The Detroit times., 1915-07-29
Charity Cures Nerves.
az n. AppINcroN BRUCE,
Author of The Riddle Of Personality"
Psychology and Parenthood." ETC.

One of the best cures know for the "ner
vousness" SO much in evidence nowadays Is to
find a way To make yourself really helpful to
other people, particularly people who are Ill OF
In want
Nervous patients are always unduly self
conferred They are too much occupied with
thoughts of their own mental and physical
states Because of this they feel their nervous
symptoms far more acutely than would other
wise be the case.
In most instances. they really cause these
symptoms to become chronic BY THINKING
ABOUT THEM.
The victims OF nervous indigestion. for ex
ample may in the first place have had a Few
genuine attacks of indigestion. In consequence
Of some rashness In eating or drinking.
By worrying about these attacks. by concen-
trating his attention on the state OF his stom
ach, he has made It difficult for his stomach to
digest any sort of food.
For as everybody ought to know, IL Is one
OF the laws of nature that the organs OF the
human body function best when least attention
ia paid to the way they do their work.
The nervous dyspeptic, therefore. and all
other nervous patients need most to have their
thoughts fixed on something outside them
selves.
This they can gain by undertaking helpful
work for others.
Moreover. by engaging in some sort Of altru
istic work. they soon are forced to recognize
that the world il full of people whose sufferings
are more real and intense than their own.
The result Is that they are gradually led TO
make light Of their nervous symptoms, and the
latter. being no longer fed with the fuel OF ex-
cessive attention, presently disappear
An eminent New York physician. who has
long urged altruistic activities his nervous
patients. offers the following testimony:
ITO patients who think they have much to
suffer, yet whose complaints are all OF sub
jective feelings OF oppression and depression.
there is no better remedy than to come In touch
with real suffering.
MANY woman In our large cities owes her
freedom from the neurotic symptoms 10 which
her sisters are subject to her interest In tuber-
culosis children. There Ia just enough OF suf-
fering to arouse all the pity OF the visitor,
without so much Of Anguish would deter the
more delicate from being interested In the
work.
Nor should charitable works OF this sort be
confined To women. There are many men OF
whom one may we'll say that they need more
human sympathy in their lives and that IL they
had their supposed ills would drop from them,
or seem so slight as 70 be quite negligible.
"Over and over again have seen men who
had become too occupied with themselves lose
their pains and aches in interest In some
real charity
CLOSE contact with the poor intimate per.
sonal relations with other human beings who
are suffering quite as necessary for men
overoccupied with themselves as for women"
word OF warning. however should be added.
II you are a nervous patient and II you wish
TO cure yourself by the method OF charitable
work, don't undertake that work with the
thought uppermost in your mind. Il am doing
this for my own good"
II you go into the work in this spirit you
will still be unduly fixing your attention on
70 think almost as much ever about your
symptoms
Be altruistic in heart, MS well IA in act That
IL the secret OF the cure