第3章 忧虑会使人短命
不知道克服忧虑的人，都会短命而亡。
——亚历西斯·卡瑞尔博士
许多年前的一个晚上，一个邻居来按我家的门铃，让我和我的家人去接种牛痘，以预防天花。他是整个纽约市各家按门铃的几千名志愿者之一。很多人吓坏了，去排了好几个小时的队等待接种牛痘。几乎所有的医院、消防队、警察局和大的工厂里都设有接种站，2000多名医生和护士日夜不停地为人们种痘。为什么这么热闹呢？这是因为纽约市800万人中，有8个人得了天花，而且其中两个死了。
我在纽约市已经住了37年，可是并没有一个人来按我的门铃，警告我预防精神忧郁症——这种病在过去37年所造成的伤害，比天花至少要大1万倍。
从来没有人按门铃并警告我说，目前生活在美国的人，每10个人中就有一个会精神崩溃——这大部分都是因为忧虑和感情冲突所致。所以，我现在写这一章就等于给你按门铃，对你提出警告。
伟大的诺贝尔医学奖获得者亚历西斯·卡瑞尔医生说：“不知道如何抗拒忧虑的商人都会短命而死。”家庭主妇、兽医和泥瓦匠也全都如此。
A few years ago, I spent my vacation motoring through Texas and New Mexico with Dr.O.F.Gober—one of the medical executives of the Santa Fe railway. His exact title was chief physician of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Hospital Association. We got to talking about the effects of worry, and he said:“Seventy per cent of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they only got rid of their fears and worries.Don't think for a moment that I mean that their ills are imaginary,” he said.“Their ills are as real as a throbbing toothache and sometimes a hundred times more serious. I refer to such illnesses as nervous indigestion, some stomach ulcers, heart disturbances, insomnia, some headaches, and some types of paralysis.
“These illnesses are real. I know what I am talking about,” said Dr.Gober, “for I myself suffered from a stomach ulcer for twelve years.
“Fear causes worry.Worry makes you tense and nervous and affects the nerves of your stomach and actually changes the gastric juices of your stomach from normal to abnormal and often leads to stomach ulcers.”
Dr.Joseph F.Montague, author of the book Nervous Stomach Trouble, says much the same thing. He says:“You do not get stomach ulcers from what you eat. You get ulcers from what is eating you.”
Dr.W.C.Alvarez, of the Mayo Clinic, said, “Ulcers frequently flare up or subside according to the hills and valleys of emotional stress.”
That statement was backed up by a study of 15，000 patients treated for stomach disorders at the Mayo Clinic.Four out of five had no physical basis whatever for their stomach illnesses. Fear, worry, hate, supreme selfishness, and the inability to adjust themselves to the world of reality—these were largely the causes of their stomach illnesses
几年前，我在一次度假时曾和郭伯尔博士一同乘车经过得克萨斯和新墨西哥州。郭伯尔博士当时任圣塔菲铁路公司医务处长，他的正式头衔是海湾-科罗拉多-圣塔菲联合医院主任医师。当我们谈到忧虑对人的影响时，他说：“那些来看病的人中，70%的人只要能够消除他们的恐惧和忧虑，病就会治好。别以为我是指他们的病都是想象出来的。”他说，“他们的病真实得就像你有一颗蛀牙一样，有时候甚至比这要严重上百倍。这些病就像神经性消化不良、某些胃溃疡、心脏病、失眠、头痛和某几种麻痹症等一样严重。”
“这些病都是真的，我不是在胡说，”郭伯尔博士说，“因为我自己就得过12年胃溃疡。
“恐惧造成忧虑，忧虑使你紧张，并影响到你的胃部神经，使你胃里的胃液变得不正常，于是由此导致胃溃疡。”
约瑟夫·孟塔古博士是《神经性胃病》的作者，他也阐述过同样的道理。他说：“胃溃疡不是因为食物所致，而是正在吞噬你的忧虑所致。”
梅育诊所的阿法瑞兹医生说：“胃溃疡通常会根据你的情绪紧张程度而发作或消失。”
这种论断得到了梅育诊所15000例胃病患者的病例记录的证实。4/5的人并不是因为生理上的原因而得胃病；相反，恐惧、忧虑、怨恨、极端自私以及无法适应现实生活，才是他们得胃病和胃溃疡的主要原因……胃溃疡会让你致死。据《生活》
and stomach ulcers... Stomach ulcers can kill you.According to Life magazine, they now stand tenth in our list of fatal diseases.
