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The Pace That Kills

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 7, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 49.

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The Pace That Kills

By Miriam Sharpless

How are we to account for the fact that nervous breakdowns have ceased to be exceptional in both sexes? Almost as frequently men are the victims of morbidness and melancholy as women; and when seized upon by the fiend whom old John Bunyan called Giant Despair, it is difficult to get his prey out of his clutches. Into the dungeon’s gloom they go, and there, perforce, they remain until health is restored. Neurasthenia is treated by specialists in various ways, though all unite in the endeavor to get the victim out of the individual obsession into the freedom and sunshine of the larger world.
The pace of life today is so rapid, and the demands made upon vitality are so tremendous, that overfatigue and overwork go hand in hand. “You do not wish me to become overtired,” said a patient to a physician. “You must avoid being tired,” was the physician’s reply. “You must stop before fatigue so much as touches you.”
Few women, however, are able to obey this prescription. Housekeeping is a complicated affair. Joy and grief alike make demands on our resources. Weariness of body and weariness of mind march with us because we have sometimes too little leisure and sometimes too little variety. A decided change of scene is a panacea for many ills.
If we may not cross the Atlantic, we may perhaps make a visit and rest awhile in a farmhouse twenty miles away. If we have lived too long in one part of the town, it may do us good to remove to another. Few of us sleep as much as we ought to, while we overlook the obvious fact that the quality of sleep is as important as the quantity. Chronic indigestion is the accompaniment and forerunner of nervous breakdown. To eat moderately, bathe daily, drink plenty of pure water, read entertaining books, drive out worry, and spend two hours in outdoor air would transform many a nervous invalid into a specimen of buoyant health.—Miriam Sharpless.