Wesley Corpus

Thoughts on Nervous Disorders Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 11 (Zondervan) Author: John Wesley --- 1. WHEN Physicians meet with disorders which they do not understand, they commonly term them nervous ; a word that conveys to us no determinate idea, but it is a good cover for learned ignorance. But these are often no natural disorder of the body, but the hand of God upon the soul, being a dull consciousness of the want of God, and the unsatisfactoriness of everything here below. At other times it is conviction of sin, either in a higher or a lower degree. It is no wonder that those who are strangers to religion should not know what to make of this; and that, conse quently, all their prescriptions should be useless, seeing they quite mistake the case. 2. But undoubtedly there are nervous disorders which are purely natural. Many of these are connected with other diseases, whether acute or chronical. Many are the fore runners of various distempers, and many the consequences of then. But there arc those which are not connected with others, being themselves a distinct, original distemper. And this frequently ariscs to such a height, that it seems to be one species of madness. So, one man imagines himself to be made of glass; another thinks he is too tall to go in at the door. This is often termed the spleen, or vapours; often, lowness of spirits; a phrase that, having scarce any meaning, is so much the fitter to be given to this unintelligible disorder. It seems to have taken its risc from hence: We sometimes say, “A man is in high spirits;” and the proper opposite to this is, “He is low-spirited.” Does not this imply, that a kind of faintness, wearincss, and listlessness affects the whole body, so that he is disinclined to any motion, and hardly cares to move hand or foot? But the mind seems chiefly to be affected, having lost its relish of everything, and being no longer capable of enjoying the things it once delighted in most. Nay, everything round about is not only flat and insipid, but dreary and uncomfortable.