Transcriber’s Note
In this text version of “Nervous Breakdowns and How to Avoid Them”
words in italics are marked with _underscores_.
Sidenotes have been moved to the start of the paragraph to which they
refer. All sidenotes were originally printed in bold.
Inconsistent hyphenation and irregular grammar are retained. Minor
changes to punctuation have been made without comment. Other changes
are listed at the end of the book.
NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS
AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
_All rights reserved_
Nervous Breakdowns and
How to Avoid Them
BY
CHARLES D. MUSGROVE
M.D.
NEW YORK
FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY
1913
BRISTOL, ENG.: J. W. ARROWSMITH LTD., QUAY STREET.
CONTENTS.
_Page_
CHAPTER I.
BREAKDOWNS 1
The shock. The kind of person most liable.
The nature of breakdowns. Neurasthenia, the
two types.
CHAPTER II.
THE DANGER SIGNAL 9
The signs of a breakdown. Each individual
his or her own standard. Breakdowns
preventable.
CHAPTER III.
HEALTH 19
Health, not illness, the standard. What
health is. The motor-car. The human
machinery. Interplay between the various
parts. Combustion--Ashes or waste matter,
and how got rid of. The nervous ramifications.
Starvation and poisoning. Compensation.
Cause of breakdown. The remedy.
CHAPTER IV.
THE VALUE OF HEALTH 31
Happiness. Efficiency of work.
CHAPTER V.
REWARDS AND PENALTIES 38
The health seeker. The reward of care.
The inevitable penalty. Nature’s disregard of
motives. The laws of health. Food, fresh air,
exercise and rest.
CHAPTER VI.
THE HUMAN ENGINE, AND HOW TO STOKE IT 47
The locomotive stoker. The human furnace:
(1) The sort of food to take, (2) The amount
necessary, (3) How to take it, (4) When to
take it.
CHAPTER VII.
WHAT TO EAT 51
Differences of constitution. Likes and dislikes.
Good and bad cooking. Proteids or meat foods.
Meat and gout. Starchy foods. Bread. The
saliva. The slow poison of dyspepsia. Eggs.
Soups. Fat. Milk. Sour milk treatment.
Sauces. Hunger the best sauce. Tea. Coffee.
Alcohol.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOW TO EAT FOOD 67
Mastication. The importance of sound teeth.
CHAPTER IX.
HOW MUCH FOOD TO TAKE 73
Personal requirements. As a rule people eat
too much. Dangers of excess. Diet at middle
age. Diet for the obese.
CHAPTER X.
WHEN TO TAKE FOOD 80
Punctuality essential. Interval between
meals. The digestive troubles of a hundred
years ago and to-day.
CHAPTER XI.
FRESH AIR 86
The human furnace always alight. Fresh
air and the nervous system. Fresh air in the
home. The two-edged sword. Consumption.
Common colds. Sitting-rooms and bedrooms.
How to obtain fresh air without draughts.
Breathing through the nose. Breathing
exercises. Cleanliness. Tidiness.
CHAPTER XII.
EXERCISE 100
Overwork or want of exercise? Exercise at
middle age. Value of exercise. Regularity.
Violent exercise. Cramp. Outdoor games,
walking, cycling, etc. The pavement walk.
Starting indoor exercises. Cautions as to
dumb-bells, etc. Object of exercise. Swedish
drill. Imitation of games. Massage.
CHAPTER XIII.
BATHS AND BATHING 112
Hot baths. Temperature. Effect on various
ailments. How they act. Cold baths.
Outdoor bathing. Turkish baths.
CHAPTER XIV.
REST 121
The spirit of unrest. Modern life. Periodic
rest. What rest is. Recuperation. Power of
self-repair in the body. Bodily rest, and how
obtained. Rest of mind. Change is rest.
CHAPTER XV.
SLEEP 130
Beauty sleep. Ebb and flow in human
system. Remedies for sleeplessness.
CHAPTER XVI.
HOLIDAYS 137
The annual holiday. Where and how to go.
Continental trips. Preparations for a holiday.
Diet and exercise. The restful holiday. Tired
eyes. The return.
CHAPTER XVII.
RECREATION, HOBBIES 147
Games and hobbies. Hobbies and home
life. Hobbies in the prevention and treatment
of breakdowns. Choice of a hobby.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WORK 156
Necessity for it. Mental exercise. The cry
for young men. Conditions of work. _Before._
Bad effect of hurry. _During._ Hygiene. Noises.
