"What we leave after making a hearty meal does us more good than
what we have eaten."
--CORNARO
It is now over twenty years since I had my first nervous breakdown.
About ten years later I had another, far worse than the first one. The
first lasted six months; the second a little more than two and one half
years. Doubtless if I had not in the strangest way in the world found
out how to cure myself it would have lasted until now, unless death in
the meantime had come to my relief. But right here I want to say that if
you are looking for some new or miraculous treatment for such
unfortunate people you might as well close the book now, for you will be
disappointed. There is a cure for "nerves" but the cure is as old as the
world. The trouble with poor deluded mortals--doctors included--is, we
are constantly looking for a miracle to cure us, but if we look back on
all the real cures that we have ever heard about, we shall find they
were as simple as the sun or the rain. And in the name of common sense
let me ask: what is the difference _how_ we are cured if we _are_ cured
and are _happy_ as a result of it? Isn't that enough? Most certainly it
is.
And now, as we journey along through the pages of this book, I want you
to know that these words have been written by one who has nothing to
offer you except human experience. As we proceed you will notice that
every statement is tremendously positive. When a man has been through
this literal hell of "nerves" he knows all about it and what can be done
for it. And so when I tell you the things you must do to get well and
_stay well_, I want you to understand that I know. There is absolutely
no theory to be found in these pages. If you put your finger in the
fire you burn it. You don't have to take your finger out of the fire,
call in a lot of learned gentlemen and say to them: "Now tell me your
candid opinion about my finger. Is it burned or is it not?"
And I am just as positive about my cure of "nerves" as you could be that
fire burned your finger. That brings me to what I want to say about the
so-called "rest cures" at the sanitariums. It is a well-known fact that
if a case of "nerves" is pronounced cured at a sanitarium the cure is
only temporary. Sooner or later every one of these patients goes down
hill again.
And remember I am talking about people who have nervous breakdowns
THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN. I have no time to spare for the person
who has brought on his own trouble. I am chiefly concerned with that
host of children in America--and there is a host, I am sorry to
say--born of what I choose to call "pre-nervous" parents. The girls of
such parents frequently break down in high school. And many of the
finest boys that I know have this dreadful "thing" fastened firmly upon
them just at the very beginning of their lifework.
You may think I am a little vehement, but to me one of the most damnable
and disgusting things in the world is that the medical profession
remains so ignorant concerning the _real cure_ for such cases. I believe
the late Sir William Osler was the greatest physician of his generation.
He was not only a man of talent, he was a genius, and his knowledge of
medicine almost passes understanding. Yet Osler himself was as much in
the dark concerning the _real_ cure for so-called _neurasthenia_ as the
physicians who read his works on practice. If one wants to find out how
ignorant the whole profession is on the subject of a permanent cure,
let the thing get hold of him, and then let him make the rounds of the
physicians, follow out their advice, and see where he comes out!
I have said that even the sanitariums of this country--and for that
matter I might have said of any other country--do not _permanently cure_
these people. I have ample proof of this statement. I have met these
people everywhere and no doubt you have, too. Quite recently the subject
was brought up anew to me. I had written an article on the subject for
one of the magazines, a magazine having a large circulation. In a very
short time my mail was literally flooded with letters. Every incoming
mail brought great numbers of them. They came from physicians of the
regular school, and from physicians of many other schools, too. I won't
mention any of them, for this is a treatise on a dreadful affliction and
how one may get rid of it; it is not intended as a criticism of anyone.
I have no desire to criticize and I haven't time. I am stating facts
interwoven with my own life. If the cure is real, the people will find
it out after they have tried it; if it is not, they will also find that
out. In fact, it's exactly as Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul, said to the
men of Israel when they would have slain the apostles for teaching
Christ's sayings, "Refrain from these men and let them alone: for if
this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught: but if it
be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." And it's exactly the same way with
this healing art. The very fact that physicians of all schools of
medicine--physicians who were sufferers from "nerves"--wrote me, shows
plainly that they could not heal themselves. I have many letters from
people who have been in sanitariums for years and who still have
"nerves." The sanitariums do some people a lot of good, but they cannot
remove the _cause_ of nervousness. I am certain that the very best rest
cure for women is the one Dr. Weir Mitchell first used. But such women
are sure to go down again and again and still again if that is _all_
that is done for them.
Now frankly, if Christian Science could cure such cases and make them
_stay_ cured I should want a practitioner of this cult to treat them.
But Christian Science simply cannot cure them because the underlying
cause of this trouble is _physical_, not _mental_. In other words, the
mind becomes ill because the body is made ill by certain poisons, and
the nature of the disease is so peculiar that most of these miserable
sufferers will not even try a thing unless some one brings them
overwhelming evidence of its having wrought a cure. Or, if they do try
it, they usually quit the treatment before nature has had time to do her
work and set their bodies right.
I have the most profound sympathy for such people. I want to speak
directly to them. That is the task that I have set myself in this work.
I want to talk directly to those of you who are sufferers from "nerves."
