re is never any lack of unselfish work to be done, or
of people who need mothering, she soon found herself and learned how
to sublimate her energy in useful activities.

=Defying Nature.= One young man from Wyoming had felt himself obliged
to give up his business because he could neither work nor eat. It soon
cropped out that he and his wife had decided that they must not have
any children. With a better understanding of the great forces which
they were defying, his strength and his appetite came back and he went
back to work, rejoicing.

=Left-over Habits.= Often a state of fatigue is the result of a
carried-over habit. One of my patients, a young girl, had several
years before been operated on for exophthalmic goiter. This is a
disease of the thyroid gland, and is characterized by rapid heart,
extreme fatigue, and numerous other symptoms. Although this girl's
goiter had been removed, the symptoms still persisted. She could not
walk nor do even a little work, like wiping a few dishes. I took her
down on the beach, let her feel her own pulse and mine and then ran
with her on the sand. Again I let her feel our pulses and discover for
herself that hers had quickened no more than was normal and had slowed
down as soon as mine. After a few such lessons, she was convinced that
her symptoms were reverberations for which there was no longer any
physical cause.

Another young girl, Miss L., had had a similar operation for goiter
six years before. Since that time she had been virtually bedridden.
During the first meal she had at my house her sister sat by her couch
because she must not be left alone. By the second meal the sister had
gone, and Miss L. ate at the table with the other guests. That night
she managed to crawl upstairs, with a good deal of assistance and
with great terror at the probable results of such an effort. After
that, she walked up-stairs alone whenever she had occasion to go to
her room. Her heart will always be a little rapid and her body will
never be very strong, but she now lives a helpful happy life at home
and among her friends.

In cases like this the exaggeration proves the counterfeit. Nobody
could have been so down and out _physically_ without dying. The
exaggeration secures attention and gives the little satisfaction to
the natural desires which are denied expression, and which gain an
outlet through habit along the lines previously worn by the real
disease. Many a person is still suffering f