Telephone. Bad light. Midday rest. Meals.
Nature of work. Working against time. Public
work. _After._ Exercise. Rest. Recreation.
CHAPTER XIX.
WORRY 169
Worry, not work, that kills. The effect on
the mind. Worry and neurasthenia. How to
avoid worry. The influence of the body on the
mind. Anticipation. Beset by work.
Stimulants. Overwork _versus_ worry. Hobbies
as a remedy.
CHAPTER XX.
THE STRONG MAN 182
What strength is. Find out the weak points.
Know your own temperament. Adjusting the
mind. The secret of preventing breakdowns.
Nervous Breakdowns and How to Avoid Them.
CHAPTER I.
BREAKDOWNS IN GENERAL.
An express train was on its way from London to Edinburgh. It was
running at sixty miles an hour, and the passengers, as comfortable as
if they had been sitting in easy chairs by their own firesides, were
engaged in reading, sleeping, talking or looking out of the windows.
Not a thought of any impending trouble crossed their minds.
Suddenly they felt a jar, followed by a jerk; the train slowed down,
and within ten seconds had come to a standstill. Then there was general
commotion, and heads appeared at every window, to see or inquire what
was the matter. There was no station in sight, and no signal against
them. Yet that train, which a few moments earlier had been speeding
along in all its power and pride, had come to a dead stop.
And when those passengers alighted from their compartments and began to
investigate matters, they were no nearer a solution of the mystery.
The train had not left the rails, the carriage wheels were intact, the
engine was undamaged, the fires burning and the steam up. Yet something
had happened, and whatever it was, it had rendered that train a useless
mass of timber and steel for the time being. It was still a fine thing
to look at, but as a means of locomotion it was of no more use than a
child’s toy would have been.
[Sidenote: The shock.]
Yet, great as was the trepidation of those passengers, it was nothing
to the shock experienced by the man who in the prime of life, and
perhaps just when he bids fair to reach the heights towards which he
has been striving with all his might for long years, suddenly finds
that he is incapable of the very work of which he had prided himself he
was master.
It may be that he has toiled since youth in order to attain a certain
position, and just when it comes within his reach his nerve fails him,
and he cannot put out his hand to take it. The energy and ability which
have carried him so far along the road fail him at the critical moment.
Or it may be that he has struggled through laborious days and nights
and amid many disappointments for fame. Just as he is about to realise
his ambitions he breaks down, and becomes an embittered misanthrope.
The genius which has enabled him to climb so many rungs of the ladder
becomes inert, and he cannot mount the last step.
Another spends his life in a good cause--philanthropy, religion,
public work of any sort. At the very time when, by the experience he
has gained, his years of greatest usefulness stretch before him, he is
cut off, incapacitated by nervous debility.
And it is not only men who go through this experience; the same may
befall women. Often has it happened that a woman has devoted herself so
assiduously to the care of her family, regardless of her own disturbed
meals and broken rest, that just when her children needed her most of
all--and that is when they were growing up--her strength has failed her
and she has become an invalid.
The lamentable part about breakdowns is the fact that they attack those
who can least be spared. It is not the clodhopper, the navvy or the
labourer, the careless or the incompetent, who suffer from them. On
the contrary, we meet with them among skilled workmen, business men
of the greatest ability, professional men of the highest acumen and
experience. The former can be replaced, whilst these others have carved
a niche for themselves which no one else can fill.
It is the natures of finest fibre which accomplish the most, and it is
they who are most liable to give way beneath the strain. A common mug
may fall to the ground unharmed, where a piece of costly china would
be smashed to atoms. When a masterpiece of art is lost or stolen, the
whole nation grieves after it. How much more so when a man of repute,
either in great ways or small, is invalided and his services lost to
the world.
[Sidenote: The problem of the day.]
There is no doubt that breakdowns constitute one of the most momentous
problems of the day. We hear of them on all hands, in different guises
and under various terms. Go into any company you like, and it is safe
to say that before many minutes have passed matters of health will be
under discussion, and oftentimes they are nerves or breakdowns in some
form or other.
It is only natural, perhaps, that this should be so. Yet too frequently
the only result of these aimless conversations is to accentuate
suffering, instead of leading to the acquisition of any useful
information which might help to relieve it. Unfortunately, the general
public seems to have made up its mind that nervous disorders are an
inevitable concomitant of modern life. They fear them just as they fear
influenza, wondering who will be the next to be attacked.
