WE ALL THINK TOO MUCH ABOUT OURSELVES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3465, 14 April 1930, Page 7

WE ALL THINK TOO MUCH ABOUT OURSELVES.

(By GcofTery Gilbey.) I am quite sure I have missed my vocation. | shold have been a nerve specialist. II I bad. I honestly believe that ! should have made a fortune. .1 am equally certain that I should have broken down completely myself. When, in tho course of an article in the Daily Express, I. mentioned that 1 had recovered completely from nerves, 1 was inundated with letters from men and women asking if they could conic and see mo. I saw a few and reasoned with them for hours. v 1. could produce testimonials irom many who took my humble advice and who were cured completely. The mental strain, however, of tackling a really nervy man or woman was so tremendous that 1 had to chuck it. I could not bo a nerve ‘specialist for a million pounds a year, and my admiration for the men of this profession is unbounded. There arc thousands of men and women who, like myself, are nervy by •nature <jr who have become nervy owing to tragedies in their lives,' war service, deprivation, or through leading thoroughly useless, self-indulgent lives. It is not easy for ns to keep lit. When wc are suffering from nerves we cannot feel fit. We must cure our nerves. The only way to cure them is to get our thoughts off' ourselves. This we can all do if we are sufficiently unselfish. In the first place we must lead normal healthy lives. So many of us are searching for a medicine which will take away the after-effects of our excesses. Let us lake, for example, the commonest sin, immorality, in thought and deed. The man or woman who is always giving way to immoral thoughts must pay the consequences. If, is the same uiib those who drink and eat to excess. Seven years, ago when I was smoking over ID Turkish cigarettes a day, I was taken very ill. An excellent doctor told me that I should be a semi-invalid lor the rest of my lile. The gassing 1 had during the war had left its mark. I innst go upstairs slowly, never play tennis or walk np bills. I have not smoked a cigarette since, but now, at the age-of 41, I can ptay set after set of tennis, squash rackets by the hour, limit all day, and ski for •seven hours on end. and then play ice hockey for an hour without a break. I here wore three years in which 1 used to take my temeprature, feel- my pulse, try all kinds ol medicine, read book alter book on health, and gaze at myscll in the looking-glass. Those were miserable years. " Oh, how J wished that I bad been killed during the war. I ben I remembered a war incident, i had been ill in hospital in Roperiiiglic, and my temperature refused to remain normal. I was getting worse, and the colonel of the hospital told me that the trouble was nerves, and that I should have to go home tir a rest. I was highly .indignant, as i was one of tho thousands in the nam'd who thought i cues ■-•as only a nol.-e word for funk. I implored iiini to allow me to go back to my battalion to see if I could get better in the ii'unt line. lie gave way. and ! managed to reach my company headquarters at a spot: called, “The Willows.” in tho line in front of 'i pres. After a few minutes’ rest. I endeavored to visit the posts in front, but on the way i fainted. I realised that j( was hopeless, but I was too weak to get. out of, (he line that night. Next ,i:,v~ I lay in a <lug-eui feeling very j!l' ; ,nd wailing until it was. darX enough to go back to hospital. Jindijoi.lv the Germans started shelling ns ],eavil\ . and Hie dug-out next io mine na- hit and several men killed and wounded. We had to work like mad digging (bein mil. \l | ; i. i there was something).)) lake no- oul m m vsell. When ihe job was and wo bad made the wounded .... old aMe a- possible. I never 1, it bet ter m all mi ln<‘- > bat was m M.nl. I'D 0. . . . \\ 1,0,, 1 remembered tin; mi 'dent i , ,i, ~i ib d a 1 could forget nived ~, o.| m he! • my m rves won al again be < urc-cl. i know u is easy to _ ...ol verv difficult to do. but it. -- ; , I : '.v those who have nT.C’.mit.. m l it is comparative!;. • iV ~,- are morbid by nauuv w •J’oald m.i eultivali (;: ■ * - ir'i, oi morbid I pb‘. lit' from nerves, be.a Use i nm ,Ik nerves. 1 keep y-’nng. '•-• ( au- c most ot my I Hands are young.