Nerves and Common Sense | Page 4

and suggestive titles.
ANNIE PAYSON CALL.

CONTENTS
I. HABIT AND NERVOUS STRAIN
II. HOW WOMEN CAN KEEP FROM BEING NERVOUS
III. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I AM RUSHED"
IV. "WHY DOES MRS. SMITH GET ON MY NERVES?"
V. THE TRYING MEMBER OF THE FAMILY
VI. IRRITABLE HUSBANDS
VII. QUIET _vs._ CHRONIC EXCITEMENT
VIII. THE TIRED EMPHASIS
IX. HOW TO BE ILL AND GET WELL
X. IS PHYSICAL CULTURE GOOD FOR GIRLS?
XI. WORKING RESTFULLY
XII. IMAGINARY VACATIONS
XIII. THE WOMAN AT THE NEXT DESK
XIV. TELEPHONES AND TELEPHONING
XV. DON'T TALK
XVI. "WHY FUSS SO MUCH ABOUT WHAT I EAT?"
XVII. TAKE CARE OF YOUR STOMACH
XVIII. ABOUT FACES
XIX. ABOUT VOICES
XX. ABOUT FRIGHTS
XXI. CONTRARINESS
XXII. HOW TO SEW EASILY
XXIII. DO NOT HURRY
XXIV. THE CARE OF AN INVALID
XXV. THE HABIT OF ILLNESS
XXVI. WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES ME SO NERVOUS?
XXVII. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFORT
XVIII. HUMAN DUST
XXIX. PLAIN EVERY-DAY COMMON SENSE
XXX. A SUMMING UP

CHAPTER I
Habit and Nervous Strain

PEOPLE form habits which cause nervous strain. When these habits
have fixed themselves for long enough upon their victims, the nerves
give way and severe depression or some other form of nervous
prostration is the result. If such an illness turns the attention to its cause,
and so starts the sufferer toward a radical change from habits which
cause nervous strain to habits which bring nervous strength, then the
illness can be the beginning of better and permanent health. If, however,
there simply is an enforced rest, without any intelligent understanding
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 wholesome, sound, and healthy, and so they keep themselves in
a mess of a fog because they will not face the shame necessary to get
out of it. They would rather be ill and suffering, and believe themselves
to have strong characters than to look the weakness of their characters
in the face, own up to them like men, and come out into open fresh air
with healthy nerves which will gain in strength as they live.
Any intelligent man or woman who thinks a bit for himself can see the
stupidity of this mistaken choice at a glance, and seeing it will act

against it and thus do so much toward bringing light to all nervously
prostrated humanity.
We can talk about faith cure, Christian Science, mind cure, hypnotism,
psychotherapeutics, or any other forms of nerve cure which at the very
best can only give the man a gentle shunt toward the middle of the
stream of life. Once assured of the truth, the man must hold himself in
the clean wholesomeness of it by actively working for his own strength
of character _from his own initiative._ There can be no other
permanent cure.
I say that strength of character must grow from our own initiative, and I
should add that it must be from our own initiative that we come to
recognize and actively believe that we are dependent upon a power not
our own and our real strength comes from ceasing to be an obstruction
to that power. The work of not interfering with our best health, moral
and physical, means hard fighting and steady, never-ending vigilance.
But it pays--it more than pays! And, it seems to me, this prevailing
trouble of nervous strain which is so much with us now can be the
means of guiding all men and women toward more solid health than
has ever been known before. _But we must work for it!_ We must give
up expecting to be cured.


CHAPTER II
How Women can keep from being Nervous

MANY people suffer unnecessarily from "nerves" just for the want of a
little knowledge of how to adjust themselves in order that the