How Physical Exercise Helps to Cure Mental Illness

The recovery of this young man gives hope to many who suffer from nervous illnesses!

Salim was at the extreme degree of this disease. He felt that electric wires were being sent into his body — so he put it — and everyone around him was responsible for it and the object of his revenge. He was sent to the mental hospital, where each person is treated individually, and there is no doubt that he was a danger to those around him. The first time I made his acquaintance was the day the patient came out to watch the athletic games! I was always talking with him to persuade him of the need to exercise and play, and I asked him whether he liked playing football. His eyes blazed with anger, and he reminded me that he had far more important matters: he wanted to muster forces to resist the enemies who had sent those wires into his ribs; and he reminded me again of the number of victims he had left on the field of battle, and that he was ready to make me the next victim.

In such situations I would leave him and slip away in silence; but he always watched the play, and enjoyed it.

One day two teams were competing on the field, within his sight, and to my astonishment he came forward and asked me eagerly: 'Don't you think our team is going to lose this time?' I answered: 'Yes — and what will you do about it?' He said with assurance: 'We are losing because that man cannot play.' Here I seized the opportunity and asked him: 'Can you play better?' He nodded his head and said: 'He shall see how champions play.' I went forward in my turn and asked the young man to give up his place to the new player, and he agreed. The days passed, with Salim playing every day with his team, never forgetting to give his opinion when he was a spectator. The opposing team was in the nature of an attacking enemy, and he would threaten it with bodily harm if he lost; but there is no doubt that the play was carrying him toward improvement day by day. The following year he won the cup between the two teams, which raised his morale and instilled a great deal of contentment in his soul; he became calm, spoke of nothing but sport, and read the sports corner in the newspapers without missing a letter of it.

Two years went by, and he became a notable sporting figure among his fellows at the sanatorium; if the team wanted to take on a team from outside, Salim was in the lead. The doctor was afraid to give him permission, because he was rebellious; but his pleasure in hurling the ball came to exceed his longing to hurl himself at enemies, and when he left the sanatorium, he left no room for doubt as to the soundness of his mind. He is an excellent player; he sits at the table and talks with the team with enthusiasm; and thus confidence and stability took the place of fear and pain. It fell to him to prove — over and above his winning at play — his triumph over those who had lost their confidence in him and believed he would never be normal. He asked for a general examination, since he wished to return to ordinary life; he felt he had come a good distance in improvement, especially as those disturbing thoughts had left him. And in fact the doctors certified his recovery and agreed to release him; so he left, to work on a farm he had bought, intending to spend the rest of his life on it — though he still practices the game, and the new idea behind his cure has never once crossed his mind. But whatever the usefulness of remedies and drugs, they will never give the positive result that sport creates; for the cure here rests on the basis of bringing the patient out of the atmosphere of delusions into practical life, where he feels that he is happy, and works with contentment and stability.