’Be Taken in Time and Dealt With ‘as V igorously as ~ Are Symptoms of Appendicitis 4‘ UICIDE while temporarily lneanel” The financial world was shocked a few weeks ago when a famous banker killed himself in one of New York's most exclusive clubs. Why? An intimate family friend told the officials at the club that he had noticed for some time that the banker had seemed to be worried and ' l[lesioondenn but that so far as he knew It was simply a case of “nerves" or over— work. Nobody has yet found but why thisfavorite of good fortune committed suicidcmprobably never will find out. It 18 a profound mystery. To the psychiatrist, however, there are many. possible explanations of such an not. In the following article Dr. George K. l’rati, givos some interesting infor- mation on depression, its causes and cure, taking his examples from cases in nil walks of life. Dr. Pratt, Who, Was recently :llll‘mlllled to the New York staff of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, has had a wide 0'):- periencc in this branch of mental sick‘ ness. Silli‘t' 1921 he has been medical di- rector of the Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene in Boston. ..Previous to that time ho had served ontho staff of a hospital for mental diseases in Mich- iganT—hud been in private practicd specializing in psychiatry and had held n comnnssion in the Noam-psychiatric Division of the Army Medl during the war. cal Corps By George K. Pratt MD. THE worst possible advice you can give to a deeply worried or depressed friend is: “Stop worrying” or “Cheer up.’ if he is merely suffering from a fit oi the blues, it won't do him much harm; amordinary fit of the blues is not serious. 0n the other hand. if your friend is suffering from depression of the proe longed harmful type, out of all propor- tion to its ascribed cause, he.- is in need of helm—professional help from a‘ psychiatrist. You can’t help him, and merely telling him not to worry is about as effective as trying to put out I raging fire with an atomizer. A man whose business is going poorly and whose son hasrun oil‘ with a chorus ' girl, for instance, has good cause to Worry and feel discouraged and blue. He can‘t help feeling depressed over these conditions, and it will need more than your empty advice to dispel the gloom. However, the depression will clear up of itself when the business rights itself and the son settles dam: to a useful existence. The depression I am discussing here , is a pathological depression which works a serious mental change in an individual ' life. R. A’s casevls an example of thia‘. He owned a small, prosperous busi- ness, a wife and three children. All his life he had, been happy and apparently contented. Physically he ‘was in good health. As he neared middle life he be- gun to complain gradual that he was , unworthy of the success andhappinets that wore his. - p The family didn’t pay much attention to these expressions of. self-depreciation at first. When he insisted to them that he was unworthy or their love, they passed over his protestations as lightly .as possible, but when hebegan to con- fide in his neighbors that‘hc was un- worthy of their respect because he had committed the "unforgivahle sin” they began lo look on him as being a bit “queer.” lie-was quite vague as to what the “uniorgivoblc sin" was, but was quite 'surc that, it made him‘unfit to associate with decent citizens‘and would ban him from heaven. ‘He spent hours in his office worrying lend day-dreaming-—trivial things .ts- named, gigantic importance; small hap- penings began to have tremendous sig- nificance. When hewas at his place of _ business,’ he constantly worried about ‘. his family, and when he was at home he worried about the house catching on. are ‘ After a time he began to sleep poorly, his appetite fell golf and he had intestinal ‘ upsets. . ‘ ,, _ " Allwtheso symptoms the family attrib- uted to “overwork.” J morbidly distorted K. Pratt. nationally ‘ knoWn as an authority on mental illnesses The family physician, who wasn‘t skilled in mental diagnosis, said: "Go to Florida for a change, and you will be all right. Forget business form while and cheér up." The result wasthat he went to Flor» ids with his wife, and the day after they arrived he committed suicide, by jumping out-of the hotel window. This might have been prevented if his family 'had recognlzcdhia disturbed mental condition for what it really was and taken him to a psychiatriEt, who would