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恐怖症及其对各方面的影响 One afternoon while she was preparing dinner in her kitchen, Anne Peters, a 32-year-old American housewife, suddenly had severe pains in her chest accompanied by shortness of breath. Frightened by the thought that she was having a heart attack, Anne screamed for help. Her husband immediately rushed Anne to a nearby hospital where her pains were diagnosed as having been caused by panic, and not a heart attack. 一位32刚的美国家庭妇女安妮o彼得斯，一有天下午正在厨房里做晚餐，突然她胸部剧痛，并发着呼吸短促。安妮感到恐怖，因为她想到这可能是心脏病发作了，于是她尖叫着喊救命。安妮的丈夫立即把她送到附近一家医院。在这家医院，她的胸痛被诊断是由恐怖症引起的，而不是心脏病发作。 More and more Americans nowadays are having panic attacks like the one experienced by Anne Peters. Benjamin Crocker, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, reveal that as many as ten million adult Americans have already experienced or will experience at least one panic attack in their lifetime. Moreover, studies conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States disclose that approximately 1.2 million adult individuals are currently suffering from severe and recurrent panic attacks. 现在不像以前了，有越来越多的美国人得了安妮o彼得斯所经历的这种恐怖症。据一位南加州大学的心理学家本杰明o克拉克披露的消息说，有多达一千万的美国成年人在一生中最低限度有过一次或将来准会有一次恐怖症发作的经历。此外，美国国立心理健康研究院所进行的反复调查研究的结果披露的资料说明，有近一百二十万美国成年人现在患有严重的反复发作的恐怖症。 These attacks may last for only a few minutes; some, however, continue for several hours. The symptoms of panic attacks bear such remarkable similarity to those of heart attacks that many victims believe that they are indeed having a heart attack. 这些恐怖症发作起来，有的只持续两三分钟，可是，也有的能持续好几个小时。这些恐怖症发作的种种症状与心脏病发作的那些症状有着十分明显的相似之处，以致有很多患者都认为他们确实是、真的是心脏病发作了。 Panic attack victims show the following symptoms: they often become easily frightened or feel uneasy in situations where people normally would not be afraid; they suffer shortness of breath, experience chest pains, a quick heartbeat, sudden fits of trembling, a feeling that persons and things around them are not real; and most of all, a fear of dying or going crazy. A person seized by a panic attack may show all or as few as four of these symptoms. 恐怖症的患者都会表现出下列症状：一、他们很容易受到惊吓，甚至在正常情况下，一般人都不会感到害怕的场合下，他们都会感到神经紧张不安；二、他们呼吸短促，胸部疼痛，心跳加快，阵阵发抖；（这里应为"："号-译者注）三、他们觉得周围所有的人和种种情况都不是真实的；四、最为严重的是，有的害怕自己快要死了或快要发疯了。一个恐怖症发作了的人会表现出这一切症状或者说至少会表现出上述四种症状（一、二、三、四为本文译者所加）。 
关于恐怖症发作的致病原因有很多种解释。很多人主张说心理上的紧张压力从逻辑上来说应该是致病的原因，不过到现在为止还根本没有发现有任何证据能支持这一理论。不过，多方面调查研究显示女人比男人恐怖症发作的经历多，嗜酒成癖的人和吸毒的人更容易犯恐怖症发作的病。 It is reported that there are at least three signs that indicate a person is suffering from a panic attack rather than a heart attack. The first is age. People between the ages of 20 and 30 are more often victims of panic attacks. The second is sex. More women suffer from recurrent panic attacks than men. The third is the multiplicity of symptoms. A panic attack victim usually suffers at least four of the previously mentioned symptoms, while a heart attack victim often experiences only pain and shortness of breath. 据报导至少有三种迹象可以表明某人得的是恐怖症而不是心脏病。第一是年龄，20到30之间的人更容易患恐怖症。第二是性别，女性比男性更容易患恐怖症。第三是症状的多样性。一位恐怖症患者通常至少会有本文先前提到的上述四种症状，而心脏病发作时患者通常只有疼痛和呼吸短促。 It is generally agreed that a panic attack does not directly endanger a person's life. All the same, it can unnecessarily disrupt a person's life by making him or her so afraid of having a panic attack in a public place that he or she may refuse to leave home and may eventually become isolated form the rest of society. Dr. Crocker's advice to any person who thinks he is suffering from a panic attack is to consult a doctor for a medical examination to rule out the possibilities of physical illness first. Once it has been confirmed that he or she is, in fact, suffering from a panic attack, the victim should seek psychological and medical help. 一般人都一致认为恐怖症发作时不会直接危及到一个人的生命。尽管如此，恐怖症会不必要地扰乱了一个人的生活秩序，会使一个为因为非常害怕恐怖症发作而不敢到公共场所去，结果这个患者就不敢离开家一步，终于导致与世隔绝。克拉克医生的嘱咐是，凡认为自己患有恐怖症的人都要请医生做体格检查以便首先排除有器质性病变的可能。一旦患者被确认为事实上得的是恐怖症，那么患者就应寻求心理治疗，配合药物治疗。 Sleepwalking - Fact or Fancy? 梦游，是真有其事还是虚构出来的？ There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers. Persons have been said to climb on roofs, solve mathematical problems, compose music, walk through windows, and commit murder in their sleep. 关于梦游的人，有说不完的事：据说有些人在梦游中爬上了屋顶、解出了一些数学题、作了曲，从窗户走出去了，杀了人。 
