Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — NERVOUSNESS, [ARTICLE]

NERVOUSNESS,

A Condition That Should Receive Prompt and Intelligent Treatment. Nervousness is a condition not easy to define; but the common use of the ♦>erm tn every-day speech indicates the commonness of the thing itself. There are few persons, indeed, who have not at some time suffered from Irritability of the nerves and its accompanying depression. It is to be remembered that this state always indicates a falling away from the normal standard of health. It should be taken as a danger signal, a notice from the nerves that something is wrong. The cause of the trouble is sometimes easily found, as, for example, temporary or habitual loss of sleep; or the difficulty may be more deeply seated and more serious. Whatever its cause, nervousness indicates a lack of nervous fcrce, a lowering of vital energy, home where a tap is loose, and waste is proceedhg more rapidly than repair. In such ». state of things, the performance of every voluntary action and of every unconscious organic function is affected unfavorably. Women suffer from nervousness more commonly than men. It is a mistake, however, to think that there is any material difference between the nerve structure of the two sexes. Unfavorable surroundings and occupations account for the greater frequency of nervous diseases among women. Farmers are rarely affected with nervousness. Farmers’ wives are almost proverbially so affected. Loss of sleep, indigestion, grief or worry, and many other functional causes may produce nervousness. Doubtless the most frequent cause is lack of sufficient out-of-door air and of moderate exercise.

It is too common for nervous people to think their complaint too trivial for a physician’s notice. Strict Inquiry as to the manner of life often reveals errors the correction of which relieves the conditions and averts serious disease. “Overwork does not kill, but overworry does,” some one has said, with a measure of exaggeration. Excessive work may no doubt shorten life, but constant woriy over every-day cares is sure to do so. Ceaseless cares exhaust the nervous energy. Change of occupation and of scene allows the nervous forces—the celebral gray matter—to become restocked. Nervous matter is actually consumed in performing the details of every-day existence, just as muscular tissue is expended in exercise. A spring kept at a constant tension surely loses its elasticity, while one which is frequently unbent does not. The figure is a good one to apply to mental and nervous experience.— Youth’s Companion.