Discomfort

“ This discomfort and depression tend to crystallise round some unpleasant experience, either some painful or horrible incident, some fault which has been committed by the sufferer or some misfortune which has come into his life. ”

“ Phrases like "to sit on thorns," "to be on pins and needles," "to drain the cup of misery to the dregs," show with graphic power the folly and curse of worry. Why should one sit on thorns, or on pins and needles? If one does so accidentally he arises in a hurry, yet in worrying, one seems deliberately, with intent, to sit down upon prickles in order to compel himself to discomfort, distress, and pain. Is there any wisdom, when one has the cup of misery at his lips, in deliberately keeping it there, and persistently drinking it to the "very dregs"? ”

“ The feeling of pain, especially, is so frequently excited by causes within the organism that in many cases it must remain a matter of doubt whether to seek for the origin of the discomfort within or without. ”

“ Where the feeling is much dwelt on, however, it may be exaggerated into pain, as, indeed, will any sensation, however trivial, if attention is concentrated on it. On the other hand, in practically all of these cases, just as soon as the mind is strongly diverted by any pleasant occupation, the sense of discomfort disappears not to reappear again until the patient has time to think about himself. ”

“ Headache, toothache, and many other uncomfortable feelings, especially discomfort associated with abdominal disturbances, can be entirely banished from the mind by pleasant association with friends, by an interesting play, by a game of cards, or, indeed, by almost anything that takes up the attention completely. It is well understood that the severer forms of pains can not be thus banished, but discomforts that make life miserable for the patient may be entirely relieved for the time being. ”

“ That the healthy, or unhealthy state of the one, accompanies that of the other, we know. And that certain diseased states of the circulating system, are accompanied with that general state of feeling, called discomfort, or wretchedness, which implies the wide diffusion of painful sensations throughout the system, is but too well known to all who have experienced any modification of the febrile state ”

“ The restoration of normal mechanical conditions with the removal of the cause will prevent the {412} recurrence of the affection, and if some discomfort remains, the patient will not worry, and the muscles will gradually grow accustomed to the strain upon them. Of course, these conditions of discomfort are more common in those who are not naturally strong, who are run down, who are under-weight, or whose neurotic tendency will make any irritation seem worse than it is. ”

“ If a woman has had an organic trouble which has caused certain forms of nervous discomfort, when the organic trouble is cured the nerves are apt to go on for a time with the same uncomfortable feelings because during the period of illness they had formed the habit of such discomfort. ”

“ Treatment.—Mental Persuasion.—The patient must be made to realize that his affection is not rheumatism, but is due to local conditions. Just as soon as a patient's mind is relieved by being made to appreciate that certain habits in his occupation, or certain local conditions that can be corrected, {406} are responsible for much of his discomfort, then that discomfort is much easier to bear. ”

“ And when a morbid affection of the nerves, or a derangement of the digestive organs, plays into the hands of an innate tendency to gloom, this tendency may reach such a height that permanent discomfort produces a weariness of life. ”

“ Exaggeration of feeling due to concentration of attention plays a large role in these cases, and it is evident that the dread of something the matter with the heart connected with even a slight sense of discomfort may readily become so emphasized as to seem severe pain, though many people have similar feelings without making any complaint. ”

“ As a result of this self-suggestion and constant concentration of his mind on different parts of the body, he feels, or rather he thinks he feels, an endless variety of different painful and morbid sensations. There is not a single spot on his body, there is not a single kind of pain or discomfort that should not be complained of by this class of patients. ”

“ The discomforts are usually spoken of as pains, especially after the patient has been dwelling on them for some time and has been reading patent medicine advertisements that tell of how women suffer in silence, but analysis often shows that they are sensations of pressure, of compression, of achy distress at most, and sometimes only of unusual feelings—paresthesiae—that having got over the threshold of consciousness, through concentration of attention upon them, are occupying the center of the stage of mental activity to the exclusion of all serious interests. ”

“ All of us are putting up with the same discomforts, the same nerve strain and we're getting sport out of it, or at least the consciousness that we must sacrifice comforts for the cause. You are the first I have heard complain. ”

“ Discomfort guides my tongue, And bids me speak of nothing but despair. ”

“ The late stress upon me had enabled me to put off illness, but not to put it away; I knew that it was coming on me now, and I knew very little else, and was even careless as to that.
For a day or two, I lay on the sofa, or on the floor—anywhere, according as I happened to sink down—with a heavy head and aching limbs, and no purpose, and no power. Then there came, one night which appeared of great duration, and which teemed with anxiety and horror; and when in the morning I tried to sit up in my bed and think of it, I found I could not do so. ”

“ The body becomes inert and languid, with a sense of illness pervading the frame; the mind is haunted by apprehension of evil, and is disturbed by a nervous restlessness and irritability of the most distressing kind. After a day or two these symptoms disappear. I experienced it most painfully, and am now quite well, but rather eager to get away: I am heartily tired of the waters, the promenade, the dinners, the sick; and the surrounding scenery is by no means interesting enough to compensate for our disagreeable style of life. ”

“ Sufficiently precise as regards superficial parts of the body, especially the skin, its localisation is vaguer when it is seated in the deeper parts, the viscera, the instruments of organic life. 26In the last case, when the pain is of internal and non-peripheral origin, coming from the great sympathetic or the related vagus nerve, it is accompanied by a state of anxiety, of depression, or of anguish, which we shall often encounter, and which frequently causes it to be said that “it seems to the patient that the workings of nature within him are suspended.” ”