probably have undertaken his treatment in, a suitable hospital until the danger-had passed. Instead of that they had refused to recognize the mental symptoms, and the poor man had lived in a gloomy, pathologic realm of his own, where values acid perspectives were ntil serious mental sickness overwhelmed him. “This maniachcprcseivo type of in. sanity is fairly common. In its classical form. the patient sometimes suitors al- ternately from elation and depression, and sometimes from one or the other alone, and just like any other sclfdimita ing disease, like measles or mumps; it usually, ends in recovery if ‘thken in time. If the families or friends of such a patient would recognize 1 this depres- sion as adanger signal as they recog- nize a rash as a symptom of‘scarlet fever, they would prevent many ‘eulo cidee. . ’ * ' BUT people have a peculier‘horror of mental diseases—~there is still (some- thing ghastly and mysterious abdut them in the lay mind. Onepf the things which . the National Committee for Mental Hygiene is trying to do is to disseminate ' the knowledge‘thatvu cell-tum amount of mental disorder " is preventable if the public will observe two conditions: First. That warning symptoms of up. preaching mental disease, no matter ‘ what the variety, be early recognized. Second. That,” once recognized < (and a willingness’instilled to acknowledge them as incipient mental disorders), prompt ' and ,efllcient treatment be given. Until information about the; nature and‘prevention?» of mental disorder is gained by the public,.and thestigrna and ignorance that surround the mentally ‘sickwis‘ renewed, and until mental dis- order is aepepted as a disease and not a _ disgrace, we shall constantly find our- > d Are You a ¥,Side-Steppclr? ‘ , ‘ AVE you met the” man who ,is alwal’s .’ worrying about losing his position or falling doivn on the job? 01‘ the woman .Who frets herself into torments over the dire . disaster that is jusr sure to overtake hcr childw'but never docsR Dr. George K. Pratt tells us here that frequently the thing a person thinks he is worrying about is not the real cause of the worry at all but only a mask for Something else deeply, hiddcn’in his inner life. He says werry very often is just a . , disinclination “to face the realities of lift Corning face to face with a diffiéult situa- tion, the worrier tries to, dOdgc around ,it instead of meeting it souarcly' and solving the problem. A convenient “headache” or a case of r“ncrvous indigestion” is a; one and the same time the alibi and the ailment of this type of willful Worricr. ~ _ V Why an Ordinary Case of the ”Blues” Is, Nol‘q Serious ‘ .I.Matter-*May Be Good for YouFbut Continued Depression‘ Is a Wdrning of Some Mental Ailment That Ought to _ 42' Carlie duriugth! World ,War ‘ . ,\ I ‘ i l ‘1 ‘a selves up against this ostrichliko atti- tude. ‘ ' ’ ‘ ' ' Pathologic depressions are usually found in persons who have all their lives been moody‘end subject to ex- tremes inithcir daily ups anddowns. Either they have tended to ride the crest «sf-elation or sink to the depths of gloom over everyday‘i‘happeningc. Their emu- lions fluctuate widely..‘ Sometimes the cause can be traced back to faulty train. - ' ing of the child toward life in general, ‘which later on prevents him from. mingling with his fellow-beings without undue friction. Overeollcltoue and our fretting parents not infrequently im- pose on theirchildren in early life cer- tain, ideas which unfit them for living in the world of reality. There was Lester, for example. n.‘ was an only child, and his father was dead. That meant he was pampered precautions to‘preae'rv'eihls health were taken from almost the day of hieblrth.‘ Later equally: rigid safeguards were thrown about his moral development. Only'th'e choicest playmates could have access to him and his bookaiand amuse- ments were all figuratively sterilized. maidever trundled him in a carriageor putvon his clothes. These and many I ‘ Sam; chronic neurotic in (as ‘othen-neurotics seem L “ ‘- on littleliarry is...going toilgetruao .I‘ lamination brilliantly, but after the first and over-indulged. ‘ The greatest possible , l Lester’s mother .lnsisted on doing 5 everything for him herself. ‘ No nurse- ' other" intimate, attentions were mother’s jealously preserved rights.