I recently had some correspondence with Dr. Harold C. Habein of the Mayo Clinic. He read a paper at the annual meeting of the American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons, saying that he had made a study of 176 business executives whose average age was 44.3 years. He reported that slightly more than a third of these executives suffered from one of three ailments peculiar to high-tension living—heart disease, digestive-tract ulcers, and high blood pressure. Think of it—a third of our business executives are wrecking their bodies with heart disease, ulcers, and high blood pressure before they even reach forty-five. What price success! And they aren't even buying success! Can any man possibly be a success who is paying for business advancement with stomach ulcers and heart trouble? What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world—and loses his health? Even if he owned the whole world, he could sleep in only one bed at a time and eat only three meals a day. Even a new employee can do that—and probably sleep more soundly and enjoy his food more than a high-powered executive.Frankly, I would rather be a share-cropper down in Alabama with a banjo on my knee than wreck my health at forty-five by trying to run a railroad or a cigarette company.
The best-known cigarette manufacturer in the world recently dropped dead from heart failure while trying to take a little recreation in the Canadian woods. He amassed millions—and fell dead at sixty-one. He probably traded years of his life for what is called “business success”.
In my estimation, this cigarette executive with all his millions was not half as successful as my father—a Missouri farmer—who died at eighty-nine, without a dollar.
杂志的数据，这种疾病在致命疾病中排第十位。
最近我和梅育诊所的哈罗德·海宾医生写过几次信。他曾在全美工业界医生协会年会上宣读过一篇论文，说他研究了176位平均年龄为44.3岁的企业负责人的情况。他报告说：大约有1/3以上的人由于生活过于紧张而导致出现下列三种病症之一——心脏病、消化系统溃疡和高血压。你想想！在企业领导人中，竟然有1/3以上的人患有这些病！而他们都还不到45岁！成功的代价多大啊！就此而言，他们甚至不是在争取成功！有哪个患胃溃疡和心脏病的人能够成为成功者呢？就算他能赢得整个世界，可是他失去了健康，对他个人又有什么好处？即使他拥有了全世界，可是他一个人每次也只能睡一张床，一天也只吃三餐。即使是一个新员工也可以做到这一点，甚至会比一个很有权力的负责人睡得更安稳，吃得更香。说实话，我情愿做一个在亚拉巴马州租田种地的农夫，弹着五弦琴，也不愿在45岁时为了一个铁路公司或一个烟草公司而毁了我的健康。
一位世界最知名的香烟制造商，最近想在加拿大森林里轻松一下，却因为心脏病发作死了。他拥有几百万的财产，却在61岁死了。他这是用好几年的生命去换取所谓“生意上的成功”。
但是依我看来，这位身价数百万的“香烟大王”的成功还不如我父亲的一半。我父亲是密苏里州的一个农夫，尽管他一文不名，却活到了89岁。
著名的梅育兄弟宣称，医院一半以上的病床被有神经疾病的人占着。但即使是
The famous Mayo brothers declared that more than half of our hospital beds are occupied by people with nervous troubles. Yet, when the nerves of these people are studied under a high-powered microscope in a post-modern examination, their nerves in most cases are apparently as healthy as the nerves of Jack Dempsey. Their “nervous troubles” are caused not by a physical deterioration of the nerves, but by emotions of futility, frustration, anxiety, worry, fear, defeat, despair.Plato said that “the greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind; yet the mind and body are one and should not be treated separately!”
It took medical science twenty-three hundred years to recognise this great truth. We are just now beginning to develop a new kind of medicine called psychosomatic medicine—a medicine that treats both the mind and the body. It is high time we are doing that, for medical science has largely wiped out the terrible diseases caused by physical germs—diseases such as smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, and scores of other scourges that swept untold millions into untimely graves. But medical science has been unable to cope with the mental and physical wrecks caused, not by germs, but by emotions of worry, fear, hate, frustration, and despair. Casualties caused by these emotional diseases are mounting and spreading with catastrophic rapidity.
