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Nervous Exhaustion: A disease for modern civilization.
The nineteenth century marked a turn in the United States with the Industrial Revolution and Civil War creating a society driven by technology many began to feel the burden of the war and capitalism itself. With the Gilded Age ushering in an era of laissez faire economics many upper class professionals began to experience symptoms of neurological and mental disorders that would soon be classified under the umbrella of nervous exhaustion. -
The Civil War.
The war created thousands of soldiers suffering from shell shock whose only relief was nourishment and rest. These simple yet impact treatments would have profound effects on nervous exhaustion and would help to create the fundamentals for the rest cure. -
The Rest Cure.
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell would become the foremost physician on the treatment of neurasthenia. After clinical research with Civil War soldiers and other patients with symptoms of nervous exhaustion Mitchell refined his treatment to include massage as passive exercise and unassisted bed rest for several days. While proving beneficial for some Mitchell failed to recognize his own bias in creating the cure by forcing a physical treatment for mental disorders. -
The Gilded Age
The end of Reconstruction marked the beginning of the Gilded Age, an era which would become famous for its wealth and scandal. A rise in the intellectual upper middle class began a new wave of disease which would impact many wealthy families. Known as nervous exhaustion doctors began to theorize that the demands and stress of a wealthy lifestyle wore out the nerves creating undesirable physical symptoms. -
George M. Beard publishes "American Nervousness: Its Causes and Consequences, a Supplement to Nervous Exhaustion".
Beard's book goes into the deeper theories and observations for nervous exhaustion. The clinical research done was using upper middle class American's who experienced such symptoms as hay fever, depression, hypochondria, hysteria, and extreme fears. While neurasthenia help to pioneer metal health the disease itself had to manifest its self physically and had to be treated physically with treatments such as electricity. Beard's theories proclaim that neurasthenia is the disease of the wealthy. -
George M. Beard's book "A Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion" is published.
Beard's book describes the variety, symptoms, and the treatments of nervous exhaustion. -
Opponents to the rest cure.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman author of "The Yellow Wallpaper" was not only an opponent of the rest cure but was at one point in time a patient of the rest cure. Her experience lead her to write "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a critic of causing insanity rather than helping it.
