The Power of Worry

Very Cool Story!!!

[Van Ekeren, 1988]

The expression "worried to death" has more truth to it than you might think.

There is a story about Nick Sitzman, a strong, young bull-of-a-man, who worked on a train crew. It seemed Nick had everything: a strong healthy body, ambition, a wife and two children, and many friends. However, Nick had one fault. He was a notorious worrier. He worried about everything and usually feared the worst.

One midsummer day, the train crew were informed that they could quit an hour early in honor of the foreman's birthday. Accidentally, Nick was locked in a refrigerator boxcar, and the rest of the workmen left the site. Nice panicked.

He banged and shouted until his fists were bloody and his voice was hoarse. No one heard him. "If I can't get out, I'll freeze to death in here," he thought. Wanting to let his wife and family know exactly what had happened to him, Nick found a knife and began to etch words on the wooden floor. He wrote, "It's so cold, my body is getting numb. If I could just go to sleep. These may be my last words."

The next morning the crew slid open the heavy doors of the boxcar and found Nick dead. An autopsy revealed that every physical sign of his body indicated he had frozen to death. And yet the refrigeration unit of the car was inoperative, and the temperature inside indicated fifty-five degrees. Nick had killed himself by the power of worry.

Whoa.

I researched for about an hour to see if this story was true or just an urban legend and couldn't come up with a definite answer.  However, what it teaches me is this:  The Mind is Powerful.  The mind is so powerful it can convince you of things that just are not true.

If you are a negative worry wart type of person, you may want to pay attention to what you are pumping inside your noggin...