Yet there is no comparison between the two complaints. For the one is
due to a germ which pounces upon the good and the bad, the wise and the
foolish, the thoughtful and the careless, with absolute impartiality;
whilst the other is brought about by a number of conditions, all
associated with our mode of life, for which we are responsible, and
over which we have a vast amount of control.
Influenza comes like a bolt from the blue, attacking its victims with
disconcerting suddenness. To be sure, breakdowns may appear, in many
cases at least, to come in a fell swoop; but what seems so abrupt and
unlooked for is usually the climax to a long-continued process of
undermining, like the collapse of a house, which has succumbed to the
ravages of time. Yet the events which have led up to it may have been
spread over a large number of years.
[Sidenote: The nature of a breakdown.]
Occasionally we hear of someone who has been disabled all of a sudden
by some definite form of ailment, paralysis, cancer or heart disease,
it may be. Such cases are, however, the exception, and they are not
the breakdowns with which we are now concerned. In the great majority
of instances “breaking down” is the final stage of a long process of
“running down.” There is as much difference between the two classes of
cases as between an engine which has come to a stop because a wheel has
come off or a connecting-rod broken, and one that has become useless
owing to neglect or prolonged wear and tear.
The period of running down may last for months or years, and it is
characterised by various symptoms, physical and nervous. It is the
former which are at the root of the matter, but the others predominate
more and more, until, when the final breakdown occurs, they overwhelm
the bodily symptoms altogether. On this account it is usually
designated by terms expressing this nervous element: nervous exhaustion
or debility, neurasthenia or simply nerves. Yet all these are only
different phases or stages of the same complaint.
What, then, is the nature of this complaint? It is one that has
suffered from much misapprehension, chiefly through the use of the
term “nervous exhaustion.” This phrase has given rise to an impression
in the lay mind that there is a limit to the nervous force with which
human beings are endowed, as though each one started with a certain
quantity which must come to an end sooner or later.
This idea is a fallacy, for nervous energy is in process of being
manufactured every hour we live. And Nature stores up out of this
supply a reserve from which we may draw in any emergency that may
demand a special output.
This reserve fund is constantly varying. It is replenished during the
hours of sleep, it is called upon during the period of wakefulness.
Sometimes an extra call has to be made upon it. A woman may have her
night’s rest broken, or she may even lose her sleep altogether for
several nights in succession. Or a man may have a sudden stress of work
which cannot be avoided. Then the reserve may be depleted, but that
does not constitute a breakdown. If care is taken to ensure sufficient
rest afterwards, the surplus is regained. It is only when a constant
drain is put upon it that serious damage results.
[Sidenote: The two types.]
And in many cases of breakdown the question of exhaustion plays no
part. For most neurasthenics show no loss of energy; in fact, many of
them exhibit an increased output. The crux of the whole matter is not
exhaustion, but a loss of control over the nervous forces. This loss
may show itself in two distinct ways. It may either prevent the energy
from manifesting itself, or it may discharge it in a spasmodic manner.
One market-day, in a country town, there were two horses, both of
which, so far as their utility was concerned, were equally inefficient.
Yet neither were lacking in energy. The one was excitable, plunging
about to the danger of the public, and in any direction except the
right one. The other was, on the contrary, perfectly quiet, standing
harnessed to a vehicle, but unable to move it. This animal had strength
and nerve force in plenty, yet it was incapable of making use of it.
For a drunken ostler had harnessed it the wrong way round, with its
head towards the cart.
The same types can often be recognised in those who suffer from nervous
breakdown. Some patients become fidgety and restless, rushing about
from pillar to post, worrying their employees or their fellow-workers,
and fussing around in the home until the rest of the household dreads
the sight of them.
Others are precisely the opposite of this. They become moody and
taciturn, or disinclined to meet their friends or take part in a
conversation. A woman will sit by herself most of the time, not caring
even to have her children about her. A man will have a difficulty in
making up his mind not only on important points of business, but it
may be on the most trivial matters. He begins to look at his work as
stupidly as the aforesaid horse stared helplessly at the cart he was
supposed to pull.
Where does the fault lie? Not in too much energy or too little, but in
some derangement of the system, whereby the patient’s faculties either
go astray or are rendered inert. And in order to discover the real
source of the mischief, it is necessary to look, not at the climax, but
farther back, through a long sequence of events which have been leading
up to it.