第3章　憂慮會使人短命

不知道克服憂慮的人，都會短命而亡。

——亞歷西斯·卡瑞爾博士

許多年前的一個晚上，一個鄰居來按我家的門鈴，讓我和我的家人去接種牛痘，以預防天花。他是整個紐約市各家按門鈴的幾千名志愿者之一。很多人嚇壞了，去排了好幾個小時的隊等待接種牛痘。幾乎所有的醫院、消防隊、警察局和大的工廠里都設有接種站，2000多名醫生和護士日夜不停地為人們種痘。為什么這么熱鬧呢？這是因為紐約市800萬人中，有8個人得了天花，而且其中兩個死了。

我在紐約市已經住了37年，可是并沒有一個人來按我的門鈴，警告我預防精神憂郁癥——這種病在過去37年所造成的傷害，比天花至少要大1萬倍。

從來沒有人按門鈴并警告我說，目前生活在美國的人，每10個人中就有一個會精神崩潰——這大部分都是因為憂慮和感情沖突所致。所以，我現在寫這一章就等于給你按門鈴，對你提出警告。

偉大的諾貝爾醫學獎獲得者亞歷西斯·卡瑞爾醫生說：“不知道如何抗拒憂慮的商人都會短命而死。”家庭主婦、獸醫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

幾年前，我在一次度假時曾和郭伯爾博士一同乘車經過得克薩斯和新墨西哥州。郭伯爾博士當時任圣塔菲鐵路公司醫務處長，他的正式頭銜是海灣-科羅拉多-圣塔菲聯合醫院主任醫師。當我們談到憂慮對人的影響時，他說：“那些來看病的人中，70%的人只要能夠消除他們的恐懼和憂慮，病就會治好。別以為我是指他們的病都是想象出來的。”他說，“他們的病真實得就像你有一顆蛀牙一樣，有時候甚至比這要嚴重上百倍。這些病就像神經性消化不良、某些胃潰瘍、心臟病、失眠、頭痛和某幾種麻痹癥等一樣嚴重。”

“這些病都是真的，我不是在胡說，”郭伯爾博士說，“因為我自己就得過12年胃潰瘍。

“恐懼造成憂慮，憂慮使你緊張，并影響到你的胃部神經，使你胃里的胃液變得不正常，于是由此導致胃潰瘍。”

約瑟夫·孟塔古博士是《神經性胃病》的作者，他也闡述過同樣的道理。他說：“胃潰瘍不是因為食物所致，而是正在吞噬你的憂慮所致。”

梅育診所的阿法瑞茲醫生說：“胃潰瘍通常會根據你的情緒緊張程度而發作或消失。”

這種論斷得到了梅育診所15000例胃病患者的病例記錄的證實。4/5的人并不是因為生理上的原因而得胃病；相反，恐懼、憂慮、怨恨、極端自私以及無法適應現實生活，才是他們得胃病和胃潰瘍的主要原因……胃潰瘍會讓你致死。據《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.

雜志的數據，這種疾病在致命疾病中排第十位。

最近我和梅育診所的哈羅德·海賓醫生寫過幾次信。他曾在全美工業界醫生協會年會上宣讀過一篇論文，說他研究了176位平均年齡為44.3歲的企業負責人的情況。他報告說：大約有1/3以上的人由于生活過于緊張而導致出現下列三種病癥之一——心臟病、消化系統潰瘍和高血壓。你想想！在企業領導人中，竟然有1/3以上的人患有這些病！而他們都還不到45歲！成功的代價多大啊！就此而言，他們甚至不是在爭取成功！有哪個患胃潰瘍和心臟病的人能夠成為成功者呢？就算他能贏得整個世界，可是他失去了健康，對他個人又有什么好處？即使他擁有了全世界，可是他一個人每次也只能睡一張床，一天也只吃三餐。即使是一個新員工也可以做到這一點，甚至會比一個很有權力的負責人睡得更安穩，吃得更香。說實話，我情愿做一個在亞拉巴馬州租田種地的農夫，彈著五弦琴，也不愿在45歲時為了一個鐵路公司或一個煙草公司而毀了我的健康。

一位世界最知名的香煙制造商，最近想在加拿大森林里輕松一下，卻因為心臟病發作死了。他擁有幾百萬的財產，卻在61歲死了。他這是用好幾年的生命去換取所謂“生意上的成功”。

但是依我看來，這位身價數百萬的“香煙大王”的成功還不如我父親的一半。我父親是密蘇里州的一個農夫，盡管他一文不名，卻活到了89歲。

著名的梅育兄弟宣稱，醫院一半以上的病床被有神經疾病的人占著。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

