Dr. Weekes - Self-Help for Your Nerves - Learn to relax and enjoy life again by overcoming stress and fear

DR CLAIRE WEEKES

for your

Learn to relax and enjoy life again by overcoming stress and fear

Thorsons

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Original edition published by Angus & Robertson Publishers

First published in the UK 1962

Published by Thorsons 1995

Copyright © Claire Weekes Publications 1977

Hazel Claire Weekes asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780722531556

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007385713

Version: 2017-03-31

Many of those who suffer from nervousness are persons of fine sensibilities, of delicate regard for honour, endowed with a feeling of duty and obligation. Their nerves have tricked them, misled them.

W. R. Houston

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

1 The Power Within You

2 How Our Nervous System Works

3 What is Nervous Illness?

4 The Simpler Form of Nervous Illness

5 How to Cure the Simpler Form of Nervous Illness

6 Cure of the More Constant Symptoms

7 Cure of Recurring Nervous Attacks

8 Being Yourself Again

9 Nervous Illness Complicated by Problem, Sorrow, Guilt or Disgrace

10 How to Cure Nervous Illness Complicated by Problem, Sorrow, Guilt or Disgrace

11 Problem

12 Sorrow

13 Guilt and Disgrace

14 Obsession

15 Sleeplessness

16 That Dreaded Morning Feeling

17 Depression

18 Loss of Confidence

19 Difficulty in Contacting Other People

20 Difficulty in Returning Home

21 Apprehension

22 Three Good Friends: Occupation, Courage, Religion

23 Do’s and Don’ts

24 For Those Who Fear Further Nervous Illness

25 Advice to the Family

26 What Kind of Person Suffers from Nervous Illness?

About the Author

About the Publisher

If you are reading this book because you are having a nervous breakdown or because your nerves are ‘in a bad way’, you are the very person for whom it has been written and I shall therefore talk directly to you as if you were sitting beside me.

I shall show clearly and simply, and yet with all necessary detail, just how a nervous breakdown begins and develops and how it can be cured. THE ADVICE GIVEN HERE WILL DEFINITELY CURE YOU, IF YOU FOLLOW IT. This will take perseverance and some courage. You may notice that I have not asked for patience. A nervously sick person is rarely patient, because sick nerves are usually agitated nerves – that is one reason why he becomes bewildered by them. To wait patiently in a queue can be almost intolerable misery for such a person. However there is a substitute for patience and this I shall present to you later.

It will not be difficult for you to read this book: it is about you and your nerves, and for this reason you will read it with interest, whereas to read an ordinary book or newspaper may seem an impossibility, or, should you succeed, may leave you more distressed than when you began.

I used the word ‘cure’ and this may surprise you, because it implies an illness and you may think of yourself as more bewildered than ill – lost in a maze trying to find your way back to the person you used to be.

On the other hand, you may be so depressed and exhausted that you may readily agree that you are ill. Whether or not you consider yourself ill, more than anything else you want to be yourself again. You probably look at others in the street and wonder why you can’t be like them? What is this ‘terrible thing’ that has happened to you? What is the meaning of these terrifying feelings?

Such feelings may have possessed you for a long time, even for years. Indeed, you may have reached a point of such desperate suffering that you could be thinking of suicide, or may even have attempted it. And yet, however deeply involved you may be in nervous breakdown, it is possible to recover and enjoy life again. I emphasize, however deeply involved.

The guidance you need is in this small book. The perseverance and courage you can, with help, find within yourself. The strength to recover is within you, once you are shown the way. I assure you of this.

Each of us has unsuspected power to accomplish what we demand of ourselves, if we care to search for it. You are no exception. You can find it if you make up your mind to, however great a coward you may think yourself at this moment. I have no illusions about you: I am not writing this book for the rare brave people, but for you, probably a sick, suffering, ordinary human being with no more courage than the rest of us, but – and this is the important thing – with the same unplumbed, unsuspected power in reserve as the rest of us. It is possible that you may be aware of such power but may feel, because of your nervous condition, unable to release it. This book will help you find this power, and show you how to release and use it.

First, you must know how your nervous system works.

Our nervous system consists of two main parts, known as the voluntary nervous system and the involuntary nervous system.

This part directs the movement of the limbs, head and trunk, and we control it more or less as we wish, hence its name. It consists of the brain and spinal cord, from which a number of paired nerves arise, each ending in the muscle it supplies.

This second part controls the internal organs – heart, blood-vessels, lungs, intestines, etc., even the flow of saliva and sweat. It has its headquarters in a brain centre connected with a delicate network of fibres lying on either side of the spinal column (backbone), from which numerous threadlike branches pass to the internal organs. This second part is not under our immediate control but – and this is of paramount importance in understanding ‘nerves’ – it responds to our moods. For example, when we are afraid our cheeks blanch, our pupils dilate, our heart beats quickly and our hands may sweat. We do not consciously react like this and we have no power to stop these reactions other than to change our mood. We therefore call this part of the Involuntary Nervous System.