THE STRAIN OF LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1922, Page 12

THE STRAIN OF LIFE

Lecturing at the Institue of Hygiene in London on "Worry: . Its cause, effects, and j cure," Dr. E. L. Ash said there .seemed to bo more. occasion for worry than ever before in the history of living persons. Many, indeed, wore unable to stand the strain of-life,at the present, time. Worry wasjtho disorganisation of mind control,' resulting in the : see-saw movement .of thoughts backwards and forwards or round and round .as it were, producing'an immense strain on the reserves of the system .and gradually undermining health. The great practical fact which emerged from' the study of worrying people was that,the.worry state was not:really a'normal psychological condition. The worrying man was a sick. man. He might-not be grossly ill in the ordinary sense, but .he was almost certainly suffering from some "nervous debility on the one hand, or some physical disability, such as poisoning, ovor-fatigue of organs, indigestion; anaemia, and so forth,. on the other. Worry-was-largely a matter of.'health, but owing to its peculiar connection with the processes of .thought it blinded the Worrying'person .to' the truth of his condition. The, one. thing .he ought.. to do,, namely, to/let go, and rest for a. while, was the one thing ho could "riot do.. .

To. the doctor it w-a3 possible to analysecommon forms of the worry--state into three groups.:. U) The. worry habit.; (2) the worry wheel;-.(3) .worry as a. sign of emotional repression-; :It was qiiito true that for many persona worry ..was nothing Wore, than a. bad habit. .Morbid fears and. 'doubts about common .happenings grew .immensely by process of suggestion and auto.-3ugg'estib.n until they, tended to obseE» the whole personality. For worry, of this kind nothing less than a systematic' course of mental training of some Icind, aided by self-suggestion, would effect a radical cure. Of' "course, when persons affliobsd by the worry habit got run down they got all the more involved in the tangle of their doubting thoughts. As regards the'second group, •it was.equally true that, whilst for 'some people worry was nothing but a habit, for others it was a sign of. ill-health.. The brain tired' and the body tired, and then with a debilitated system, the mind was no longer ablo to _ exercise its, normal 'control and decision; &o there, was a-'regular worry wh<Sel set in motion. Tired and disordered. nerves being associated with physical', ill-health; and physicalI.Hi-health accentuating, the fatigue of the neryo'us system, so wenttthe morbid process ; round and round, and the individual who got caught up in this kind of worry wheel (it wan a form of Vvhat doctors nowadays oalled "vicious circles") wae unfortunate in<leed. ,

As regarded hhe thkd irroup, thoy were largely indebted to tho researches of the psychological analysts in understanding that in 'tome tho worry state of mind was <luc to" tho repression of some ornotion.' that had not boon allowed full play car? Her in life. Still, however this might- bo (and it was a fascinating subject), iC~ might bo taken an an axiom, that, the worry states duo to thi.s kind of process were in thp^ minority. It, was sound hygiono of mind and body on which wo must rely to Ret rid .of worry, tho achievement of the sound mind in the sound body that must bo'our'.ideal. It was much .bettor to attempt 'to euro it'by common-s<mso measures .than to. attempt to euro, it by complicated psychological ojialyse*, '■-.■••". '