‘ As he grew up she begrudnedaevery change in this nature. As long aef’ehe‘dar‘ed she kept him in fluffy curls. Short'trousers were worn until he was wall in his. 14th year. At 16 she still rocked him; to sleep‘in her arms, and nothing delighted her more than, to dress him. She knew some day, of course, she would lose him, that he would have to go out and face the world alone, but she resolutely shut her eyes to this un- happy day and devised new schemes to 9ndcar him‘to her-ta little ionizer. She tried- her best. to make him feel his coniplctc dependency on lit-r. .All his childhood yours she had chosen for him his clothes,’ his books. his companions and, most of all. his very thoughts. As a natural result of all this, he found himdolf at 18 unable to make the healthy emancipation from home ties “which all adolescents should do if they are to face the World and stand on their own feet. However, some stifled spark of revolt did lead him to insist on going away to college. His motherproteated tearfully. Finally they compromised by her taking an apartment in the college town. But college demanded -‘ many adjust- ments which Lester had never been trained to make. He found difficulty in thinking for himself and ln’making‘ the many small but vexing decisions that arise every day. Always before some one had been on hand to make, his de~ clsicma for him, and a sturdy-solide- pendency was something he knew little “hilt... he should ran-toes to be ex- pected. Hut failure wasn’t due to any lack of intelligence; Lester had quite enough intelligence to makegood in his classes» ‘ The trouble was that campus life was such a contrast to his prevl. curly sheltered existence that he felt bewildered and helpless - . The college authorities finally dropped him and shortly afterwardhls mother ‘ “Manly died. At once he found him‘ “If an "adult orphan," alone, confused and as helpless as any juvenile orphan. lie made a few feeble attempts to enter businetayblll belied never been taught to meet others on a mutual level and the necessity for competing With predatory rivals in the sordid world of commerce proved too much for him. He grew dis- couraged and depressed aud‘ultimately became a patient in a hospitalfor the mentally sick. ' ‘ MORE fortunate was a student at a large woman’s college. ‘ This girl hall passed her entrance ex. Christmas vacation the faculty noticed that she was going down in he‘r'studies. At first, when, after being warned, she did not speedup, they considered send- ing .er‘home.‘ ‘ . ~ ’ , ‘ «The college physician, however, was interested in the case and persuaded the X-iaculty to» consult a‘ psychiatrist when magma roommaté toldlgthem that she TI' to man who is earned by the do vile of Worry has a double buliden to carrya-he must merit the problems that actu- ally exist" and faceithe million dist raters that arecreatures of his imagination was staying up to 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning worrying about something, and bac‘. begun going off no long walks by horse If. Grudu ally the psychiatrist found out the truth L. p ' . ,Her fa there-as a stern rind quite cc— centric, ll" not mildly insane, person, and -- her mother on easy-going, superficial,' butterfly type of individual. When she ’ urns a child the father had taught her a very peculiar and morbid code of ethics. but when “she reached the age of 14 or 15 she beg ion to take her‘ mother's side. ‘ During ;the Christmas vacation her father had ‘Vaccuscd her of trying to set her mothelf against him, and a double ‘npset occu trod when the mother con-' tossed to having a lover and asked for. a divorce. ’1 .‘ho poor conscientious young- ster bellow cl that she ups somehow to blame for the mix-up, and thought it was up to h l‘l‘ to fix it at any cost. She was natural ly Worried to death overthe problem, and the more she worried the worse it bee: one involved. The psychiatrist, after bringing all the facts of ”the case to light,'showed her that shes had assumed a responsi- bility which 'Mnsn’t here at all. He con- vinced her that she was helpless in the ‘matter of prtp'enting the divorce and of her lack of bl rmc in connection with it. He showed her how abnormal. accord- ing to the st onddrds of the rest of the ‘ world, were ‘the teachings of her father. and submittc d‘lbo her instead more com- monly .nccep ted and rational ones. The girl’s condition gradually improved and in a short ti‘. no her studies were again - up to the matrix. .