I see you in every state, in every city, in every village, and
throughout the farming districts of this country. I have received
letters from many farmers who are suffering with this "thing." To them
let me say, I know just how you feel, and from the very bottom of my
heart I pity you. I know the horrible suffering of each one of you. I
don't care what your ambition has been or is. I don't care what your
situation in life may be. I don't care how rich or how poor you are. I
don't care how much trouble you have had, or the nature of it. I want
you to know these words are being written by one who knows more about
your sufferings than you can imagine. I want you to believe this,
because it is true. If you have longed and prayed for death, remember
that the one who is writing these words also has longed and prayed for
death. But one thing you must be sure to remember: while you are waiting
and trying to get well you must have _patience_.
I recollect one beautiful day in early spring when traveling in Nebraska
I passed a little cemetery. How sweet and restful the place seemed, and
as I looked out over those little white stones I prayed silently that
the great God who made me would not hold me much longer on earth, that
He would soon grant me the rest and peace which I believed was to be
found only in death and the grave. But _remember this_: In those dark
days never for a moment did I think of taking my own life! These words
may reach some one who has had such a thought. If so, I say to you that
to take one's life is the most cowardly thing a human being can do. This
is the only place where I feel like being severe with you people. Shame
on the man or woman who will not go on to the end fighting honorably!
And now if you have ever given thought to such a thing, blot it from
your mind forever. I can see how these miserable people might long for
death, as I did. But no matter how we may long for release through
death, the God of nature must be the judge of our time of going.
Now this brings me to what I want to say about such sufferers going
insane. Believe me, they never do! Remember this always. You won't
become insane. You couldn't if you tried! In letter after letter among
the flood of them I have had from all over this country and Canada, I
read how the poor sufferer feared he or she might be going insane. I
know, poor souls, just how you feel. That feeling is, I think, the most
dreadful of all things connected with "nerves." I suffered from it for
years. It is a dreadful feeling, but there is not the least bit of
danger of such a thing happening to you. You will _not_ go insane. Such
persons can't. Do you really get me? Such persons cannot go insane. This
disease is nothing but what we call a functional nervous trouble. And so
forget about the danger of insanity for all time. You can be cured, but
you will make your return to health just that much slower by harboring
this fear. And it would be simply foolish for you to go on thinking it
possible after I--let me say it again--after I have told you that it
cannot happen. For the value of this treatise lies in the "I." Its value
is just like that of the treatise by Cornaro. He lived it. And so
likewise have I lived it. I have been laid low with this malady. I have
staggered in black despair with staring eyes and bleeding feet and
crying soul along this road strewn with thorns and stones. I know what
it is to lie awake all night and cry like a baby, with none to know and
none to tell me what to do. I know what it is to be tremendously
ambitious. Ambition! Ambition! Ah, God of Heaven! How a poor soul
suffers who beyond everything else, craves to be able to do something
big in this world because he knows he should, yet is held down by this
dreadful thing, "nerves!" And how little, how unspeakably little, do
physicians, even the greatest of them, know, actually know, how we
suffer, unless indeed there be one in whose own body the fiend has sunk
deep its talons.
After I had my first breakdown I made up my mind to study medicine
because something told me that I was one of those "peculiar" people who
just _think_ there is something the matter with them. Is it not strange
that with all the advance that has been made in general medicine, little
or nothing has been done for the relief of the people born with this
curse hanging over them?
I wish this book could be put into the hands of every nervous parent
for, think as you may, all nervous parents beget nervous children. But
does it follow that such children should have a nervous breakdown almost
before they are out of their teens? No, decidedly not; and what is more,
they never should and never would break down, if they had proper food.
I look back with horror on the many nights of my childhood when I
suffered with "night terrors." And right here let me say: no child will
_ever have night terrors_ if he is given just what he should eat, and is
kept from overeating. And now a few words about the _first_ great point
concerning the prevention as well as the cure of "nerves."
Nervous people, and many others as well, eat too much. That, you say, is
nothing new. But that is just where the dreadful wrong begins; and why
there has been tragedy after tragedy, and why even while this is being
written there will be many more tragedies. You will hear lecturers
say--I myself have said it, and to large audiences: "You people eat too
much." But if that's all that is said, people straightway go away and
say: "Oh, yes, he's right, of course. We all eat too much." And there it
ends. Until recently people did not know--most of them don't know
yet--that each day they are actually bringing the grave nearer by
overeating.
Not long ago the great life insurance companies of this country held a
notable convention in the city of New York. Now after everything had
been said and done, after every phase of life insurance had been
discussed, what do you suppose was the great outstanding statement from
that remarkable body of men who know more about why people die than any
other body of people on earth? It was this: "The average American _man
or woman_ dies at the age of 43 because he eats what he wants to eat
rather than what he should eat." That means, of course, that
practically all Americans overeat. They are all like the child who says,
"I'm not hungry for bread and butter. I'm hungry for cake." And I find
that most of these poor deluded nervous sufferers eat what they want
under the supposition that it is good for them because they crave it. I
myself used to do so. I would eat candy by the pound. And it is odd but
quite true that nervous people crave the very things that hurt them
most. But there is no more sense in eating what you crave because you
crave it than there is in the man who is addicted to alcohol, drinking
alcohol because he craves it. I once used tobacco; I craved it, but I
did not need it just because I craved it. It is true the body naturally
needs some fats, some carbohydrates; in fact, a balanced ration, as we
shall see later. But I want to make it mighty plain here that never was
there a greater error than that of supposing you need chocolates or
sweets just because you crave them. And you don't need to overeat, and
keep on doing it, just because you must eat.