Doctors figure that one American in every twenty now alive will spend a part of his life in an institution for the mentally ill. One out of every six of our young men called up by the draft in the Second World War was rejected as mentally diseased or defective.
What causes insanity? No one knows all the answers. But it is highly probable that in many cases fear and worry are contributing factors. The anxious and harassed individual who is unable to cope with the harsh world of reality breaks off all contact with his environment and
用高倍显微镜，以最现代的方法来检查他们的神经时，却发现他们大部分显然都和拳王杰克·邓普西一样健康。他们的“神经疾病”并不是由神经反常引起的，而是因为悲观、烦躁、焦急、忧虑、恐惧、挫折、颓丧等。柏拉图曾说：“医生所犯的最大错误，就是他们只治疗身体，却不医治思想。可是精神和肉体是一体的，不能分别治疗。”
医学界花了2300年的时间，才算明白这个伟大的真理。我们正开始发展一种被称为“心理生理医学”的分支，它同时治疗精神和肉体疾病。现在正是做这件事的最佳时机，因为医学科学已经大量消除了由细菌所引起的如天花、霍乱、黄热病以及其他各种曾将数以百万计的人置于死地的传染病。但医学界尚无力治疗精神和身体方面非由细菌引起，而是由情绪忧虑、恐惧、憎恨、烦躁以及绝望所引起的疾病。这种情绪上的疾病所导致的灾难正日渐增加，而且越来越普遍，速度惊人。
医生们估计：现在还活着的美国人，每20人就有一人在某一段时期得过精神疾病。第二次世界大战期间应征入伍的美国年轻人中，每6人就有一人因为精神失常或有缺陷而不能服役。
是什么导致精神失常？没有人知道所有的答案。可是在许多情况下，极可能是因为恐惧和忧虑导致的。焦虑和烦躁不安的人大都难以适应现实世界，和周围的人没有沟通，退缩到自己的梦幻世界，以此来解决他的忧虑。
我桌上放了爱德华·波多尔斯基医生写的一本书《除忧去病》。下面是这本书
retreats into a private dream world of his own making, and this solves his worry problems.
I have on my desk a book by Dr.Edward Podolsky entitled Stop Worrying and Get Well.Here are some of the chapter titles in that book:
What Worry Does To The Heart
High Blood Pressure Is Fed By Worry
Rheumatism Can Be Caused By Worry
Worry Less For Your Stomach's Sake
How Worry Can Cause A Cold
Worry And The Thyroid
The Worrying Diabetic
Another illuminating book about worry is Man Against Himself by Dr.Karl Menninger, one of the “Mayo brothers of psychiatry.” Dr.Menninger's book is a startling revelation of what you do to yourself when you permit destructive emotions to dominate your life. If you want to stop working against yourself, get this book.Read it. Give it to your friends. It costs four dollars—and is one of the best investments you can make in this life.
Worry can make even the most stolid person ill.General Grant discovered that during the closing days of the Civil War. The story goes like this: Grant had been besieging Richmond for nine months.General Lee's troops, ragged and hungry, were beaten.Entire regiments were deserting at a time.Others were holding prayer meetings in their tents—shouting, weeping and seeing visions. The end was close.Lee's men set fire to the cotton and tobacco warehouses in Richmond, burned the arsenal, and fled from the city at night while towering flames roared up into darkness. Grant was in hot pursuit, banging away at the Confederates from both sides and the rear, while Sheridan's cavalry was heading them
中几章的题目：
忧虑对心脏的影响
忧虑导致高血压
风湿症可能因忧虑而起
为了你的胃，少些忧虑
忧虑如何使你感冒
忧虑和甲状腺
忧虑的糖尿病患者
另一本讨论忧虑的书是卡尔·门宁格医生写的《自寻烦恼》。门宁格是梅育兄弟精神病院的医生，他的书揭示了一些令人震惊的事实：当你让消极情绪控制你的生活时，你会毁了自己。如果你想远离忧虑，就去买这本书来看。把它送给你的朋友们。它只卖4美元——这是你一生中最好的投资之一。
忧虑甚至会令最强壮的人生病。格兰特将军在南北战争的最后几天发现了这一点。故事是这样的：格兰特围攻里士满长达9个月，李将军的军队饥困交加，终于被打败。一时间，整个军队人心惶惶。其余的人在帐营中祈祷——边哭边叫，看到了种种幻象。战争行将结束，李将军的士兵放火烧毁了里士满的棉花和烟草仓库，烧了兵工厂，然后在烈焰腾空的黑夜弃城而逃。格兰特乘胜追击，从左右两侧和后方夹击南部联军，另派谢里登的骑兵从正面截击，又拆毁铁路线，缴获了补给
off in front, tearing up railway lines and capturing supply trains.