‘ “Of course, ti )0 psychiatrist in this case did nothing ti Lat any practical and ob- :scrvant person: could not do, ,even if he lacked a medical training. Such help as this is not ‘: strictly psychiatry, but in actual practicil the psychiatrist often ‘ finds it, necessary to adopt such meas- ures simply bowluse no one also appears to have Seen this need of it. These two on see show that depression ‘ or worry was naphtha cause of trouble, , :-., : 'lnrgathe‘y aelim to‘enjoy Worrying just J . up erlforxiinslance, is always "Worrying ‘ . \ rejoin: to happen to Sister Sue ' " _ owe/K/fl , ‘ the matter. is desirable. but a symptom which might grow into a pathological condition if not corrected. A good thing for a person to do who is worrying about his inferiority is to try to discover what talents or per. 3 sonality traits he possesses which can be developed to offset the ones he feels he lacks. The trouble with this plan, however, is that often enough the indi- vidual’s self-judgment and insight. are so colored by unrecognized emotional prejudices that accurate and unbiased sc. lcction is impossible. I'llnlhlst Eliza”; e 5 acre ra help on some on p Ol’herwise one it likely to overcompensate when he . substitutes what he believes is a per- sonality or talent asset for a liability. Overcompensatlon is so easy, as is shown by the case of two boys who grew up in the same town and later worked in the same office. Outwardly they were like. _ . “Jim was shy, bashful and reticent. He hated his work in the cold, hard Indus. trilll world, and announced he was dos- tlned for success in more cethetxc fields. Every minute of his leisuretlme, there— fore, he spent playing around with the Greenwich Village crowd, daubmg cublet atrocities and writing free verse. George is a familiar type. loud—voiced, flashily dreSsed, he attempts to win arguments, not by a display of logicybut seeks to bowl over his oppo— nent by sheer lung power. He, too, dis- liked his ofilce workers and thought the others were jealous of his physical supe- riority. , ‘ ‘ , In high school both boys became men. . seed by, specters of inferiority. They ragged attire idea andjtgled to laugh Run .a , Jim finally admitted he was inferior. and‘after a few weeks of struggle he accepted it and became reconciled to the idea. Later he sunk into a narrow rut in life, a drab, colorless, neutral per- sonality. The other fellow fought the idea, too. George refused to acknowledge that he was inferior to anybody else. He would not permithims‘elf or his family or his friends to suSpect his secret. He de- fended himself against the threat of in- feriority by attacking. , Adopting apiece of military strategy, he buckled around himself a thick pro- tecting armor of arrogance by which he hoped to scare oil every one. He got by for a time. Then people began to penetrate his superficiality. They began to see “through his bluff”; in other words, he was unmasked. . George didn't appreciate the reason for his failure. He began to complain that he wasn’t given a square deal; spent a lot of time arguing resentfully. In these two cases the pendulum of compensation swung too far in the op posite direction. a A FREQUENT cause of worry is“ the natural disinclination people have to face reality. The “worriers” are some- times people who reach adult age with the habit of always dodging reality. When they are faced with a certain diffi- cult situation,instead of trying to get it ' over with they try to dodge around it. In childhood this is conscious, but year s after year goesbyand they continue to sidestep important issues. 'By the time they are 25 or 30 the trick has become an unconscious habit. The best advice ‘I can give for the avoidancegof worry is; Live one day at a time. By that I’don’t mean take no “thought of tomorrow, but‘don’t try liv- ing entirely in tomorrow or yesterday. Seek a confidantmehe’for whose judg- ment'and opinion you hold respect-and 'then‘pour your troubles into his ear. You will besurpriSed how this process of a "mental cathartic” relieves you and makes life Seem btlghtonce more. .cDon't become too alarmed over a small worry; itwilllikely pass. - JDon’t; neglect continued depression or profound WOW. 'When this is ’ac- compamediby insomnia, restlessness and! listlessnesenless or appetitaand gastro- ' l intestinal‘disotdeta. see a psychiitriet, - . “ eondleihimpdixfilp thereal underlying cause.§5mtjasxou”_wpld go to a dentist t‘.’ have a bad tooth pulled. . Don‘tfgdcdge',.iseues.~ Face facts and thuSfiWld possiblefdangerous mental conflictss'f‘f .‘5 '1'. “ , ,vWW'W" by Public Lodger Company 'e. Noisy, .
Norwalk Chronicler