Worry Woes
When I was in high school, Dad took a college psychology course for a management role at work. One evening while I was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework, he showed me a picture in his textbook. It was a wooden carving of a man grimacing while holding his stomach. The chapter title: Repress Your Emotions and Your Stomach Keeps Score. Dad knew me well. I’d been his anxious child from the time I figured out the world could be a scary place. I bottled up all that anxiousness and by the time I was in high school I had developed stomach ulcers. Some of my high school friends may recall my baby food diet. I dealt with my fears and worries by swallowing them. My stomach did keep score. I eventually learned how to handle life’s anxious times in healthier ways. But when stomach pain revisited me recently, I wondered if I had reverted to my old ways. I’m one who reads the daily news—maybe too much. When I add my concerns about the future for those I love, there’s plenty of aci