Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-06-17
Worrying.

cur among women.
The habit of worrying may begin
at any age, but it is more commonly
begun when early youth is passed, land
the serious business of life is under
taken-how often by those who are
entirely unfit for ordinary domestic
responsibilities In those who are
predisposed to the complaint no spec
ial trials or troubles are needed to
bring it on. Little trials, fancied
troubles, are quite sufficient. In this
country lis especially frequent among
women who are engaged in that life
| long pitched battle which in America
is called housekeeping" But it is
frequent, too, among our business
men and for still more serious rea-
son; namely, that nine out of ten of
them fail in business sooner or later.
The following is a frequent form
of the disease of worry: Persons
who suffer from it are gloomy and
absent-minded in DR.. j. L. Corn
ing's good description of the symp-
toms, they are ''tormented by the in
trusion or ideas totally foreign to the
particular subject in hand. When
the responsibilities of the day are
over, they carry their responsibilities
to bed with them. The small hours
Of the morning find such individuals
specializing upon the pros and cons of
the past and future with an intensity
which often drives them to despera-
ton. The small ills of life assume
alpine proportions the most trivial
circumstances are distorted and mag
nified thousandfold." This species
of self-torture ''renders man and es-
pecially woman not the possessor
of thought, but its wretched victim
1t is hardly necessary for me to
say that this self-torture does not
stop with the victim. 1t grows into
set ill-temper, and then it breaks up
the peace of families, and often dis
rupts the family itself mot infrequent-
ly by the insanity Of the self-tortur
ing victim.
How may one prevent forming the
habit of worry which develops into
this dreadful disease?
know happy girl of fifteen from
whom the dancing brightness of child
hood has not yet passed away. She
is still young enough to be happy, land
yet she is wise enough to know her
happiness, and to fear that it will
soon pass away. She looks at the
sad faces of her elders, and she asks
herself, must I become sad like them !?
Would that 1 could keep my girlhood !!
Would that | need never enter the
land Of melancholy in which they
live
This is the advice that gave to
this young girl, and it is advice that
grayer heads than mine have given,
and that has been followed success
fully from youth to age in more than
one case that / could name. EYour
happiness partly depends upon your
will. Resolve that little things shall
not make you unhappy. Resist the
minor cares and veXations, at least, of
life. Real troubles come; you must
meet them as best your philosophy
may tell you. But do not be over
thrown by unreal troubles; do not
magnify the real ones. Determine
that you will not waste your nerves,
your health, your life, in worrying"
Now this is not visionary advice.
The young at least can form such a
resolution, and keep it. One should
bear in mind that the chronic disease
of worrying begins with the little
troubles. These one may resist. I'm
resisted, no mental disease fixes itself
more surely. And when once the
habit of self-torment is fixed, it is
very hard to break it. Like inebrie-
ty, when it passes a certain point the
sufferer himself can no longer cure
it; the disease passes beyond the re-
straining power of the will.
Up to that point the habit of self
torment may sometimes be cured from
within, from the spiritual side. A
serious religious ''experience" may
accomplish this. A person ofimpress-
i've and exalted character may some
times accomplish this; he may bring
about the cure in another by advis-
ing, rebuking, and strengthening
such sufferer, so as to expel the al
most demoniac possession. Such,
when they have been more or less
permanent, have been the so-called
ssfaith cures" of all times.
There is type of character $50
exalted that it will be able to impart
to the soul of suffering fellow-crea-
ture so much faith, hope, and new
spiritual life that his infrmities van
ish either wholly or for time" (H.
S. Constable.) In Charles Kingsley's
life there is a story of mailman who
declared that the devil had got hold
of him and could not let him sleep.
'The surgeon, ''says Kingsley, "came
to me and said, AS [ can not cure
the mans mind by making his liver
act, you must make his liver act by
curing his mind So / went to his
patient and agreed with him fully that
the devil was in him. and | will
tell you,' I said, why he is. It is be-
cause you have been a scoundrel.
But if you will lead new and honest