Mental Health: Keeping Mentally Fit (1952)

[Music] in spite of what the graduation speakers say every spring our Town's pretty average goes for our SE too out of this class of 40 just because it is average two of these boys and girls will spend some part of their lives in a mental institution my job is to try to keep the people around here healthy and most of them are course nobody's health is ever perfect Jim Anderson has a bad ear that doesn't keep him from playing on the football team County champions last year too Frank White is nearsighted but his glasses take care of [Music] that Dorothy Westerly has a tooth that needs fixing but she's in good health I'd say mighty good health they've all learned habits of good living that have helped them stay physically healthy habits of Pless good diet exercise and rest but there's another side to good health and that's good mental health comes naturally to most people parents who are mentally healthy bring up the children to be mentally healthy too take Tommy Clark there he learned the first rule for good mental health a long time ago about not bottling up his emotions now when he works up ahead of steam he puts it to work in a useful way instead of holding it inside when you try to do that it's bound to come out in some un unpleasant way Tommy learned that some years back just after his younger brother was born come on Jimmy head some come on Tommy eat your meat you haven't eaten a bite all day I declare I don't know what's got into you you heard your mother Thomas now do as she says finally his folks sent him to see me there wasn't anything physically wrong with him that I could find so I began to talk with him if you got something on your mind Tommy why don't you talk about it well well I we all have our problems Tommy but I can talk about it of course you can and you know something the more you talk about your problems the easier they are to solve it's bottling things up inside it's bad when you feel something if you're mad or afraid or worried you've got to let it out or it'll come out some other way like you losing weight not sleeping now what is it son gosh Dr martinon this may sound kind of funny to you no no it won't I don't think my folks want me anymore they're planning to get rid of me what makes you think that sir I heard them say so one night they thought I was asleep ever since Jimmy was born they well it wasn't easy to prove to Tommy that he was wrong as in so many cases like this his parents were partly to blame the new baby was taking more of their attention than they realized I got a chance to talk to Tommy's mother about it and it turned out that they'd been talking about sending Tommy to camp for the summer and he misunderstood them well we finally got it straightened up but it taught Tommy a lesson that many people don't learn so quickly about not butling up his emotion he learned that it could be easy to talk to his folks and that he didn't have to hide his love for them good night Mom good night Tommy well that is quite a few years ago Tom's graduating today that number one rule for good mental health don't bottle up your emotions has helped him through many a tough spot of course we're talking about some of the simple rules for staying in good mental health and then brings us to the second rule which is respecting yourself sounds easy doesn't it but look what happened to Bruce Matthews he went out for the tennis team a couple of years ago and while he had a lot to learn he had the makings of a fine player but he wasn't satisfied with slow steady Improvement oh he expected himself to be perfect right from the start missing a point would make him boil over at himself well the coach finally called on to what Bruce was doing to himself with his demand for Perfection sure I think it's fine to keep wanting to improve I understand that but I think you're going at it the wrong way how do you mean well did you ever stop to think how good your game really is yeah after missing that last Point that's just what I'm getting at you're worrying too much about the game and you don't enjoy it but gee coach I Know I Can Do Better sure you can but the point is you shouldn't let yourself get mad every time you miss a point even the world's champion can't make every point you can't be perfect you've got to learn to get more pleasure out of this game so take yourself as you are and instead of expecting yourself to be perfect it took a while for Bruce to get what the coach was driving at but little by little without letting up one bit on trying to improve his game he learned to enjoy his skill rather than fret over his occasional misses yes he's learning that second important habit for keeping in good health good mental health I mean the habit of feeling right about himself along with that goes a third important habit feeling right about other people too that means getting along with others having fun with them being part of the group there's no room for bashfulness in good mental health to look at Otto marle there you'd never guess what he was like a year ago for some reason or other he was convinced that people just didn't like him much he never tried to make friends or to be one of the bunch it was Miss Riner who came to Otto's rescue I think you'd enjoy getting into one of the school clubs I don't know I really don't have any time I hear they're playing to organize a camera Club you could help with that I'm not very good with my my camera I don't think they'd want me in the club of course they would the more the better when you're organizing a club gosh Miss Reiner you're certainly doing well in chemistry and that's important in photography I don't know chemistry is different from photography I think you'll find they'd welcome a good chemist like you in the Camera Club but you'll have to do one thing what's that offer to help do all you can to help get the club organized get some other students to join oh I couldn't do that of course you can and you'll find that they are like you as much as you like them I knew about AR's problem because his parents had come to see me about the same thing of course they had to share the responsibility for Autos bashfulness what do you mean George I don't quite get what you're driving in no well I'll tell you art I've been watching you with that kid a long time you're demanding too much from him nobody can be perfect so don't ride him so hard when he does something you don't like remember he's a person in his own right his way may be just as good as your way I do think you've been hard on him at times Arthur oh but he doesn't tow the line the way he should he has advantages I never had when I was a boy he has an opportunity to amount to something but let him do it his own way you've got him feeling now he isn't as good as the next fell that's why he hesitates to make friends in AR's case as in many others I've known talking with the parents was important in helping to get things straightened out he's learning the third basic rule for good mental health feeling right about other people that means that in any normal group of people there is a feeling of give and take there's an interest in the group as whole there's no distrust or dislike of others just because they happen to be different well there's one more rule for good mental health and I see that Nancy's finally learned it well enough to get a diploma that's the habit of doing something about a problem as soon as it comes up CL SM gosh what I don't know about the Civil War period I haven't cracked a page in 2 weeks I'm going to have to dig into this one too come on over to my house tonight let's study it together oh I just dread getting into it let's put it off till tomorrow well all right tomorrow never came for Nancy that quiz day found her completely unprepared but Barbara had faced up to that quiz the day it was [Music] announced oh J been so worried about this exam I I just can't sleep oh I hope I pass there's no point in worrying about it now Nancy not only had double trouble with that quiz she had triple trouble before during and after she'd got busy just as soon as it was announced instead of just worrying about it it would have been a lot easier for her yes the people around here are learning some of the basic rules for staying in good mental health first rule is don't bottle up your emotions like love fear anger Express them naturally of course emotions like anger have to be expressed with consideration for others above all don't carry a grudge get it off your chest the second rule is to respect your own abilities I always try to improve but remember that you're human the third rule is to respect others treat them as friends and finally when a problem shows up face it at once calmly reason reasonably and honestly and remember that one of the best rules for good mental health is talking out your troubles and problems with someone whose opinion you respect your parents your family doctor your school teacher or advisor your clergyman may be the right person to talk to on many things whoever it may be talking is one of the best tonics there is for good mental health another good tonic is an interesting hobby gives you a way to relax a chance to accomplish something you can be proud of well those are some of the rules for staying in good mental health of course they're just the ABCs of a subject big enough to fill whole libraries but as more and more folks get to know these ABCs and follow them they're going to be able to look at a group like this someday and feel that they have a greater chance than ever for the kind of happy useful life which will make our world a better place to live [Music] in