WORRY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5043, 22 October 1926, Page 1

WORRY.

THE DISEASE OF THE AGE*

A SHORTENER OF LIFE.

Dr. Elliott delivered an interesting health lecture on “Worry, the Disease of the Age,” at Wellington l®j3t week.,

Dr. Elliott said that the subject was, one that entered on the border of the spiritual and the physical. “Unles, we vegetate and do not live like human beings,” he proceeded, “wd cannot avoid the ordinary worries of life, but when we have used all possible foresight w.e should not have the ■morbid worry pf forebodings as to the outcome. Phlegmatic people are not inclined towards, worry. It is those of the neurotic type, who, with all their faults, are the; leaders of the world’s thought, who fall victims tq the disease.”

The speaker stated that it waa modern civilisation with its unnatura,! conditions of life that made worry the disease of the A great deal’ of money had been wasted on ,a system of education which endeavoured to train people for work for which they were totally unfitted. Despite alf, the advantages that scientific advancement had brought, there was as much discontent in the word to-day as, there had ever heed“One of the greatest causes of worry is the pursuit of riches, social position, and power,” continued Dr. Elliott. “Every man is entitled to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but, if obtaining worldly advancement is to entail worry, then the cost is too great. The vagueness of our religious beliefs and the; scepticism that exists regarding the great verities 1 is another great cause of worry. Worry means fretfulness, irritability, anger, and malice in the some. It is more injurious to the body than physical fatigue. Fatigue not injure the muscles, but worry results in a permanent injury to thd delicate tissues of the brain, Bodily pain is usually apparent—there is no disgrace in it. But we.’hide mental pain. Because our rivals are succeeding and we are failing we cherish the .mental anguish, which thus flourishes and increases. .Worry shortens life, it determines a fatal issue, in some diseases that otherwise would be recovered from. It is the priime cause of all nervous disorders. Worry also leads to high blood pressure, ano so people find themselves too old at forty. If they had lived otherwise they would have been hale and hearty at fifty. Mere stoicism is- ineffective as far as the curing of worry is con cerned. It lacks dynamic force. H p piness must come from within.” “There is in the gloom of life,’.’ con-' eluded the speaker, “a ray of hope that comes beyond the sun annd stars —the consolation of religion.”