The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-03-24
"BLUES"-TI NERVES
THE PEOPLE MOST SUBJECT TO
THIS DREAD COMPLAINT.

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ton.
There are persons who deny ever
having the blues, but as a rule they
confuse the term with hysteria and
womanish fits of sulks. They do not
call their own fits of depression the
blues, but fit them with some more
high sounding name But the blues,
nevertheless, are a distinct mental
affliction to which, humanity general
ly is subject.
The blues have no special reason
for being unless the old-time idea is
right that they come from disordered
state of the liver. That the liver is
closely connected with the mental at
titude resulting from an attack OF the
blues is indicated by the fact that
| dyspeptics are as general thing mo-
rose and given to brooding. But this
does not hold good in all cases, Tor
there are some notably cheerful dys-
peptics, who joke over their enforced
dieting and their lack of flesh.
The active grief that follows be-
reavement or fit of illness or business
trouble is in no way the same thing as
| the depression that comes up When
there is a clear sky and envelopes
everything in it's fog. The one has
reason for being, the other is not so
much a rebellion against conditions
as a general tiredness of life, its du-
ties, joys and sorrows. 1t is the con-
dition which in many cases produces
suicides otherwise unexplainable
So says a clever woman doctor,
who points out that, oddly enough, IN
hospitals the blues are not common
among the patients and convalescents.
| There lis too much of real suffering TO
admit of the brooding, self-analyzmg
condition that attacks people without
reason in the world outside.
The weather, she says, is one OF
the principal inviters OF blues. A
week of bad weather increases sui
cides and fills people with despond-
ency. In many cases it is inseparaDle
from a respondent state of mind. Inc
east wind has always been accused OF
producing low spirits.
But on the other hand people can
inherit the brooding and gloomy tenn
permanent just as they inherit sharp
wits or dull ones, kindly dispositions
or the reverse There are some VINO
begin as children to complain and
whine over their small troubles, and
if the habit is allowed to grow they
| find mat life is bore to them De-
fore they reach maturity.
But to doctors, the blues are sim
ply one of the symptoms of the gener-
al nerve tiredness from which Ameri-
cans suffer SO much. They come from
F, overwork and very often follow peri
DDS of dissipation.
The entirely healthy person will sur
fer griefs, disappointments and dis
arrangements without ever experien-
cling the hopeless. nerveless condition
that people call the blues. People
who eat improperly and live on a
schedule which turns night into day
are the ones that are most subject to
this dread complaint.
People may worry over the trou-
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ably on their account, but this is not
the 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
I'D the same old rut OF thought, and
by evening they are in mental state
which approaches mild form of in
sanity.
Doctors recognize the state of de-
spondency as symptom of various
diseases. 1t is one of the invariable
consequences of nerve ailments; but
it is also a condition. which, like hys-
terra, 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 peo-
pie complaining of the blues-which
usually consists Of fear of something
about to happen, rather than what
has happened.
There is an idea that only women
have the blues, but men are quite Of
ten the sufferers, and when they suffer
the attacks are very much more in
tense than the feminine sort and hard
err to get rid of. Gamblers regard the
blues as a sure indication that their
luck is going against them, and as a
rule they cease to bet or make very
small bets until the sun begins to
shrine for them again.
When the blues are of short dura-
ton, easily dispersed, they do not
count for much, but when they seem
to have come to stay and everything
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