Don’t worry about worrying
There are hundreds of diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) the psychology industry uses to label a mental health disorder or disease. All of the are normal human experiences and behaviors. What gets someone a diagnosis is that the patient has gotten abnormally carried away with a specific behavior. Thousands of perfectly normal folks hear voices, experience horrible anxiety or feel sad to the point of dysfunction every day. It doesn’t mean these events constitute a disease or disorder. It may mean they are experiencing profound grief, severe loneliness or are extremely stressed for a perfectly good reason. Ask a mental health counselor’s opinion about your condition. Don’t self diagnose and then ask a primary care doctor for pills. You may not need them. This too may pass. Besides, talking about your feelings really helps.—MR
Is it time to stop worrying about stress?
The Big Idea, The US Guardian, February 14, 2022
In the late 19th-century America, a somewhat bizarre form of abstinence emerged. The vice was not alcohol but anxiety. Citizens of New York began to attend regular “Don’t Worry Clubs” in which they encouraged each other to look on the bright side of life. Their founder, Theodore Seward, argued that Americans were “slaves to the worrying habit”, which was the “enemy which destroys happiness”. It needed to be “attacked” with “resolute and persevering effort.”