用高倍顯微鏡，以最現代的方法來檢查他們的神經時，卻發現他們大部分顯然都和拳王杰克·鄧普西一樣健康。他們的“神經疾病”并不是由神經反常引起的，而是因為悲觀、煩躁、焦急、憂慮、恐懼、挫折、頹喪等。柏拉圖曾說：“醫生所犯的最大錯誤，就是他們只治療身體，卻不醫治思想。可是精神和肉體是一體的，不能分別治療。”

醫學界花了2300年的時間，才算明白這個偉大的真理。我們正開始發展一種被稱為“心理生理醫學”的分支，它同時治療精神和肉體疾病。現在正是做這件事的最佳時機，因為醫學科學已經大量消除了由細菌所引起的如天花、霍亂、黃熱病以及其他各種曾將數以百萬計的人置于死地的傳染病。但醫學界尚無力治療精神和身體方面非由細菌引起，而是由情緒憂慮、恐懼、憎恨、煩躁以及絕望所引起的疾病。這種情緒上的疾病所導致的災難正日漸增加，而且越來越普遍，速度驚人。

醫生們估計：現在還活著的美國人，每20人就有一人在某一段時期得過精神疾病。第二次世界大戰期間應征入伍的美國年輕人中，每6人就有一人因為精神失常或有缺陷而不能服役。

是什么導致精神失常？沒有人知道所有的答案。可是在許多情況下，極可能是因為恐懼和憂慮導致的。焦慮和煩躁不安的人大都難以適應現實世界，和周圍的人沒有溝通，退縮到自己的夢幻世界，以此來解決他的憂慮。

我桌上放了愛德華·波多爾斯基醫生寫的一本書《除憂去病》。下面是這本書

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

中幾章的題目：

憂慮對心臟的影響

憂慮導致高血壓

風濕癥可能因憂慮而起

為了你的胃，少些憂慮

憂慮如何使你感冒

憂慮和甲狀腺

憂慮的糖尿病患者

另一本討論憂慮的書是卡爾·門寧格醫生寫的《自尋煩惱》。門寧格是梅育兄弟精神病院的醫生，他的書揭示了一些令人震驚的事實：當你讓消極情緒控制你的生活時，你會毀了自己。如果你想遠離憂慮，就去買這本書來看。把它送給你的朋友們。它只賣4美元——這是你一生中最好的投資之一。

憂慮甚至會令最強壯的人生病。格蘭特將軍在南北戰爭的最后幾天發現了這一點。故事是這樣的：格蘭特圍攻里士滿長達9個月，李將軍的軍隊饑困交加，終于被打敗。一時間，整個軍隊人心惶惶。其余的人在帳營中祈禱——邊哭邊叫，看到了種種幻象。戰爭行將結束，李將軍的士兵放火燒毀了里士滿的棉花和煙草倉庫，燒了兵工廠，然后在烈焰騰空的黑夜棄城而逃。格蘭特乘勝追擊，從左右兩側和后方夾擊南部聯軍，另派謝里登的騎兵從正面截擊，又拆毀鐵路線，繳獲了補給

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

車輛。

這時，格蘭特卻劇烈頭痛而眼睛半瞎，跟不上隊伍，于是只好停在一戶農家。“我過了一夜，”他在回憶錄中寫道，“把雙腳泡在加了芥末的熱水里，還把芥末藥膏貼在手腕和后頸上，希望第二天早上能夠痊愈。”

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藥膏，而是一個疾馳而來帶回李將軍降書的騎兵。

“當那個軍士來到我面前時，”格蘭特寫道，“我的頭還痛得很厲害，但當我一看到那封信的內容時，我就全好了。”

顯然，格蘭特是因為憂慮、緊張和情緒不安才生病的。一旦情緒色彩變為自信、成就和勝利，他就立即好了。

70年后，富蘭克林·羅斯福總統的財政部長亨利·摩根索也發現，憂慮會使他頭昏眼花。他在日記中寫道：為了提高小麥的價格，總統下令在一天之內買進440萬蒲式耳（注：一蒲式耳約合35升）小麥，這使他非常憂慮。他說：“在事情沒有結果之前，我頭昏眼花。我回到家里，吃完午飯后睡了兩個小時。”

如果我想知道憂慮對人會產生什么影響，大可不必到圖書館或醫院求證。只要從我現在正坐著寫此書的家里朝窗外看，就能看到在同街區的一棟房子里，有一個人因為憂慮而精神崩潰；另外一個房子里，有一個人因為憂慮而得了糖尿病。如果股票下跌，他的血和尿里的糖分就會升高。

