making on other people. I worried because I thought I had stomach ulcers. I could no
longer work; I gave up my job. I built up tension inside me until I was like a boiler without
a safety valve. The pressure got so unbearable that something had to give-and it did. If
you have never had a nervous breakdown, pray God that you never do, for no pain of
the body can exceed the excruciating pain of an agonised mind.
"My breakdown was so severe that I couldn't talk even to my own family. I had no
control over my thoughts. I was filled with fear. I would jump at the slightest noise. I
avoided everybody. I would break out crying for no apparent reason at all.
"Every day was one of agony. I felt that I was deserted by everybody-even God. I was
tempted to jump into the river and end it all.
"I decided instead to take a trip to Florida, hoping that a change of scene would help me.
As I stepped on the train, my father handed me a letter and told me not to open it until I
reached Florida. I landed in Florida during the height of the tourist season. Since I
couldn't get in a hotel, I rented a sleeping room in a garage. I tried to get a job on a
tramp freighter out of Miami, but had no luck. So I spent my time at the beach. I was
more wretched in Florida than I had been at home; so I opened the envelope to see
what Dad had written. His note said: 'Son, you are 1,500 miles from home, and you
don't feel any different, do you? I knew you wouldn't, because you took with you the one
thing that is the cause of all your trouble, that is, yourself. There is nothing wrong with
either your body or your mind. It is not the situations you have met that have thrown you;
it is what you think of these situations. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." When
you realise that, son, come home, for you will be cured.'
"Dad's letter made me angry. I was looking for sympathy, not instruction. I was so mad
that I decided then and there that I would never go home. That night as I was walking
down one of the side streets of Miami, I came to a church where services were going
on. Having no place to go, I drifted in and listened to a sermon on the text: 'He who
conquers his spirit is mightier than he who taketh a city.' Sitting in the sanctity of the
house of God and hearing the same thoughts that my Dad had written in his letter-all
this swept the accumulated litter out of my brain. I was able to think clearly and sensibly
for the first time in my life. I realised what a fool I had been. I was shocked to see myself
in my true light: here I was, wanting to change the whole world and everyone in it- when
the only thing that needed changing was the focus of the lens of the camera which was
my mind.
"The next morning I packed and started home. A week later I was back on the job. Four
months later I married the girl I had been afraid of losing. We now have a happy family
of five children. God has been good to me both materially and mentally. At the time of
the breakdown I was a night foreman of a small department handling eighteen people. I
am now superintendent of carton manufacture in charge of over four hundred and fifty
people. Life is much fuller and friendlier. I believe I appreciate the true values of life now.
When moments of uneasiness try to creep in (as they will in everyone's life) I tell myself
to get that camera back in focus, and everything is O.K.
"I can honestly say that I am glad I had the breakdown, because I found out the hard
way what power our thoughts can have over our mind and our body. Now I can make
my thoughts work for me instead of against me. I can see now that Dad was right when
he said it wasn't outward situations that had caused all my suffering, but what I thought
of those situations. And as soon as I realised that, I was cured-and stayed cured." Such
was the experience of Frank J. Whaley.