Nerves Shaken
Sources:
Papers On Health
By this we mean, not the nerve trouble which follows a
sudden injury or fright, but the result of long-continued worry and
overwork. Sleeplessness, great irritability of temper, depressing
thoughts, restlessness, and even a wish for death, are all symptoms of
this trouble. In any effort to cure it, the mind must be largely
considered. Thoughts of the constant care of a loving, Divine Saviour
for even the least of His c
ildren, must be encouraged. Work, which is
an intolerable burden when depressing thoughts are encouraged, will
become easy when these are removed. If you get the sufferer made
hopeful for time and for eternity too, you have half won the battle.
Again, in bodily matters, food or drink which is exciting must be given
up, or very sparingly used. Tea should only be taken weak, and at
most twice a-day. Avoid long conversations, and especially discussions
and debates. Let the head be soaped (see Head, Soaping) with soap
lather at night, and rub all over with hot vinegar and olive oil before
rising in the morning. Many a shaken nervous system will speedily
recover under such treatment. Take also eight good hours for sleep,
and allow no ideas of business or work to intrude upon them. No more
valuable habit can be formed, by the healthy as well as by the nervous,
than this. The whole will should resolutely be bent to remove the
attention from every trying thought, when the hours of work are past,
and especially on retiring to rest. Always recollect that this can be
done; assert mentally, or if necessary, audibly, that it shall. Do
not let initial failure disappoint you; persevere and a habit will be
formed. When the brain gets a fair rest in its hours of leisure, it is
usually equal to all demands in ordinary hours of work.
All brain workers, in their leisure hours should let the brain rest,
and if they must do something, let it be as diverse from their work,
and as easy on the thinking power as is possible. (See Worry).