Nervous Breakdown: Its Concomitant Evils; Its Prevention and Cure, a Correct Technique of Living for Brain Workers (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

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Excerpt from Nervous Breakdown: Its Concomitant Evils; Its Prevention and Cure, a Correct Technique of Living for Brain Workers

These unfortunates are acutely susceptible to any imputa tion on the honesty of their statements and, fearing that none suffer as much as themselves, and obtaining no relief, they gradually sink into the' slough of despond. The heads of such patients never feel just right. Their sleep is disturbed and they feel depressed in the morning. Their memory becomes defective, and they apprehend a loss of reason. Sexual disturbances, indigestion and constipation supervene to add to their misery. They show less endurance and become irritable. There are no objective signs of their suffering, for' their symptoms are wholly subjective. Such cases have beendescribed variously as hypochondriasis, nervousness, brain strain, nervous waste, nervous prostration, nervous exhaustion and nervous breakdown. Physicians designate the symptoms by the Latin word, neurasthenia, which means nerve weakness, and the sufferer is called a newmstlzem'c. It was Beard, of New York, who, in 1869, first directed general attention to a condition marked by irritable weakness, and adopted for it the term neurasthenia. In Europe, it was at first derisively called Beard's disease, or the American disease, and some even referred to it as Americanitis. Herbert Spencer regarded the trouble as essentially American, a view which is decidedly incorrect insomuch as it is a disease of the whole civilized world. Very often the cause of neuras thenia may be resident in some organ of the body. It may be the sexual apparatus, the nose, throat, or digestive tract, hence all neurasthenics should willingly submit to a thorough examination by their physician, for without a removal of the cause, all treatment will prove ineffectual. The strides made in diagnostic medicine have been enormous, and with the wonderful X-rays at our command, who can gainsay the Biblical quotation, For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known. We have medical as well as social fads. To call every disease with nervous symptoms, neurasthenia, is essentially wrong. Neurasthenia is unaccompanied by any tangible evidence of organic disease. Therefore the diagnosis of neurasthenia is only warranted, when, after a systematic and thorough ex amination of the body, no evidence of organic disease can be elicited. A careful examination of the bodily functions is a tedious and painstaking act, and necessitates considerable skill on the part of the physician. Patients coming to the physician for advice and relief do not understand this. They presume that feeling the pulse, looking at the tongue, and tapping the chest constitute the sole diagnostic aids of the physician. The real skill of a medical man lies in his diagnosis of the case. Diagnosis is the goal of a physician's erudition, and justifies the Latin aphorism, He who diagnoses well, cures well.

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