6. Environment. The influence of one person upon another is very great. An individual is imperceptibly influenced by every other person with whom he is brought into daily contact. A person whose nervous system has a tendency toward neurasthenia is especially liable to become morbidly influenced by other people. In many cases, the mere mention of a disease to a morbidly nervous person is enough to make him ill in reality. For this reason neurasthenia is sometimes said to be contagious.
7. Social Life. The frequent participation in social affairs that last late into the night very often leads to nervous excitation and exhaustion, and, if aggravated by the use of stimulants (alcohol and tobacco), the effects are especially disastrous.
8. Insufficient Sleep. This is a very frequent cause of nervous break clown. Mental overwork during the day very often causes sleeplessness at night, giving rise to headache and nervousness. Nurses and sisters of charity become neurasthenic through continued night watching and poor care of themselves. It is very detrimental to health to interrupt the sleep of young people and children, and for this reason school should never begin too early in the morning.
9. Sexual Life. The sexual follies frequently indulged in by growing youth of both sexes (such as masturbation, etc.) may frequently be the cause of nervous troubles ; especially if nervous or anemic tendencies be present, or if the follies be continued for a long time. The perversities practised in marriage are likewise often the cause of neurasthenia in both sexes.
The chief symptoms of neurasthenia are headache, backache and other pains, palpitation, dizziness, anxious feelings, a tendency to bodily fatigue, muscular weakness, insomnia, poor digestion, heartburn, impaired memory (inability to do mental work for any length of time), lack of energy, weakness of will, mental depression, the fear of having some serious disease (of the heart, brain, or of the spinal cord), abnormal sensations in the sexual organs, lack of desire for work, aversion toward society, fixed ideas, brooding, and moods changeable according to the weather.
According to the preponderance of certain groups of these symptoms in the description of any given case, one may distinguish among the following different forms of nervous diseases : 1. Brain Neurasthenia : Brain-pressure, headache, weakness of memory, dizziness, insomnia. The fixed idea of neurasthenia, the anxiety, and the neurasthenic weakness of will belong to a different class. The most promi nent symptoms connected with these manifestations are lack of energy, a constant desire to lie down, lack of resolution, negligence of duties, and worry.
2. Neurasthenia of the Spinal Cord : Backache, pains or unnatural sensations in the legs, and painful sensations in the different organs, joints, and skin, such as tickling, itching, muscular cramp, trembling, muscular restlessness, and twitching of the muscles of the legs.
3. Heart Neurasthenia : Palpitation, anxiety, shortness of breath, pains in the chest. To this class also belong such symptoms as sudden changes in colour (especially in the face), blushing, hot and cold sensations in the hands and feet, and nervous chills.
4. Neurasthenia of the Stomach. See STOMACH, DISEASES or.
5. Intestinal Neurasthenia : Difficult movements, sluggishness of the bowels, formation of gas, and abdominal pains.
6. Sexual Neurasthenia : In men : premature ejaculations, impotence, abnormal sensations in the testicles, bladder, and sexual organs, as well as in the neck and legs, irritable feelings, and fixed ideas. In women : excessive excitement, irritability, abnormal sensations in the pelvis, anxiety, and fixed ideas.
The treatment of neurasthenia always gives promise of success if begun early enough. Very often, however, the patient neglects himself until he has come to the point where the evil is too deeply rooted. And equally often, instead of going at once to a physician, he falls into the hands of some worthless, advertising quack. In all lands such men live almost entirely upon the credulity of neurasthenics. The trouble is not relieved, and the patient leaves one quack only to find another. It is really a neurasthenic patient's own fault if his malady drags on for years.
The first part of the treatment consists in giving the irritated and weakened nervous system all the rest it needs, as well as suitable nourishment, which will restore it to a healthy condition. The patient should seek pleasant surroundings, among intelligent people ; if possible, in a locality with plenty of fresh, bracing air and sunshine, either among the mountains or in a region where pines are abundant. Ile should rest in the fresh air and sunshine ; that is, take sun-baths and air-baths. The roads should he good and not too hilly, and the neighbourhood should have diversified natural views. The food should consist of simple household fare (no hotel cooking), with plenty of fruit, vegetables, good meat, and pure milk. It is very desirable that the place selected should be located in the neighbourhood of a large town, so that the patient can take an occasional stroll through the streets when he feels so inclined. City people who develop neurasthenia cannot be content to live without some city life. The climate should not be enervating or foggy. Water treatment, massage, curative gymnastics, and the application of electricity are also of service ; but the patient must devote several months to the entire treatment in order to be really helped.
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