在美国马萨诸塞州的里维尔市，一百名警察在搜找一个失踪了的男孩，这个男孩在睡眠中离开了家，5个小时以后在一间陌生的客厅中的一个陌生的长沙发上醒来了，他竟然一点也不知道他是怎么到了那儿。' At the University of Iowa, a student was reported to have the habit of getting up in the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Iowa River. He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed. 在美国艾奥瓦，州立大学，据报导说，有个学生有个习惯，老是在半夜里起床然后步行3/4英里路走到艾奥瓦河，他习惯于游一会泳，然后才回到他的房间上床就寝。 An expert on sleep in America claims that he has never seen a sleepwalker. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living man, and during the last thirty-five years has lost a lot of sleep watching people sleep. Says he, "of course, I know that there are sleepwalkers because I have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepers ever walked, and if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment. I doubt that I'd get many takers." 美国有位研究睡眠问题的专家说，他从来也没见过正在梦游的人。据说他在睡眠问题方面的知识在世界上比任何人都懂得多，据说最近35年他放弃了很多睡眠时间去观察人们的睡眠状况。他说，"当然，我知道有些人会梦游，因为我在报纸上看到过。但是我所观察过的睡眠中的人没有任何人会在睡眠中起来走路，倘使我真的登广告招聘有梦游经历的人前来参加我的实验的话，我看我就未必能招聘到很多人来参加实验。" Sleepwalking, nevertheless, is a scientific reality. It is one of those strange phenomena that sometimes border on the fantastic. What is certain about sleepwalking is that it is a symptom of emotional disturbance, and that the only way to cure it is to remove the worries and anxieties that cause it. Doctors say that sleepwalking is much more common than is generally supposed. Many sleepwalkers do not seek help and so are never put on record, which means that an accurate count can never be made. 然而，从科学的角度讲，梦游确是真有其事的。梦游是那种有时近似于奇异怪诞的不可思议的现象之一。关于梦游症所能肯定焉的两点就是梦游是情绪紊乱的一种症状，要治好梦游症的唯一的办法就是去年导致焦虑和担忧的病因。医生们都说，梦游症要比人们通常认为的情况更加普遍得多。许多梦游症患者不前来就医，因而也就永远也不能记录在案，这就意味着永也没办法作出精确的统计。 The question is: Is the sleepwalker actually awake or asleep? Scientists have decided that he is about half-and-half. Dr. Zelda Teplitz, who made a ten-year study of the subject, says, "The sleepwalker is awake in the muscular area, partially asleep in the sensory area." In other words, a person can walk in his sleep, move around, and do other things, but he does not think about what he is doing. 问题是：正在梦游的人是清醒的呢，还是依然在睡梦中？科学家们断定梦游患者是处于半醒半睡的状态中。泽尔达o泰普丽兹医生对梦游这一课题进行了十年的仔细观察和研究之后说，"梦游的人控制肌肉的那一部分大脑是清醒的，而控制感官的那一部分仍在睡梦中。"换句话说，一个人可以在睡梦中走路，到处乱走，或作其他一些事情，但这个人并没仔细考虑过他或她在干什么。 
一个在睡梦中正在梦游的人干出杀人或某种别的令人震惊的事是可能性有多大？泰普丽兹医生说："大多数人都有非常强大的抑制去伤人或去从事暴行的能力，以致如果别人若不把他们唤醒的话，他们自己也会醒来。"一般来讲，研究梦游问题的一些学术权威都同意她的说法。他们认为人们在睡梦中不会干出任何违背他们自己的道德准则的事情来。至于谈到传闻中那些梦游的故事，泰普丽兹医生指出："梦游本身就是带有戏剧色彩的事情……总会有些听众愿意去听梦游者的故事。我认为他们的一些本来就是言过其实的故事在传讲的过程中被有枝添叶地夸大了。"在她记录的病例档案中，没有任何一个在梦游的人曾经走出过自己家的前门。 To protect themselves, some sleepwalkers have been known to tie themselves in bed, lock their doors, hide the keys, bolt the window, and take all sorts of measures to wake themselves if they should get out of bed. Curiously enough, they have an unusual way of avoiding their own traps when they sleepwalk, so none of their tricks seem to work very well. Some sleepwalkers talk in their sleep loudly enough to wake someone else in the family who can then shake them back to their senses. 众所周知，有些患有梦游症的人，为了保护自己把自己捆绑在床上，锁上自己的门，把钥匙藏起来，把窗户都栓死，若是万一自己起了床去梦游，他们采取了各种各样的措施以便把自己弄清醒过来。说来这事也真够怪的，在他们起来梦游时，总能用一些不一般的手段避开自己清醒时所设下的那些防范的措施，所以他们那些防范的招数都不能很好地起作用。有些患梦游症的人在梦游时会大声说话，以便把家庭中其他人吵醒，然后让家人把他们摇回清醒状态。 Children who walk in their sleep usually outgrow the habit. In many adults, too, the condition is more or less temporary. If it happens often, however, the sleepwalker should seek help. Although sleepwalking itself is nothing to become alarmed about, the problems that cause the sleepwalking may be very serious. 凡是患有梦游症的儿童长大以后通常都能改掉梦游的习惯。许多成年人也会改掉梦游的习惯，梦游的状态多多少少都具有暂时性。可是，如果经常发生梦游，那梦游患者就该去就医。尽管梦游这种现象本身根本就不值得大惊小怪的，但是导致梦游的种种问题却很可能是非常严重的。
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