HEADCANON // bc @smallseer made me aware that electroconvulsive therapy didn’t become a thing until 1938, meaning smeyer Really didn’t do any proper research for her characters. The following is a low-down on the treatments Alice received while institutionalized. Alice was admitted with symptoms of delusions (and hysteria), seizures, and migraines.
Early anti-epileptic medication: Potassium Bromide.
Effective at easing tonic-clonic, grand mal, and myoclonic seizures.
Difficult to dose due to a long half-life.
Side effects include; depression, lethargy, loss of appetite, nausea/emesis, paresis (weakness of voluntary movement) of the limbs/eyes/vocal cords, and delirium (confusion, abnormal speech, memory loss and trouble concentration).
Early sedatives: Chloral hydrate.
A minor sedative to reduce anxiety.
Does not suppress epileptiform discharges.
Can be used to treat insomnia.
Alice experienced migraines often, after seizures (visions).
She would be given codeine and left in a pitch dark room until the pain subsided (usually within 24 hours).
Her dosage would be replenished every four hours until the symptoms stopped.
These migraines would occur at least once a month.
Psychiatric treatments: Hydrotherapy.
Warm baths used to calm excited and agitated behaviour.
Patients could expect a continuous bath treatment to last several hours to several days, sometimes even overnight.
Most effective environment was quiet, low light, with audio stimulation.
Cold packs used for those showing signs of, “excitement and increased motor activity.”
Cold water slowed the blood flow to the brain, decreasing mental and physical activity.
Limb holders, typically padded leather, would restrain her wrists and ankles.
If especially agitated, use of a straight jacket was commonplace.
Alice was in a near constant state of sedation, the time she was conscious enough to retain much is debatable. The medication left her largely unable to perform basic tasks on her own, and kept her sleeping most of the time. Her head was shaved when a bout of lice struck her ward.
Essentially due to the symptoms of her medication (delirium, lethargy, paresis), humiliating in some cases (incontinence), and inhibition to act of her own volition (change her own clothes, choose when to eat, when to go to bed, etc), and extreme isolation during hydrotherapy treatments, Alice’s only psychological defense was to dissociate, leading to an extreme case of DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA. She does not recall much of the year leading up to her institutionalization, nor the duration of her treatment. Her memory is also a little foggy up until regaining consciousness after surviving the bite, and waking up alone as a newborn vampire, with an onslaught of powerful visions. The memories aren’t gone however, they are merely repressed due to the emotional trauma she endured.
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