The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-28
POISONED BRAIN
 CAUSES WORRY
fOxins in the Blood Make Mountains Out of Mole hills, a Physician
 Asserts.

Ty is an indication that the brain has peen poisoned with a resulting change in its physical structure, according 10 the modern view. Hence, the physi- clan holds, the remedial measure re- qured is an improvement in the gen. eral health
 The writer makes rather a subtle dlSt1nct1on between worrying and fretting- The former. he asserts. is distinctly masculine characteristic while fretting is a feminine weakness. ALSO, he says, worry is that thing which doctors call neurasthenia-
 9outh is the age of enthusiasm, middle age of worry, he says. Young men see few of the difficulties of their work, and so either succeed Or fail conspicuously. Older men see many difficulties. Sometimes they see difff- cufies which have no existence ex- cept in their own minds. And this is the condition known to mankind as neurasthenia- The neurasthenic is not irrational; rather his reason has taken the bit between its teeth. All the catasuophes which he fears may indeed occur. The chance exists un- deniably. Yet it is so remote that it is not worth considering.
 Neurestheniay in the physician's view, is a state of mind in which pos abilities become probabilities or even certaintes- In this it differs wholly rom hySter1a- In the latter not req son but emotion is exaggerated. Wom- en do not worry-this may seem a tr1f1e bold. he says; they fret The eyes of a man are nearly always on ; the future; those of a woman on the present or past
 It is important, says the writer that every man who is apt to suffer from worry should recognize this dis tinction. Recognition will save him from the mistake so commonly made of seeing himself as a WeakHng, an | hysterica1 person, more woman than man. Such an idea adds melancholy to the stock of trouble and impedes recovery. The truth would rather seem to be that a man is never so much of a man as when he is worry ing, the physician believes.
 For it is not at all abnormal, he says, to worry over real tr lb1es- If important decisions are pending, ev cry one feels a natural anxiety The mere fact that the issue is in doubt charges it with some distress. One normally builds up possibilities in ones mind, and then pulls them down again
 But in this process there is always manifest a. reasoning which would ap- peal to every ordinary mind, the writer contends. Everybody in sim liar circumstances would feel the same way. It is when the reasoning is not of general appeal when the chances against disaster are too long, that natural anxiety becomes worry.
 Bane of the MiddIe-Aged Man
 Here is the bane of the middle aged man. says the physician. Ac- customed to weigh chances with pre- cision, his mind falls over the edge'' and adopts too great a precision. He reasons himself into fear, so to speak. And the fear paraIyzes his activities
 As rule, he is told that his evil forebodings will not materia.Iize. Yet this is a method of help, the physician holds, that is really unsuitable, and therefore unhelpful. For the truth is that the fault lies not in outside cir cumstances, but in the man himself If there were no outside circum- stances of any kind, he would invent them.
 Thus a normal process of the mind, he says, becomes an abnormal process Reason turns on herself The immediate cause is evidently failure or inability to stop thinking. One hears often enough that the wor- rying man cannot think, cannot con- centrate. In fact, he is thinking and concentrating far too much. Whereas in former days he made decisions and left them. now he turns them over and over. alters them, rejects them in the process.
 It used to be held, says the doctor, that this was purely menta1. But there are now competent observers who take a different view. They see in this irritability a poisoning of the brain - that is to say, physical chaSe in its structure.
 The more one explores this fdea the more reasonable 1t seems to be, he aff1rms. For in chronic poisoning of almost any kind, mental worry is
 
 man who does not get sufficient ex- erc1se is usually a most veritab1e in dividual, and often a morose one. So also is the victim of chronic consti- patton; so are the gouty and the rheumatic These mon have brains liable to be infianed with poison from the blood. During the periods of poisoning they worry severely and become neurasthenic. In intervals of betterment their minds regain their customary clarity and calmness.
 Take a Horseback Ride
 Thus very often, the writer says, 0 visit to a spa makes new men" of them; and the same happy result may be achieved often by exercise, a hol- iday, a course of light diet, or some measure designed to drive poison out of their bodies.
 In fact. in the physician's opinion, 1t is not putting the matter too high to say that in every case of worry two facors are at play-the amount of poison present in the individuals his surroundings. At the one end of the scale is, the neurasthenic with no real troubles at all, at the other end the normal man surrounded by diff cu1ties-
 Experience shows that the great majority of the cases fall between these extremes, says the writer There is usually some little external-i. e., degree of seediness. The patient overlookS this latter a rule and concentrates on his mental state.
 The physician maintains that this is the wrong way around The vic tim of worry should think rather of his general health. He would be we'll advised to take his temperature carefully night and morning at about the same hour, and to record it Often he will find that in the morning his temperature is subnormal-i. S., 97 degrees Fahrenheit, or under. At night it may be slightly raised-L e. 99 degrees Fahrenheit. or even a trifie higher
 This points to a mild degree of poi soning, says the physician. The cause may be obscure or it may not. In any case steps which tend to inn prove health-exercise. careful eat ing, correct and deep breathing, and so on-win tend to remove it In this way the brain will be relieved of an incubus, the doctor concludes, and the worry nitigated or dispelled. FOUR MORE DEATHS REPORTED