The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-07-29
Charity Cures Nerves.
Nv n. AppiNoToN BRUCE,
Author of The Riddle Of Personality"
Psychology and Parenthood." etc.

One of the best cures l know for the "ner
vousness" so much in evidence nowadays IL to
find 4 way to make yourself really helpful to
other people. particularly people who are III or
In want
Nervous patients are always unduly self
conferred They are too much occupied with
thoughts of their own mental and physician
states Because OF this they feel their nervous
symptoms far more acuteiy than wouid other'
wise be the case.
In most instances. they really cause these
symptoms to become chronic BY THINNING
ABOUT THEM.
The victims Of nervous indigestion. for ex-
ample. may In the first place have had 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 1t difficult for his stomach to
digest any sort OF food.
For. as everybody ought to know. II Is one
of the laws Of nature that the organs OF the
human body function best when least attention
is 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 is full Of people whose sufferings
are more real and intense than their own.
| Inc result Is tndt tney are RTduuAiiy leu 10
| make light OF their nervous symptoms. and the
latter being no longer fed with the fuel Of ex-
cessve 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 is just enough OF suf-
fering TO arouse all the pity OF the visitor,
| without much OF az guish as 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 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 TO be quite negligible.
"Over and over again have 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 necessary for men
overoccupied with themselves as for women"
word OF warning, however. should be added
IL you are a nervous patient, and II you wish
| to cure yourself by the method OF charitable
| thought uppermost in your mind Il am doing
this for my own good
IL you go into the work in this spirit you
will still be unduy fixing your attention on
yourself and the chances arc you will continue
to think almost as much ever about your
symptoms
Be altruistic in heart as we'll as in act That
Is the secret OF the cure.