Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-11-24
HEIR TO "BLUES."
MANKIND SUFFERS FROM A
MOST PECULIAR AFFECTION.
Not Always the Result of Unhealthy
Physical Condition, Yet in Most
Gases Tt May Be Attrib
uted to tt

uted to It.
The blues have no special reason
for being unless the old-time idea is
right, that they come from disOr-
dered state of the liver. That the
liver is closely connected with the
mental attitude resulting from an at
tack of the blues is indicated by the
fact that dyspeptics are as a general
thing, morose and given to brooding.
But this does not hold good in all
cases. says the Philadelphia Inquirer,
for there are some notably cheerful
dyspepticS, who joke over their en-
forced dieting and their lack of flesh.
The active grief that follows a be-
reaVement or fit of illness or business
troubles is in 40 way the same thing
as the depression that comes up when
there is clear sky and envelopes
everything in it's fog. The one has a
reason for being, the other is not so
much a rebellion against conditions,
joys and sorrows. 1t is the condition
which in many cases produces sui
cldes otherwise uneXplainable.
So says clever doctor, who
points out that, oddly enough, in hos
pitfalls the blues are not common
among the patients and GONZALES
cents. There is too much of real suf
fering to admit of the brooding, self
analyZing condition that attacks peo-
pie without reason in the world out
side.
THE weather" she says, lis one of
the principal invites of blues. A
week of bad weather increases sui
cides and fills people with despon-
dency. In many cases it is insep-
arabic from a respondent state of
mind. The east wind has always
been accused of producing low
spirits.
But, on the other hand, people
can inherit the brooding and gloomy
temperament just as they inherit
sharp wits or dull ones, kindly dis
positions or the reverse. There are
some who begin as children to COM
plain and whine over their small
troubles, and if the habit is allowed
them before they reach maturity.
Very busy people whose minds and
whose bodies are actively employed
are not apt to suffer from the dread
depression of the blues. Work, in
fact, is one of the best panaceas, and
in many cases of nervous prostra-
ton, which with women is closely al
lied to the respondent mental cOndi-
ton, hard work in the home is pre-
scrbed as a remedy.
Another excellent remedy is cold
water baths and showers. These, if
persisted in, are among the best
cures.
Then out-of-doOr exercise is good
The air and the ordinary scenes that
come up in a mile walk will take the
mind off the reigning topic, which in
these cases is always that of self
People may worry over the
troubles of others and suffer consider
ably on their account. but this is not
blues. The blues are always from
within, and they can be thrown off or
persevered in as the sufferer will. AS
rule, the people most subject to
them are women whose home duties
keep them shut indoors.
over sewing or household affairs
they will allow their minds to follow
up the same old rut of thought, and
by evening they are in a mental state
which approaches a mild form of in,
sanity.
Doctors recognize the state of
dependency as a symptom of various
diseases. 1t is one OF the ailments;
but it is also a condition which, like
hysteria can be greatly aggravated by
the patients giving in to it.
when people learn that it is quite
possible to throw off an unwholesOme
mood there will not be SO many people
complaining of the blues-which usual
~ consist of a fear Of something about
to happen, rather than what has hap
rened."