Psychological issues and prevention techniques

Healthy men and women are subject to human tensions but they are able to find ways to relieve them without excessive anxiety. Among the ways they use: Talking over worries with a sympathetic friend, relative, physician, or anyone else whose judgment they respect.

Getting away for a while, even if only for a short walk

 Working off anger, preferably by discussing it openly with a trusted, mature person; sometimes in some physical activity

 Taking one thing at a time, especially when feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of too much to do. Giving in sometimes, even when certain they are right. Helping others, getting out of the vicious circle that preoccupation with one's own troubles can produce.

Being slow with criticism

 Cooperating, being aware that though we live in a competitive society, many situations call for cooperative effort; and aware, too, that if one competes all the time, one may be too weary and too worn to enjoy success when it is achieved. THE BASIC DISORDERS A useful way to classify abnormal behavior is by dividing it into four broad categories: psychosomatic disorders, neuroses, character disorders, and psychoses. Although there can be some overlapping and intermixing, these four types of ailments can be examined separately. Psychosomatic Disorders These illnesses, which we have discussed in earlier chapters, are understandable to anyone who has ever had a headache after a fight with spouse or employer, or experienced butterflies in the stomach before taking an important examination.

Occasional mild distress of this sort is universal and harmless. But some people experience such symptoms al- most constantly, and their discomfort is intense. Psychosomatic illnesses can assume many forms, including skin outbreaks, stomach upsets, high blood pressure, and asthma. These are not imaginary problems; even when there is no physical cause, pain can be authentic and illness very real. A person with an emotionally produced physical ailment needs psycho- logical help, but he also is as much in need of medical help as the individual whose disease has organic roots.