How to cure nervous illness complicated by problems

Although nervous illness caused by problems, sorrow, guilt, or disgrace usually brings a very harassed sufferer with complicated symptoms to the doctor, the same fundamental plan of treatment just described for the more straight forward type of nervous illness cures them, namely;

  • Facing
  • Accepting
  • Floating
  • Letting time pass

Each of the main causes of illness – problems, sorrow, guilt, and disgrace and their side effects, such as loss of confidence, feelings of unreality, obsession, depression, low Self Esteem, etc.

Before studying treatment, the four following conditions for cure should be read and resolution made to obey them. Self Esteem

1. Carry out instructions wholeheartedly. A halfhearted try is useless.

2. Never be completely discouraged by apparent failure. However severely you may seem to fail on occasions, failure is only as severe as you will let it be. The decision to accept and carry on despite failure turns the worst failure into success. There is no point of no return in nervous illness. A day of deep despair can be followed by a day of hope, and just when you think you are at your worst you can turn the corner to recovery. Your emotions are so variable in nervous illness, try not to be too impressed by your unhappy moods, and never be completely discouraged.

3. There must be no self pity. And this means no self-pity. There must be no dramatization of self in this terrible state – no thinking of how little the family understands, how little they realize how ghastly this suffering is. Self pity wastes strength and time and frightens away those who would otherwise help you. If you are honest with yourself you will admit that some of your self pity is pride; pride that you have withstood so much for so long. Self Esteem

4. There must be no regretting and sighing “if only…” what has happened, if it cannot be remedied, is now past, finished. The present and the future must be your main concern. Life lies ahead. So remember no more if onlys. Self Esteem

Carry out instructions wholeheartedly.
Never be completely discouraged by failure.
Have no self pity.
Let there be few regrets an fewer “if onlys”.

Nervous Illness Cure

If you have nervous illness, you will notice that, you have certain symptoms as a fairly constant background to your day, while others come from time to time. For example, the churning stomach, sweating hands, and rapidly beating heart may be more or less always with you; while fear spasms, “missed” heartbeats, pains around the heart, trembling spells, breathlessness, giddiness, nausea come in attacks at intervals. The constant symptoms are those of sustained tension and fear, hence their chronicity; while the different recurring attacks are the result of varying intensity in sustained fear, hence their periodicity.

“This is too simple for me”

The treatment of all symptoms depends on a few simple rules. When you first read them you may think, “this is too simple for me”. In spite of this, you will need to be shown how to apply this simple treatment and may often have to reread instructions.

The principle of treatment can be summarized as:

  • Facing
  • Accepting
  • floating
  • Letting time pass

There is nothing mysterious or surprising about this treatment, and yet it is enlightening to see how many people sink deeper into their illness by doing the exact opposite.

Let us look again briefly at the person described in the last chapter, the person afraid of the physical feelings aroused by fear, and see if we can pinpoint his own treatment of his illness. Self Esteem.

First, he became unduly alarmed by his symptoms, examining each as it appeared, “listening in” in apprehension. He tried to free himself of the unwelcome feelings by tensing himself to meet them or by pushing them away, agitatedly seeking occupation to force forgetfulness – in other words, by fighting or funning away. Self Esteem. Also he was bewildered because he could not find cure overnight. He kept looking back and worrying because so much time was passing and he was not yet cured, as if this were an evil spirit that could be exorcised if only he, or the doctor, knew the trick. He was impatient with time. Self Esteem.

Briefly, he spent his time:

  • Running away, not facing
  • Fighting, not accepting
  • Arresting and “listing in”, not floating past
  • Being impatient with time, not letting time pass

Need we be impressed if he thinks it will take something more drastic that facing, accepting, floating, and letting time pass to cure him? I don’t think we need.

Now let us consider how you can cure yourself facing, accepting, floating and letting time pass.

We will first consider cure of the constant symptoms and then of the recurring attacks.

Nervous Illness

People have suffering from the commonest, simplest form of nervous illness (simple form of Anxiety State) complain of some, or all, of the following symptoms; fatigue, churning stomach, indigestion, racing heart, banging heart, palpitations, “missed” heartbeats, a sharp pain under the heart, a sore feeling around the heart, sweating hands, “pins and needles” in the hands and feet (especially the hands), a choking feeling in the throat, an inability to take in a deep breath, a tight feeling across the chest, “ants” crawling under the skin, a tight band of pain around the head, giddiness, strange tricks of vision such as the apparent movement of inanimate objects, weak “spells”, sleeplessness, depression. Nausea, occasional vomiting, diarrhea, and the frequent desire to pass urine may be added to the list. Self Esteem.

Sufferers from these symptoms are quite certain that there is something seriously wrong with them and cannot believe that anyone else could have had such a distressing experience. Many feel convinced that they have a brain tumor (at least something “deep seated”) or that they are on the verge of insanity. Their one wish is to be, as quickly as possible, the person they used to be before this “horrible thing” happened to them. They are rarely aware that their symptoms are nervous (emotional) in origin and follow a well-recognized pattern shared by numerous sufferers like themselves, the pattern of continuous fear and tension. Self Esteem.