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

法國著名的哲學家蒙田當選為家鄉波多克斯的市長時，他對市民們說：“我愿意用我的雙手來處理你們的事情，而不想讓它們把我弄得焦頭爛額。”

但我的一位鄰居卻將股票市場搞到他的血液里，差點要了他的老命。

如果想記住憂慮對人會產生什么影響，大可不必去看鄰居的房子，只要看看我現在正坐著寫此書的這個房間，它以前的主人就因為憂慮而死。

憂慮會使你患風濕癥或關節炎而坐進輪椅。康奈爾大學醫學院的羅賽爾·賽希爾醫生是世界公認的關節炎治療權威，他曾列舉了四種最容易得關節炎的情況：

1.婚姻破裂。

2.財務危機和困難。

3.寂寞和憂慮。

4.長期憤怒。

當然，這四種情緒上的狀況遠不是導致關節炎的唯一原因。有許多種類的不同原因導致的關節炎。但是，重復一遍，產生關節炎的“最常見的原因”，正是賽希爾醫生列舉的四點。例如，我的一個朋友在經濟蕭條時期遭到沉重打擊，煤氣公司切斷了他的煤氣，銀行沒收了抵押貸款的房子，他太太突然患了關節炎——雖然經過治療和加強營養，他太太的關節炎卻直到他們的經濟條件改善之后才痊愈。

憂慮甚至會使你得蛀牙。威廉·麥戈尼格爾醫生曾在全美牙醫協會的一次演講中說：“由于焦慮、恐懼等因素所導致的不快情緒，可能會影響人體內的鈣質平

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，從而導致蛀牙。”麥戈尼格爾醫生還說，他的一個病人原來有一口很好的牙齒，但后來他的夫人得了急病，他開始擔心。就在她住院的那三個星期，他突然有了九顆蛀牙——全都是由于焦慮引起的。

你是否見過一個人的甲狀腺過度活躍？我看過。我可以告訴你，他們會發抖、會戰栗，看起來就像是嚇得半死——事實上也差不多如此。甲狀腺的功能是調節生理平衡，一旦反常人的心跳就會加速，整個身體就會亢奮異常，像一個打開了所有爐門的大火爐，如果不做手術或治療，病人可能會送命，可能“把他自己燒干”。

不久前，我和一個患了這種病的朋友一同去費城。我們去拜訪一位專治這種病達38年之久的著名專家。你猜在他候診室的墻上掛的一塊大木板上給病人的忠告寫著什么？我把它抄在了一個信封的背面：

輕松和享受

最能讓你輕松愉快的，是健康的信仰、睡眠、音樂和歡笑。

要相信神，要學著睡得安穩，

喜歡美妙的音樂，從好的一面來看生活，健康和快樂都會屬于你。

他問我朋友的第一個問題就是：“什么情緒問題導致你出現這種情況？”他警告我的朋友說，如果他不停止憂慮，就可能會染上其他并發癥：心臟病、胃潰瘍或糖尿病等。“所有這些病癥，”這位名醫說，“都互有關聯，甚至是近親。”沒錯，它們都是近親——都是憂慮的疾病。

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

當我訪問電影明星曼爾·奧伯朗的時候，她告訴我她絕不會憂慮，因為她知道憂慮會將她在銀幕上的主要資產——美麗容貌摧毀。

“當我起初試圖涉足影壇的時候，”她告訴我，“我既擔心又害怕。我剛從印度回來，在倫敦舉目無親，卻想在那里找到一份工作。我找了幾家制片公司，可是沒有一家肯錄用我。我僅有的一點點錢也快用光了。后來兩個星期，我只靠一點餅干和白開水生活。因此我不僅憂慮，還很饑餓。我對自己說：‘也許你是個傻瓜，也許你永遠也進不了電影界。因為你沒有任何經驗，也從來沒有演過戲——除了一張漂亮的臉蛋，你還有什么？’

“我去照了照鏡子。就在我照鏡子的時候，看到了憂慮對我容貌的影響。我看到了皺紋，看見了焦慮的表情。于是我對自己說：‘你必須立即停止憂慮！不能再憂慮。你能給別人的只有容貌，而憂慮卻會毀了它。’”

再也沒有什么比憂慮使一個女人衰老得更快了。憂慮會使我們的表情難看，使我們牙關咬緊，臉上出現皺紋，讓人整天愁眉苦臉。

憂慮會使頭發灰白，有時甚至會使頭發脫落。憂慮還會使臉上的皮膚長斑點、潰爛和長粉刺。

心臟病現在是美國的頭號殺手。在第二次世界大戰期間，大約30多萬人死于戰場，可是在同一時期，心臟病卻導致200萬人死亡，而其中100萬人的心臟病是由于憂慮和過度緊張的生活引起的。也正因為心臟病，亞歷西斯·卡瑞爾醫生才說：

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.