“ It is a small price to pay if emotional symptoms can be traced to a physical cause.
It is well known that virtually any serious organic illness or injury can produce emotional suffering, either in the form of physical pain or in the form of anxiety and depression. Chronic pain is a chronic stress and can lead to the same emotional problems as prolonged stress of any variety: anxiety or depression. Similarly, prolonged severe anxiety or depression can cause physical deterioration and make the body more susceptible to disease. ”

“ By a line of humorous reflection already suggested, we may in all cases of worry and moral disturbance reach the consolatory idea that the trouble has, in the first view of it, been grossly exaggerated. At the moment when the sensitive tissue is lacerated the shock of pain blinds us to dimensions; our disappointment fills the outlook, like a thunder-storm. The healthy nervous organism will show its vitality in the rapidity of the recuperative process ”

“ Intense study, a fit of anger, sudden grief, or even great merriment, will sometimes arrest the process prematurely. The feeling of malaise which usually accompanies the discharge is by nature intended as a warning that rest and quiet are required; and the hint should be followed. Every endeavor should be made to keep the individual comfortable, calm, and cheerful. Feelings of apprehension arising from a continual watching of symptoms are very depressing, and should be avoided by occupying the mind in some agreeable manner not demanding severe effort, either mental or physical. ”

“ At last the terribly nervous sensation passed away, taking with it all the pain, and leaving no feeling save one of intense uneasiness and languor, which the once strong man strove in vain to shake off, trying day after day to sit up, if only for a moment, and as often falling back upon his pillows from sheer exhaustion. ”

“ Since this test of emotion is fundamentally sound, it is not surprising that the nervous man is in a state of distress. Indigestion, fatigue, over-sensibility, sound like problems in physiology, but we cannot go far in the discussion of any of them without coming face to face with the emotions as the real factors in the case. When we turn to the mental characteristics of nervous folk, we even more quickly find ourselves in the midst of an emotional disturbance. ”

“ Pain I have enough of, but that is indeed to me a mere trifle, but the almost unceasing, overpowering sensations of wretchedness—achings in my limbs, with an indescribable restlessness that makes action to any available purpose almost impossible—and worst of all the sense of blighted utility, regrets, not remorseless. ”

“ Mental disturbance—grief, worry, excitement—produce immediate physical effect in headache, palpitations and the like. Physical exhaustion—privation, hunger and over-work—on the other hand produce mental depression and collapse. ”

“ I question our right even to suppose a state of pain in the Absolute.
And this doubt becomes more grave when we consider another point. When we pass from the conditions to the effects of painful feeling, we are on surer ground. For in our experience the result of pain is disquietude and unrest. ”

“ The physical side of agreeable emotions, as a rule, is a heightened tone of the purely animal functions. The physical side of fear is a complicated series of effects, one of them being the depression of the organic processes, digestion among the rest. In this respect, however, it more or less resembles severe pain, sorrow, shame, remorse, and other states, characterised by the general phrase “depressing passions;” the depression being both mental and physical. ”

“ Exaggeration of Sensitiveness.—The most striking feature of this is the tendency to exaggerate the meaning of physical symptoms which they have often borne with for a good while without much inconvenience, but which now appeal to them as of serious significance. Any uncomfortable feeling is likely to be dwelt on to such an extent as to be called an unbearable ache or even an excruciating pain, and the patient is prone to connect it with some serious pathological process in the region in which it is felt. ”

“ Laying his head down on his folded arms, with one short but fervent ejaculation of thankfulness hovering on his parched lips, the man whose iron frame had hitherto seemed almost impervious to fatigue, and proof against the ordinary ills that flesh is heir to, grew gradually insensible to outer things, losing all sense whether of joy or sorrow, in the heavy and lethargic slumber which is too often the precursor of serious illness. ”

“ If the symptoms above enumerated do not lead in any way to a discontinuance of the habit, other symptoms 243 more formidable, and more difficult of cure, will present themselves. The back becomes lame and weak, the limbs tremble, the digestion is disturbed, and costiveness or diarrhœa, or an alternation of them, take place. The head becomes painful—the heart palpitates—the respiration is easily hurried—the mind is depressed and gloomy—the temper becomes irritable—the sleep disturbed, and is attended by lascivious dreams, and not unfrequently nocturnal pollutions. ”

“ Thus, to take one special instance, if inability to draw deep breath, fluttering of the heart, and that peculiar epigastric change felt as “precordial anxiety,” with an irresistible tendency to take a somewhat crouching attitude and to sit still, and with perhaps other visceral processes not now known, all spontaneously occur together in a certain person; his feeling of their combination is the emotion of dread, and he is the victim of what is known as morbid fear. ”

“ No cry escaped her, nor sound except a moan, half of mental pain, half of the deadly sickness, the actual nausea, which every one who has ever sustained a severe shock of pain or fear knows is its invariable accompaniment. ”

“ I wrestle at times with intolerable irritability; social gatherings become unbearable; I have all sorts of unmanning sensations, dizzinesses, tremors; I have that dreadful sensation that my consciousness of things and people around me is slipping away from me, and that only by a strong effort can one retain one's hold upon them. I fall into a sort of dull reverie, and come back to the real world with a shock of surprise and almost horror. ”

“ If we consider our mental condition as regards sensation at any moment, we notice numerous sensations more or less definite, not referred directly to the surface, nor to external objects, such as a feeling of general comfort, free or impeded breathing, hunger, thirst, malaise, horror, fatigue and pain. ”

“ And the pain grows, expands,—fills all the skull,—forces you to cry out, replaces all other sensations except a weak consciousness, vanishing and recurring, that you are very sick, more sick than ever before in all your life. ”

“ From the evidence just given it appears that any high degree of excitement in the central nervous system, whether felt as anger, terror, pain, anxiety, joy, grief or deep disgust, is likely to break over the threshold of the sympathetic division and disturb the functions of all the organs which that division innervates. ”