FASHIONABLE "NERVES."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1362, 13 February 1912, Page 9

FASHIONABLE "NERVES."

It is true tliat as n modish ailment appendicitis has to retire into the unfashionable limbo of ail "has-beens." Today, if a woman is really up to date, she has nerves. The doctor will pay sho is a neurotic, but that lias by no means the same satisfactory sound. There is some truth in her claim. The high tension of present-day living is conducive to nerves—in fact, to this tension they arc said to owe their existence. Yet how do we explain the vapours—another name for nerves—from which our grandmothers suffered? A well-known lady doctor, Elizabeth Sloan Chessor, says that even allowing for the nervous condition engendered by our high-pressure existence, women need not give away to their nerves nearly as much as they allow themselves tn do. She points out that the worry habit is only morbid, but actually unhealthy, giving rise to indigestion, headache, depression, ljoth lung and heart troubles, and others of the ills which flesh is heir to. "Worst still is the graver responsibility the worrying woman assumes in spreading, not happiness, as she could, but her own despondence. The remedy, the doctor points out, is partly physical, partly psychical, in the sense that the woman who worries must limkc up her mind to get well. Attention to the general health is also of importance to improving the vitality. Thus fresh air, outdoor exercise, and healthy recreation must not he neglected. Then there is the self-control treatment. The determination not to give way to worry is the first step. The habit of self-control can bo acquired. But it requires daily, almost hourly, effort. The worrying woman must keep before her the idea that happiness can bo earned, that healthymindeduess is a goal worth striving for. Not often, it is worth notinff, does one find a woman who has a healthy hobbygardening, walking—most, out-of-door institutions—complaining of 'nerves.'"