By Thangjam Sanjoo Singh
Medical science is of the view that diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, gastric ulcers, skin diseases and asthma are aggravated, if not actually brought about from anxiety and worry. Thought can generate organic disorders as we tend to attract what we expect in life. Doctors find that their patients tend to heal according with their own expectations rather than healing as the prognosis would suggest. Metal suffering profoundly disrupts good health. Businessman who do not know to cope with worry and stressful situations often die young. Those who remain calm and maintain their inner peace in spite of the external turmoil of worldly life are insulated from nervous and organic disorders.
Experience has shown that a good deal of physical and mental ill-health can be traced to worry. Worry dries up blood sooner than age. Some degree of fear, worry and anxiety is natural and many may even be necessary for self-preservation, but when it is not under control, constant fear and prolonged worry will only wreak havoc on the human organism. These factors all contribute to the weakling of our normal bodily functions.
According to medical opinion, in the treatment of most functional disorders, close attention has to be paid to the mental conditions of the patient. They have also realized that worries do not solve problems but instead only aggravate them which in turn will cause one’s physical and mental ruin. In addition, a person who is perpetually worried creates unhealthy atmosphere at home, in the office and in society in general. Through rash actions arising from his/her personal worry and anxiety, he/she upsets the peace and happiness of other around him/her.
Just as worry is capable of causing so much harm to oneself and others, so also fear. Persistent fear keeps a person in a state of perpetual mental tension and anguish. Fear progressively erodes life and debases the mind. Fear is a potential pessimistic force which darkens the future. If a man/ woman harbors any kind of fear, his/her way of thinking will be affected. This unwholesome mental state is capable of eroding his/her personality and making him/her landlord to a ghost.
So great a hold has fear upon us that has rightly been described as humanity’s arch-enemy. Fear has become a fixed mental state amongst millions of people. To live in continued dread, cringing and haunted by the fear of devils, spooks, gods and goddesses is the common lot humanity wallowing in ignorance.
Fear can however turn to panic in cases of unexpected crises when there are no preparations for meeting the threat.
**The writer is a Lay Buddhist and Social Activist of People Who Use Drugs (PUDs)
