NERVE STRAIN AND WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 48, 26 February 1929, Page 6

NERVE STRAIN AND WORK.

| "If you give a girl too much to do she'll break j down; if you give a boy too mu« h to do he won't Ido it." The growing belief in the advantage oi | haste has brought the coiiseientiotis work-r. who is compelled by temperament or training to Inthorough. to a point where nervous exhaust i..n h : far-reaching physical results. There is x. r.iu. :■ of the girl in many men that the above quotation does not truthfully apply to them. The "iwrvru-" man, like the hypnotised man who has no control over his revolving lists, reaches a stage when it i~ easier to go on than to atop, even when feels the work is "getting him down." and vei .- often he shows it. The medical adviser cutMilte.i by such a patient can counsel adjustment of work or suggest a continued drawing upou strength and courage (of which there is nearly alwavsa surprising reserve) in the hope that Nature "will build a - fast as destruction occurs. Ihe over-anxiou-worker may be tremulous, hesitant and obvioudv distressed, yet the influence of another mind mav induce a calmness and mental restfulness with..n't any reduction of labour. The cause of n»r\oubreakdown is to be found within the patient, tor psycho-analyists are agreed that work alone doenot produce it. The soldiers' collective wi-dom during the war evolved "Whv worry V" and "Are we downhearted? Xo!" and was "based unconsciously up«n the fact that anxietv comin" from within marred effort and led to" nothing good. Ihe hand worker who liurries himself can watch himself from the distance of his inner self ami put repeated checks upon his hasty movements, but the brain worker has less control over his mental processes, and a racing mind may gallon a lengthy or a circular course until confusion of thought and mental instability render him unlit for his particular duty. Sir F. Treeves once said. "May God protect me from the brilliant surgeon." for even then the surgeons who were quick were praised rather than those who were thorough. In every wfflk of life the germ of hurry breeds destruction, destruction of mental and physical health, of peace, and tranquil thought, and" restful sleep. Neurotics who live habitually at full tension may do splendid work, lighting all the time with such of Nature's warnings as may come to them, but they nevertheless persist, and may need neither check nor encouragement. The anxious neurotic (to quote an expert) is troubled unnecessarily, has a rapid pulse, is annoyed bv headache, palpitation, sweatinsr, indigestion, and numberless fears. There is no possibility of sound work, or work easily and happily 'done whilst so burdened. Should a breakdown occur in either type, the overstraining or the overanxious, it will leave an indelible impression on the character, if not on the body; the patient no longer trusts himself, and remains ever watchful of himself and of the regard of others. Hundredot faces may be noted in a walk or ride through the city, faces in which there are folds in the brow, puckered lines about the eyes, contracted muscles around the mouth, and clamped and ri-id jaws, \oung, middle-aged and old, bearing the outward signs of strain, which, however, may be quite absent from the faces of those who impose a further strain by assuming cheerfulness. Of these some are referred to in the newspapers after suicide: "Yesterday he seemed quite hiusual or "He has always seemed in the best oi spirits." The harm has been done by "th' worm i' the bud,' the hidden anxietv, wrecking a nervous temperament. Nobody says a. word about a remedy. The hurried work continues, the mental hospital fills, the mad race goes on. the neurotic takes his chance with the rest, but what a mistake it is to continue, educationally and otherwise, to manufacture neurotics out "of our youthful material. To end on a cheerful note: "In all this gallopcravorin' 'urry," says Mr. 'Arris, "ther' aint no time ter taste wot yer drinks, an' •V r „ry gets so flustered yer dursen't tell a lie." "It is an extraordinary thing,' said Dr Marshall Mac Donald. of Dunedin, addressing the Trained Masseurs' Conference in Wellington, on mental hygiene as applied to massage, "that in New Zealand, a country with a good climate, "-ood and plentiful food supplies, and a line national spirit, functional nervous disease is so common and is on the increase. In vour work, therefore you can spread, not only the doctrine of good health, but also of mental health. Unfortunately medical training in New Zealand is behind in this ros l ,co< -" —11. A. V.