Grant, half blind with a violent sick headache, fell behind his army and stopped at a farmhouse.“I spent the night,” he records in his Memoirs, “in bathing my feet in hot water and mustard, and putting mustard plasters on my wrists and the back part of my neck, hoping to be cured by morning.”
The next morning, he was cured instantaneously. And the tiling that cured him was not a mustard plaster, but a horseman galloping down the road with a letter from Lee, saying he wanted to surrender.
“When the officer[bearing the message]reached me,” Grant wrote, “I was still suffering with the sick headache, but the instant I saw the contents of the note, I was cured.”
Obviously it was Grant's worries, tensions, and emotions that made him ill. He was cured instantly the moment his emotions took on the hue of confidence, achievement, and victory.
Seventy years later, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury in Franklin D.Roosevelt's cabinet, discovered that worry could make him so ill that he was dizzy. He records in his diary that he was terribly worried when the President, in order to raise the price of wheat, bought 4，400，000 bushels in one day. He says in his diary:“I felt literally dizzy while the thing was going on. I went home and went to bed for two hours after lunch.”
If I want to see what worry does to people, I don't have to go to a library or a physician. I can look out of the window of my home where I am writing this book; and I can see, within one block, one house where worry caused nervous breakdown—and another house where a man worried himself into diabetes. When the stock market went down, the sugar in his blood and urine went up.
When Montaigne, the illustrious French philosopher, was elected Mayor of his home
车辆。
这时，格兰特却剧烈头痛而眼睛半瞎，跟不上队伍，于是只好停在一户农家。“我过了一夜，”他在回忆录中写道，“把双脚泡在加了芥末的热水里，还把芥末药膏贴在手腕和后颈上，希望第二天早上能够痊愈。”
第二天一大早，他果然好了。可是使他痊愈的并不是什么芥末药膏，而是一个疾驰而来带回李将军降书的骑兵。
“当那个军士来到我面前时，”格兰特写道，“我的头还痛得很厉害，但当我一看到那封信的内容时，我就全好了。”
显然，格兰特是因为忧虑、紧张和情绪不安才生病的。一旦情绪色彩变为自信、成就和胜利，他就立即好了。
70年后，富兰克林·罗斯福总统的财政部长亨利·摩根索也发现，忧虑会使他头昏眼花。他在日记中写道：为了提高小麦的价格，总统下令在一天之内买进440万蒲式耳（注：一蒲式耳约合35升）小麦，这使他非常忧虑。他说：“在事情没有结果之前，我头昏眼花。我回到家里，吃完午饭后睡了两个小时。”
如果我想知道忧虑对人会产生什么影响，大可不必到图书馆或医院求证。只要从我现在正坐着写此书的家里朝窗外看，就能看到在同街区的一栋房子里，有一个人因为忧虑而精神崩溃；另外一个房子里，有一个人因为忧虑而得了糖尿病。如果股票下跌，他的血和尿里的糖分就会升高。
town—Bordeaux—he said to his fellow citizens:“I am willing to take your affairs into my hands but not into my liver and lungs.”
This neighbour of mine took the affairs of the stock market into the blood stream—and almost killed himself.
If I want to be reminded of what worry does to people, I don't need to look at my neighbors'houses. I can look at this very room where I am writing now and be reminded that a former owner of this house worried himself into an untimely grave.
Worry can put you into a wheel chair with rheumatism and arthritis.Dr.Russell L.Cecil, of the Cornell University Medical School, is a world-recognized authority on arthritis; and he has listed four of the commonest conditions that bring on arthritis:
1.Marital shipwreck.
