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I am constantly impressed that so many of the letters written to me have an underlying component of fear… and that so many readers fail to mention their anxieties to their family doctors, to psychologists, family counselors, or religious advisers.

Fear can be destructive because it so insidiously deprives the fearful of their right to emotional stability. Doctors everywhere note the increasing number of patients overwhelmed and devitalized by fear. These fears are usually out of proportion to the severity of their illness.

For many patients fear has become so deeply ingrained in their psychological makeup that long after a physical illness has been cured, high levels of anxiety remain. Many patients delay going to their doctors because they fear disease that is actually nonexistent. The result is that minor complaints and easily treated illnesses are very often converted into complicated problems.

When people bring their anxieties out into the open, their fears diminish and are easier to control. Hope, courage, education, and open discussion are the ‘antibiotics’ that combat fears that thrive in darkness and in silence. There is no shame in having a physical illness of any kind. There is no shame, either, in having a psychological problem that needs clarification and help.

In today’s society, symptoms of anxiety flourish. Many forces and pressures are responsible. Yet, to allow fear to grow unreasonably in a world so filled with scientific achievement does a great injustice to the joys of living.

I urge you to face fear frankly, to speak out to those who are trained to understand fear’s underlying cause. Shining some light on the problem may very well dispel the fear and anxiety symproms completely - it’s good to talk.

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