After effects of stimulation.
We are conscious of power only in its expenditure. Stim¬ulants waste the power they appear to give. The harm they do is precisely in proportion to tiie good they appear to do. The more they appear to strengthen the more they actually weaken. The depressing after-effect is the result of the ex¬penditure of the bodily energy and substance. The period of depression is a period of decreased activity during which less energy is expended. It is a period of rest during which some measure of repair and recuperation take place.
The longer the period of stimulation lasts the longer must the necessary after-period of depression be. The more intense the stimulation, the more profound must be the depression. This is true whether the stimulation is of one organ or of the whole body. It may be digitalis for the heart or brandy for the general organism—the depressing after-effect is inevitable in both cases.
The use of stimulants to create the natural exhilaration which should belong to the healthy person at all times is a losing game. More and more stimulants will be required for less and less effect. At best the excitement and release—the self-ex¬pansion, the illusion—are poor imitations of the normal ex¬citement and emotional release of perfect health. The blues, the sense of inferiority, the feeling that there just isn’t any¬thing in life, the inability to open up and talk and have a good time till one is artificially stimulated—all these are symptoms of something else wrong with the physique and the whole personality.