2.Financial disaster and grief.
3.Loneliness and worry.
4.Long-cherished resentments.
Naturally, these four emotional situations are far from being the only causes of arthritis. There are many different kinds of arthritis—due to various causes. But, to repeat, the commonest conditions that bring on arthritis are the four listed by Dr.Russell L.Cecil. For example, a friend of mine was so hard bit during the depression that the gas company shut off the gas and the bank foreclosed the mortgage on the house. His wife suddenly had a painful attack of arthritis—and, in spite of medicine and diets, the arthritis continued until their financial situation improved.
Worry can even cause tooth decay.Dr.William I.L.McGonigle said in an address before the American Dental Association that “unpleasant emotions such as those caused by
法国著名的哲学家蒙田当选为家乡波多克斯的市长时，他对市民们说：“我愿意用我的双手来处理你们的事情，而不想让它们把我弄得焦头烂额。”
但我的一位邻居却将股票市场搞到他的血液里，差点要了他的老命。
如果想记住忧虑对人会产生什么影响，大可不必去看邻居的房子，只要看看我现在正坐着写此书的这个房间，它以前的主人就因为忧虑而死。
忧虑会使你患风湿症或关节炎而坐进轮椅。康奈尔大学医学院的罗赛尔·赛希尔医生是世界公认的关节炎治疗权威，他曾列举了四种最容易得关节炎的情况：
1.婚姻破裂。
2.财务危机和困难。
3.寂寞和忧虑。
4.长期愤怒。
当然，这四种情绪上的状况远不是导致关节炎的唯一原因。有许多种类的不同原因导致的关节炎。但是，重复一遍，产生关节炎的“最常见的原因”，正是赛希尔医生列举的四点。例如，我的一个朋友在经济萧条时期遭到沉重打击，煤气公司切断了他的煤气，银行没收了抵押贷款的房子，他太太突然患了关节炎——虽然经过治疗和加强营养，他太太的关节炎却直到他们的经济条件改善之后才痊愈。
忧虑甚至会使你得蛀牙。威廉·麦戈尼格尔医生曾在全美牙医协会的一次演讲中说：“由于焦虑、恐惧等因素所导致的不快情绪，可能会影响人体内的钙质平
worry, fear, nagging... may upset the body's calcium balance and cause tooth decay”.Dr.McGonigle told of a patient of his who had always had a perfect set of teeth until he began to worry over his wife's sudden illness.During the three weeks she was in the hospital, he developed nine cavities—cavities brought on by worry.
Have you ever seen a person with an acutely over-active thyroid? I have, and I can tell you they tremble; they shake; they look like someone half scared to death—and that's about what it amounts to. The thyroid gland, the gland that regulates the body, has been thrown out of kilter. It speeds up the heart—the whole body is roaring away at full blast like a furnace with all of its draughts wide open. And if this isn't checked, by operation or treatment, the victim may die, may “burn himself out”.
A short time ago I went to Philadelphia with a friend of mine who has this disease. We went to see a famous specialist, a doctor who has been treating this type of ailment for thirty-eight years. And what sort of advice do you suppose he had hanging on the wall of his waiting-room—painted on a large wooden sign so all his patients could see it? Here it is. I copied it down on the back of an envelope while I was waiting:
RELAXATION AND RECREATION
The most relaxing recreating forces are a healthy religion, sleep, music, and laughter.
Have faith in God—learn to sleep well—
Love good music—see the funny side of life—And health and happiness will be yours.
