How to Write 癔 (yì) — Meaning “hysteria”

Imagine that hysteria (癔) is an "illness (疒) of the mind" where your thoughts (意) go wild. You can think of the bottom part 意 as "idea + heart" to remind you that hysteria involves irrational ideas and emotions. This visual link makes it easier to recall the character.

The top radical 疒 has a specific stroke order: dot, horizontal, left-falling stroke, then two dots (one inside, one to the right). The bottom part 意 has many strokes—be careful not to confuse the vertical lines in 立 and 心. A common mistake is making the bottom 心 too wide or missing the dot inside it.

While 癔 (hysteria) is a mental illness, 瘭 usually refers to a type of skin infection (whitlow) and 瘰 means scrofula (swollen lymph nodes). Visually, 癔 has the component 意, while 瘭 has 票 (ticket) and 瘰 has 累 (accumulate). Their meanings are very different, so context helps avoid confusion.

癔 appears mainly in medical terms like 癔症 (hysteria) or 癔病 (hysterical illness), and in literary descriptions of delirious speech (癔语). It is not a common daily character—most people only encounter it in clinical or psychological contexts. Using it outside of these settings would sound very formal or technical.

Common words containing 癔 include: 癔病 (yì bìng) — hysteria; 癔症 (yì zhèng) — hysteria; 癔语 (yì yǔ) — delirious speech.