, hysteria or dissociated disorder,” said consultant psychiatrist Dr Satyakant Trivedi.
As for why this is more visible in adolescent girls, it could be that they have limited freedom of expression and are undergoing several changes at that point. Adolescents are not very vocal in our society, especially girls. Counselling has a major role, and more importantly, we must listen to what these girls have to say more, Dr Trivedi added.
(With inputs from TOI)
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