The first question he asked this friend of mine was:“What emotional disturbance brought on this condition?” He warned my friend that, if he didn't stop worrying, he could get other complications: heart trouble, stomach ulcers, or diabetes.“All of these diseases,” said that eminent doctor, “are cousins, first cousins.” Sure, they're first cousins—they're all
衡，从而导致蛀牙。”麦戈尼格尔医生还说，他的一个病人原来有一口很好的牙齿，但后来他的夫人得了急病，他开始担心。就在她住院的那三个星期，他突然有了九颗蛀牙——全都是由于焦虑引起的。
你是否见过一个人的甲状腺过度活跃？我看过。我可以告诉你，他们会发抖、会战栗，看起来就像是吓得半死——事实上也差不多如此。甲状腺的功能是调节生理平衡，一旦反常人的心跳就会加速，整个身体就会亢奋异常，像一个打开了所有炉门的大火炉，如果不做手术或治疗，病人可能会送命，可能“把他自己烧干”。
不久前，我和一个患了这种病的朋友一同去费城。我们去拜访一位专治这种病达38年之久的著名专家。你猜在他候诊室的墙上挂的一块大木板上给病人的忠告写着什么？我把它抄在了一个信封的背面：
轻松和享受
最能让你轻松愉快的，是健康的信仰、睡眠、音乐和欢笑。
要相信神，要学着睡得安稳，
喜欢美妙的音乐，从好的一面来看生活，健康和快乐都会属于你。
他问我朋友的第一个问题就是：“什么情绪问题导致你出现这种情况？”他警告我的朋友说，如果他不停止忧虑，就可能会染上其他并发症：心脏病、胃溃疡或糖尿病等。“所有这些病症，”这位名医说，“都互有关联，甚至是近亲。”没错，它们都是近亲——都是忧虑的疾病。
worry diseases!
When I interviewed film star Merle Oberon, she told me that she refused to worry because she knew that worry would destroy her chief asset on the motion-picture screen: her good looks.
“When I first tried to break into the movies,” she told me, “I was worried and scared. I had just come from India, and I didn't know anyone in London, where I was trying to get a job. I saw a few producers, but none of them hired me; and the little money I had began to give out. For two weeks I lived on nothing but crackers and water. I was not only worried now. I was hungry. I said to myself:‘maybe you're a fool.Maybe you will never break into the movies. After all, you have no experience, you've never acted at all—what have you to offer but a rather pretty face?’
“I went to the mirror. And when I looked in that mirror, I saw what worry was doing to my looks! I saw the lines it was forming. I saw the anxious expression. So I said to myself:‘You've got to stop this at once! You can't afford to worry. The only thing you have to offer at all is your looks, and worry will ruin them!'”
Few things can age and sour a woman and destroy her looks as quickly as worry.Worry curdles the expression. It makes us clench our jaws and lines our faces with wrinkles. It forms a permanent scowl.
It may turn the hair grey, and, in some cases, even make it fall out. It can ruin the complexion—it can bring on all kinds of skin rashes, eruptions, and pimples.
Heart disease, is the number one killer in America today.During the Second World War, almost a third of a million men were killed in combat; but during the same period, heart disease killed two million civilians—and one million of those casualties were caused
当我访问电影明星曼尔·奥伯朗的时候，她告诉我她绝不会忧虑，因为她知道忧虑会将她在银幕上的主要资产——美丽容貌摧毁。
“当我起初试图涉足影坛的时候，”她告诉我，“我既担心又害怕。我刚从印度回来，在伦敦举目无亲，却想在那里找到一份工作。我找了几家制片公司，可是没有一家肯录用我。我仅有的一点点钱也快用光了。后来两个星期，我只靠一点饼干和白开水生活。因此我不仅忧虑，还很饥饿。我对自己说：‘也许你是个傻瓜，也许你永远也进不了电影界。因为你没有任何经验，也从来没有演过戏——除了一张漂亮的脸蛋，你还有什么？’
“我去照了照镜子。就在我照镜子的时候，看到了忧虑对我容貌的影响。我看到了皱纹，看见了焦虑的表情。于是我对自己说：‘你必须立即停止忧虑！不能再忧虑。你能给别人的只有容貌，而忧虑却会毁了它。’”
再也没有什么比忧虑使一个女人衰老得更快了。忧虑会使我们的表情难看，使我们牙关咬紧，脸上出现皱纹，让人整天愁眉苦脸。
忧虑会使头发灰白，有时甚至会使头发脱落。忧虑还会使脸上的皮肤长斑点、溃烂和长粉刺。
心脏病现在是美国的头号杀手。在第二次世界大战期间，大约30多万人死于战场，可是在同一时期，心脏病却导致200万人死亡，而其中100万人的心脏病是由于忧虑和过度紧张的生活引起的。也正因为心脏病，亚历西斯·卡瑞尔医生才说：
by the kind of heart disease that is brought on by worry and high-tension living. Yes, heart disease is one of the chief reasons why Dr.Alexis Carrel said:“Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.”
