Chapter XVIII
), for it is useless to try to "reason them out", though it is useful for a brief period each day to try deliberately to turn the mind away from the obsession, by singing or whistling, gradually prolonging the attempts.
Rest, to prevent the manufacture of more waste products, the elimination of those present, and the generation of nerve-strength from nourishing food are the things that cure. Chapters XIX and XX deal with the drug treatment.
Do not Worry. Whatever your trouble is, it is useless to
"Look before and after, and sigh for what is not"
for the future cannot be rushed nor the past remedied. All patients reply promptly that they "can't help" worrying, when in truth they do not try.
Work never hurt anyone, but harassing preoccupation with problems which no amount of thought will solve drives many thousands to early graves. Anger exhausts itself in a few minutes, fatigue in a few hours, and real overwork with a week's rest, but worry grows ever worse. Ponder Meredith's lines:
"I _will_ endure; I will not strive to peep Behind the barrier of the days to come."
"Look on the bright side!" said an optimist to a melancholy friend.
"But there is no bright side."
"Then polish up the dull one!" was the sound advice tendered.
_Learn to forget_!
One cannot open a periodical without being exhorted to train one's memory for a variety of reasons. The neuropath needs a system of forgetfulness. Lethe is often a greater friend than Mnemosyne.
To brood on disappointments, failures and griefs only wastes energy, sours temper, and upsets the general health. Resolve _beforehand_ that when unhappy ideas arise you will _not_ dwell on them, but turn your thoughts to pleasant trifles; take up a humorous book, or take a turn in the fresh air, and you will soon acquire the habit of laughing instead of whining at Fate.
To sum up: Go slow! Your neurons have been exhausted in your foolish attempt to "live this day as if thy last" in a wrong sense; feverish
## activity and unnecessary work must be abandoned to enable the nerves to
recuperate.
When the doctor says "rest", he means "_rest_", not change your bustle from work to what you are pleased to regard as play.
So much is _absolute rest_ recognized as the foundation of treatment, that severe cases undergo the "Weir-Mitchell Treatment". The patient is _utterly secluded_; letters, reading, talking, smoking and visits from friends are forbidden. He is put to bed, not allowed even to sit up, sees no one save nurse and doctor, is massaged, treated electrically, grossly overfed, fattened up, and freed from every care.
In leaving his habitual circle, the patient escapes the too-attentive care of his relatives, and the incessant questions about his complaint with which they overwhelm him. The results of this régime with semi-insane wrecks are marvellous. It is a very drastic but very successful "rest-cure", and while it cannot be undergone at home, neurasthenics will benefit by following its principles as far as they can in their own homes.
High-frequency or static electricity sometimes works wonders in the hands of a specialist, but the electric batteries, medical coils, finger-rings and body-belts so persistently advertised are _useless_.
When the patient has in some measure recuperated, he may try the following exercises in mental concentration. Vittoz claims good results from them, but they must be done quite seriously.
1. Walk a few steps with the definite idea that you are putting forward right and left feet alternately. Go on by easy stages until you concentrate on the movement of the whole body.
2. Take any object in your hand, and note its exact form, weight, colour, etc.
3. Look in a shop-window while you count ten, and as you walk on, try to recall all the objects therein exhibited.
4. Accustom yourself to defining the sounds you hear, and concentrating on a special one, as that of a passing tram, or a ticking watch.
5. Make a rapid examination several times daily of your feelings and thoughts, and try to express them definitely.
6. Concentrate on the mental reproduction of a regular curve: a figure 8 placed on its side.
7. Listen to a metronome, and, a friend having stopped it, mentally repeat the ticking to time.
8. Whenever you handle anything, try to retain the impression of that object and its properties for several minutes, to the exclusion of other ideas.
9. Concentrate on ideas of calm, and of energy controlled.
10. Place three objects on a sheet of white paper. Remove them one by one, at the same time effacing the impression of each one as it is removed, until the mind, like the paper, is blank.
11. Efface two of the objects, and retain the impression of one only.
12. Replace the impressions in your mind, but not the objects on the paper, one by one.
The object of these exercises is to get your wandering mind daily a little more under control; do not exhaust yourself.
After some months of treatment, ask yourself--
Am I able to walk ten miles with ease? when introduced to a stranger of either sex or any age, to converse agreeably, profitably and without embarrassment? to entertain visitors so that all enjoy themselves? to read essays or poetry with as much pleasure as a novel? to listen to a lecture, and be able afterwards to rehearse the main points? to be good company for myself on a rainy day? to submit to insult, injustice or petulance with dignity and patience, and to answer them wisely and calmly? When you are able to answer, "Yes!" to these queries, your nerves are sound.
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