“不知道抗拒憂慮的商人，會短命而亡。”

美國南部的黑人和中國人因為處事沉著，所以很少患這種因憂慮而引起的心臟病。死于心臟病的醫生是農夫的20倍。因為醫生過著緊張的生活，所以才有這樣的結果。

“上帝可能原諒我們的罪過，”威廉·詹姆斯說，“但神經系統卻不會。”

這里有一個令人吃驚而難以相信的事實：每年因自殺而死的人比五種最常見傳染病致死的人還要多。

為什么呢？答案通常是：“憂慮。”

當殘忍的中國軍閥想要折磨他們的俘虜時，常常將俘虜綁起手腳，放在一個不停地往下滴水的袋子下面，水不停地滴著……日夜不停。最后，這些不停地滴落在頭上的水變成了槌子敲擊的聲音，使人精神失常。這種折磨人的方法，以前西班牙的宗教法庭、希特勒的德國集中營都曾用過。

憂慮就像是不停地往下滴的水珠，而那不停地往下滴、滴、滴的憂慮，通常會使人發狂、自殺。

當我還是密蘇里州一個鄉村孩子的時候，星期天聽傳道士比利·森迪講地獄中的烈火時會嚇得半死，可是他從來沒有提到我們因為憂慮而導致的生理上的痛苦。例如，如果你長期憂慮，終有一天會患上最痛苦的冠心病。

這種病如果發作，會讓你痛得尖聲喊叫。你這種尖叫會讓但丁的《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

獄篇”聽來就像“娃娃游玩具國”。那時候，你就會對自己說：“噢，上帝啊！要是我能好起來，我將不再為任何事憂慮——永遠。”（如果你認為我言過其實，不妨去問問你的家庭醫生。）

你熱愛生活嗎？你想健康長壽嗎？下面就是你能做到的。我正在引用亞歷西斯·卡瑞爾醫生的話：“在現代城市的混亂中，只有維持內心平靜的人才不會變成神經病。”

你能在現代城市的混亂中保持內心的平靜嗎？如果你是一個正常人，答案是“可以”。“絕對可以”。我們大多數人比我們所認為的都要堅強。我們擁有許多也許從未發現的內在力量，就像梭羅在他不朽的名著《瓦爾登湖》里所寫的：

“我不知道還有什么比一個人決心改善生活更令人振奮的……要是一個人自信地朝理想的方向努力，決心過他想過的生活，一定會得到意外的成功。”

我相信，本書的許多讀者都具有歐嘉·詹維那種意志和內在力量。她的地址是愛達荷州科達倫的布克斯街892號信箱。即使在最悲慘的情況下，她發現自己也能克服憂慮。我堅信，只要我們應用這本書介紹的古老真理，你和我也都能做到。下面就是歐嘉·詹維寫給我的故事：“八年半以前，醫生宣稱我將會緩慢而痛苦地死于癌癥。國內最有名的醫生梅育兄弟也證實了這個診斷。我無藥可救了，死亡降臨到了我頭上。可是我還年輕，還不想死。在絕望之余，我打電話給我住在克洛格的醫生，哭著將我內心的絕望告訴他。他不耐煩地攔住我說：‘怎么了，歐嘉？難道

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.”

你一點斗志都沒有了？你要是一直這樣哭下去，你必死無疑。不錯，你是碰上了最壞的情況。好吧！面對現實，不要憂慮，然后想想辦法。’就在那時，我立下重誓，指甲都深深地掐進了肉里，而且背上一陣陣發冷：‘我不會再憂慮，不會再哭泣！如果還有什么要想的，就是我一定要贏！一定要活下去！’

“在重癥不能用鐳照射的情況下，通常是照30天每天10分鐘的X光，但我卻連續49天每天照14分鐘的X光。雖然我瘦得皮包骨頭，雙腿重如鉛塊，我卻不憂慮，也沒有哭過一次！我面帶笑容！不錯，我的確是在勉強自己笑。

“我當然不會傻到相信只要笑就能治好癌癥。但我的確相信，愉快的精神狀態有助于身體抵抗疾病。總之，我親身經歷了一次癌癥治愈的奇跡。在過去幾年里，我再也沒有像現在這么健康過，多虧了麥卡弗里醫生‘面對現實，不要憂慮，然后想想辦法’這句富于挑戰和戰斗性的話。”

在這一章就要結束的時候，我要再重復一次亞歷西斯·卡瑞爾醫生的這句話：“不知道抗拒憂慮的商人，會短命而亡。”