The Negroes down south and the Chinese rarely have the kind of heart disease brought on by worry, because they take things calmly. Twenty times as many doctors as farm workers die from heart failure. The doctors lead tense lives—and pay the penalty.
“The Lord may forgive us our sins,” said William James, “but the nervous system never does.”
Here is a startling and almost incredible fact: more Americans commit suicide each year than die from the five most common communicable diseases.
Why? The answer is largely:“Worry.”
When the cruel Chinese war lords wanted to torture their prisoners, they would tie their prisoners hand and foot and put them under a bag of water that constantly dripped... dripped... dripped... day and night. These drops of water constantly falling on the head finally became like the sound of hammer blows—and drove men insane. This same method of torture was used during the Spanish Inquisition and in German concentration camps under Hitler.
Worry is like the constant drip, drip, drip of water; and the constant drip, drip, drip of worry often drives men to insanity and suicide.
When I was a country lad in Missouri, I was half scared to death by listening to Billy Sunday describe the hell-fires of the next world. But he never ever mentioned the hell-fires of physical agony that worriers may have to face here and now. For example, if you are a chronic worrier, you may be stricken someday with one of the most excruciating pains ever endured by man: angina pectoris.
“不知道抗拒忧虑的商人，会短命而亡。”
美国南部的黑人和中国人因为处事沉着，所以很少患这种因忧虑而引起的心脏病。死于心脏病的医生是农夫的20倍。因为医生过着紧张的生活，所以才有这样的结果。
“上帝可能原谅我们的罪过，”威廉·詹姆斯说，“但神经系统却不会。”
这里有一个令人吃惊而难以相信的事实：每年因自杀而死的人比五种最常见传染病致死的人还要多。
为什么呢？答案通常是：“忧虑。”
当残忍的中国军阀想要折磨他们的俘虏时，常常将俘虏绑起手脚，放在一个不停地往下滴水的袋子下面，水不停地滴着……日夜不停。最后，这些不停地滴落在头上的水变成了槌子敲击的声音，使人精神失常。这种折磨人的方法，以前西班牙的宗教法庭、希特勒的德国集中营都曾用过。
忧虑就像是不停地往下滴的水珠，而那不停地往下滴、滴、滴的忧虑，通常会使人发狂、自杀。
当我还是密苏里州一个乡村孩子的时候，星期天听传道士比利·森迪讲地狱中的烈火时会吓得半死，可是他从来没有提到我们因为忧虑而导致的生理上的痛苦。例如，如果你长期忧虑，终有一天会患上最痛苦的冠心病。
这种病如果发作，会让你痛得尖声喊叫。你这种尖叫会让但丁的《神曲》“地
Boy, if that ever hits you, you will scream with agony. Your screams will make the sounds in Dante's Inferno sound like Babes in Toyland. You will say to yourself then:“Oh, God, oh, God, if I can ever get over this, I will never worry about anything—ever.”（If you think I am exaggerating, ask your family physician.）
Do you love life? Do you want to live long and enjoy good health? Here is how you can do it. I am quoting Dr.Alexis Carrel again. He said:“Those who keep the peace of their inner selves in the midst of the tumult of the modern city are immune from nervous diseases.”
