Worry
Worry is a protracted or recurrent act of the mind, which always fails to result in a constructive solution of the question and usually ends in confusion, fatigue, and emotional instability. You can concern yourself about an important problem, if this means merely a careful consideration in an orderly manner, leading eventually to an acceptable conclusion. Even when the conclusion happens to be contrary to your wishes, it may be accepted as a conclusion and thus worry can be avoided. Such an effort is constructive, whereas worry is always destructive.
The ordinary dictionaries describe worry as feeling or expressing a great deal of care and anxiety, manifesting unrest or pain, fretting, chafing, being anxious or fearful. Since all of these reactions are undesirable from the point of view of their effects on the body, worry is a most undesirable characteristic.
Many people insist that they never worry. These are the people who have learned to reason themselves out of anxiety over situations in which they find themselves. The process is known as "rationalizing." Other people developmental tranquility or peace of mind by accepting a belief which eliminates from consideration anything displeasing to them. Such a process is not rationalizing, but may achieve the same effect if the person can shut out completely any problem that disturbs him. Most people find peace of mind necessary if they are to accomplish their responsibilities in the business world or in the home. If one does not have such peace of mind there is a constant feeling of insecurity, a constant fear of a threat to life itself or to the life situation of the person concerned. As a result, energy is squandered and the reserve of the nervous system is exhausted, so that the person becomes tired, worn, distressed and may have what is commonly called a nervous breakdown.
When worry appears to this extent, the effects manifest themselves on different portions of the body. If the worry is related to the heart the person feels palpitations, extra and light beats of the heart, and similar manifestations; such a person may focus attention unduly on the pulse or the blood pressure or some other factor related to the circulation. If the nervous condition brings the focus of attention on the stomach and ~ bowels there may be constipation, diarrhea, or other manifestations even more serious.
Many a person endeavors to escape from worry by fleeing into an addiction to drink, to drugs, to sedatives, to gambling, or to other practices that are known to be against the best interests of humanity. The escape is only temporary, and the trouble returns just as soon as the liquor or the drugs have worn off. There is no doubt that a restful night's sleep, a vacation, indulgence in outdoor sports, or even the theater or the movies may be utilized to better advantage as means of
escape from the reality of worry.
Emotional Disturbances
Most people have minor emotional disturbances that are not recognized but, because of their effects on the general health, have medical significance. Many people in industry, in labor, and in public life get along, although they suffer at all times with difficulties of adjustment to their environment. An analysis of the people who come to doctors' offices .revealed that from 30 to 60 per cent come as patients primarily because of complaints due to emotional disorders, which are reflected as physical disorders. Treatment is not fully satisfactory unless it takes care of the mental as well as the physical factors.
Our population has become an aging population. People live much longer than was common fifty years ago. As people get older they tend to develop more emotional experiences, and this has greatly multiplied the need of psychiatric help. According to the available figures one out of every twenty people will need advice or guidance from an expert for severe emotional illness at some time during his lifetime. This is indicated by the fact that more than one half of all the veterans in veterans' hospitals are psychiatric patients. Thirty-seven per cent of releases from the army for medical reasons were for psychiatric disorders. A total of 51 per cent of all medical separations from the military service were due to personality disturbances. In addition, people who are mentally disturbed constitute about one-half of all of the patients in hospitals in the United States.
While modem medicine has much knowledge of psychiatric conditions, far more still remains unknown than is actually known. Methods of treatment developed in recent years include the successful use of the tranquilizing drugs (see below), electric shock, psychoanalysis, the use of occupational and recreational therapy. Since the number of competent experts capable of treating such patients is insufficient, study is now being made of the treatment of mentally ill patients in groups. This is called group psychotherapy.
Mental Hygiene In Business
Suitable adjustment of workers to their surroundings is important in establishing a smooth-running condition in any business or industry. Ask the average business man if he needs a psychiatrist in his business, and he will think you are mentally disturbed. Psychiatrists, most people believe, spend practically all of their time finding people who need to be confined in institutions because they are wholly irresponsible.
Most large industries have employment interviewers, who have knowledge of the positions to be filled, of the persons in the department, and, therefore, of the kind of employee who will fit best and serve most satisfactorily under the circumstances. Most employment interviewers can recognize easily a prospective employee who is so far "off the beaten path" from a mental point of view as to be unsatisfactory for any job. No one suggests that employment interviewers should be replaced by psychiatrists or psychologists. What a businessman wants is a worker who can respond to the particular problems and procedures of the job for which he is employed. The boss seldom wants to be troubled about the general personality of an employee or the question of how he gets along with his wife. Nevertheless, that very situation may be important in relation to the quality or amount of work. Problems may arise which are due to it neurosis or psychosis in some employee whose mental condition has not been recognized.
Mental hygienists are convinced that training ought to be made available to employment managers or to the workers in the personnel divisions of industries. Workers are frequently transferred into personnel departments because they appear to be able to get along well with other people -but sometimes because they are hard and skeptical. Generally they work out their own techniques, whether for the handling of personal problems or for the selection of new employees.
Already there are plenty of reports of instances in which employees who failed to respond acceptably to their executives were given scientific study and thus saved for the organization. We have learned how to modify the attitudes of parents and to improve their relationships with their children. Similar tactics are needed for executive businessmen to improve their relationships with their employees.
Mental Defect
Among the great unsolved problems of modem medicine are many of those associated with mental disease. People still fear the sudden appearance of the "loss of the mind", or the birth of a child apparently without normal mental ability. Over 3,000,000 children are born in this country every year. Actually from 150,000 to 200,000 of those born will eventually be committed to hospitals for mental disease.
Much can be done to prevent or overcome many of the conditions that disturb the mind. With modem methods of treatment, improvement can even be secured in certain forms of complete mental breakdown. Problems of mental defect and of mental diseases are not only approached by putting the patients in institutions but also by applying some of these new forms of treatment.
Parents, teachers, and those organizations concerned with the supervision of children must realize the importance of recognizing strange behavior at the earliest possible moment. Children who are mentally retarded or who are slow in their mental development should be submitted to expert advice as soon as possible. These children will be brought into social and economic competition, and the contrast with normal children, coupled with pressure from forces behind them at home and even from their association with competitors, may result in a reaction and in the formation of attitudes which lead to permanent disturbances. There are many causes of mental breakdown and many classifications of mental disturbance. Research has been intensified on dementia praecox, in which the so-called insulin shock, metrazol shock, and electric shock treatments are being tried. Modem medicine also offers new forms of study, including analysis of the mental processes, leading to recognition of the underlying factors in mental disturbances.
The wise man need not fear such a catastrophe. He should know that scientific methods of diagnosis and treatment are now available.