Nerves and Common Sense

Book Excerpt: ...of the trouble, the invalid gets "well" only to drag out a miserable existence or to get very ill again. Although any nervous suffering is worth while if it is the means of teaching us how to avoid nervous strain, it certainly is far preferable to avoid the strain without the extreme pain of a nervous breakdown. To point out many of these pernicious habits and to suggest a practical remedy for each and all of them is the aim of this book, and for that reason common examples in various phases of every-day life are used as illustrations. When there is no organic trouble there can be no doubt that _defects of character, inherited or acquired, are at the root of all nervous illness._ If this can once be generally recognized and acknowledged, especially by the sufferers themselves, we are in a fair way toward eliminating such illness entirely. The trouble is people suffer from mortification and an unwillingness to look their bad habits in the face. They have not learned that humiliation can be ...