3 What Worry May Do to You

Those who do not know how to fight worry die young.

—Dr.Alexis Carrel

Many years ago, a neighbour rang my doorbell one evening and urged me and my family to be vaccinated against smallpox. He was only one of thousands of volunteers who were ringing doorbells all over New York City.Frightened people stood in lines for hours at a time to be vaccinated.Vaccination stations were opened not only in all hospitals, but also in fire-houses, police precincts, and in large industrial plants.More than two thousand doctors and nurses worked feverishly day and night, vaccinating crowds. The cause of all this excitement? Eight people in New York City had smallpox—and two had died. Two deaths out of a population of almost eight million.

Now, I have lived in New York for over thirty-seven years, and no one has ever yet rung my doorbell to warn me against the emotional sickness of worry—an illness that, during the same time period, had caused ten thousand times more damage than smallpox.

No doorbell ringer has ever warned me that one person out of ten now living in these United States will have a nervous breakdown—induced in the vast majority of cases by worry and emotional conflicts. So I am writing this chapter to ring your doorbell and warn you.

The great Nobel Prize winner in medicine, Dr.Alexis Carrel, said:“Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young.” And so do housewives and horse doctors and bricklayers.