Can you keep the peace of your inner self in the midst of the tumult of a modern city? If you are a normal person, the answer is “yes”.“Emphatically yes.” Most of us are stronger than we realize. We have inner resources that we have probably never tapped. As Thoreau said in his immortal book, Walden:
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour... If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Surely, many of the readers of this book have as much will power and as many inner resources as Olga K.Jarvey has. Her address is Box 892, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. She discovered that under the most tragic circumstances she could banish worry. I firmly believe that you and I can also—if we apply the old, old truths discussed in this volume.Here is Olga K.Jarvey's story as she wrote it for me:“Eight and a half years ago, I was condemned to die—a slow, agonising death—of cancer. The best medical brains of the country, the Mayo brothers, confirmed the sentence. I was at a dead-end street, the ultimate gaped at me! I was young. I did not want to die! In my desperation, I phoned to my doctor at Kellogg and cried out
狱篇”听来就像“娃娃游玩具国”。那时候，你就会对自己说：“噢，上帝啊！要是我能好起来，我将不再为任何事忧虑——永远。”（如果你认为我言过其实，不妨去问问你的家庭医生。）
你热爱生活吗？你想健康长寿吗？下面就是你能做到的。我正在引用亚历西斯·卡瑞尔医生的话：“在现代城市的混乱中，只有维持内心平静的人才不会变成神经病。”
你能在现代城市的混乱中保持内心的平静吗？如果你是一个正常人，答案是“可以”。“绝对可以”。我们大多数人比我们所认为的都要坚强。我们拥有许多也许从未发现的内在力量，就像梭罗在他不朽的名著《瓦尔登湖》里所写的：
“我不知道还有什么比一个人决心改善生活更令人振奋的……要是一个人自信地朝理想的方向努力，决心过他想过的生活，一定会得到意外的成功。”
我相信，本书的许多读者都具有欧嘉·詹维那种意志和内在力量。她的地址是爱达荷州科达伦的布克斯街892号信箱。即使在最悲惨的情况下，她发现自己也能克服忧虑。我坚信，只要我们应用这本书介绍的古老真理，你和我也都能做到。下面就是欧嘉·詹维写给我的故事：“八年半以前，医生宣称我将会缓慢而痛苦地死于癌症。国内最有名的医生梅育兄弟也证实了这个诊断。我无药可救了，死亡降临到了我头上。可是我还年轻，还不想死。在绝望之余，我打电话给我住在克洛格的医生，哭着将我内心的绝望告诉他。他不耐烦地拦住我说：‘怎么了，欧嘉？难道
to him the despair in my heart. Rather impatiently he upbraided me:‘What's the matter, Olga, haven't you any fight in you? Sure, you will die if you keep on crying. Yes, the worst has overtaken you.O.K.—face the facts! Quit worrying! And then do something about it!’Right then and there I took an oath, an oath so solemn that the nails sank deep into my flesh and cold chills ran down my spine:‘I am not going to worry! I am not going to cry! And if there is anything to mind over matter, I am going to win! I am going to LIVE！’
“The usual amount of X-ray in such advanced cases, where they cannot apply radium, is 10 minutes a day for 30 days. They gave me X-ray for 14 minutes a day for 49 days; and although my bones stuck out of my emaciated body like rocks on a barren hillside, and although my feet were like lead, I did not worry! Not once did I cry! I smiled! Yes, I actually forced myself to smile.
“I am not so idiotic as to imagine that merely smiling can cure cancer. But I do believe that a cheerful mental attitude helps the body fight disease. At any rate, I experienced one of the miracle cures of cancer. I have never been healthier than in the last few years, thanks to those challenging, fighting words of Dr.McCaffery:‘Face the facts: Quite worrying; then do something about it!'”
I am going to close this chapter by repeating its title: the words of Dr.Alexis Carrel:“Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.”
你一点斗志都没有了？你要是一直这样哭下去，你必死无疑。不错，你是碰上了最坏的情况。好吧！面对现实，不要忧虑，然后想想办法。’就在那时，我立下重誓，指甲都深深地掐进了肉里，而且背上一阵阵发冷：‘我不会再忧虑，不会再哭泣！如果还有什么要想的，就是我一定要赢！一定要活下去！’
“在重症不能用镭照射的情况下，通常是照30天每天10分钟的X光，但我却连续49天每天照14分钟的X光。虽然我瘦得皮包骨头，双腿重如铅块，我却不忧虑，也没有哭过一次！我面带笑容！不错，我的确是在勉强自己笑。
“我当然不会傻到相信只要笑就能治好癌症。但我的确相信，愉快的精神状态有助于身体抵抗疾病。总之，我亲身经历了一次癌症治愈的奇迹。在过去几年里，我再也没有像现在这么健康过，多亏了麦卡弗里医生‘面对现实，不要忧虑，然后想想办法’这句富于挑战和战斗性的话。”
在这一章就要结束的时候，我要再重复一次亚历西斯·卡瑞尔医生的这句话：“不知道抗拒忧虑的商人，会短命而亡。”