Strategies for redirecting your anxiety

Tag : Personal Pager

After Silvia Clarke lost a sales executive job she had held for 18years, the Miami Shores wife and mother of two worried about howshe would support her family of four as the household's primarywage earner.
''Having been restructured out of the company was not the worstthing that could have happened -- living under that stress of notknowing what was going to happen was the most stressful thing,''said Clarke, 45.
Then her youngest daughter, 6-year-old Caroline, innocently askedone day, ``Mom . . . were you a bad worker?''
''That was the most shocking thing,'' she said. Clarke sat Carolinedown and calmly explained that companies redirect their efforts andthat even good employees can find they don't have a position in thenew design.
With the daily drumbeat of slashed jobs, home foreclosures, highdebt levels and skyrocketing gas and food prices, the anxiety levelof the American worker is rising exponentially. Three-quarters ofAmericans say they are stressed about money, a jump from 60 percenttwo years ago, according to an April poll of 1,848 adults by theAmerican Psychological Association.
Local therapists and mental health experts report business isbrisk, as people try to cope with the cascade of economicuncertainties.
''In my private practice, within the last year or two, the stresslevel of my patients has increased dramatically,'' says Dr. RobertSchwartz, chair of family medicine and community health for theUniversity of Miami medical school. ``A lot of time it will comedown to family stress, job issues, economic issues. People can'tmake ends meet. A lot of marital dysfunction. People overworked,complaining about bosses. I try and help people put these issuesinto perspective.''
PHYSICAL EFFECTS
Managing the stress is critical to containing the damage it does toyour body. When a person is attacked by stress, hormones go intooverdrive.
When that becomes a permanent state, it has a detrimental effect onthe body's chemistry and health problems ensue.
''The endocrine system is altered,'' says University of Miamiresearcher Claudio Mastronardi, who is working with mice and ratsin the lab to study how stress affects the immune, neurological andhormonal functions.
''When these systems are imbalanced, psychiatric disorders mightincrease,'' Mastronardi says. ``With what we are going through now-- the real estate market, people on the verge of foreclosure orlosing jobs without knowing what is happening tomorrow -- it cancause a chronic insult to our body. It may increase chances ofdepression and anxiety and lower our immune defenses and make usmore susceptible to develop disease.''
Studies, like a 1998 joint effort by the University of Californiaand Sweden's Sahlgrenska University Hospital, have shown thatchronic stress can throw one's cortisol levels out of sync. Theresult can be weight gain, diabetes, cardiovascular issues andobesity.
''It is known that chronic stress stimulates the laying down ofextra fat in the abdominal area and has been associated with anincreased risk of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension,'' saysDr. Jon Shaw, a director of psychiatry at the University of Miami.
''Acute stress mobilizes with adrenaline and then, hopefully, thebody adapts,'' Shaw adds. ``But if it's left in overdrive becauseof chronic stressors, then the long-term effects on biology --sleep and appetite disturbance, irritability, episodic violencecontrol issues -- can be associated with the wear and tear on oursystems.''
CHANNELING STRESS
A key factor in combating stress is learning how to recognize it,and finding ways to channel it positively, mental health expertssay.
Among the steps to take:
• Begin a daily exercise routine.
• Talk to family, friends, a mentor or clergy.
• Meditate, get a massage, do yoga or listen to your favorite music.
• Reevaluate your goals and look at change as an opportunity forpersonal growth.
Many, too, turn to professional help.
Roselyn Smith, a licensed clinical psychologist in private practicein South Miami and Homestead, says her business is up about 10percent from patients who have lost their jobs and are strugglingto find new career paths.
''But I've noticed a drop-off in other patients for economicreasons,'' she says. Some can't afford treatment and insurance hasrun out.
Schwartz, the UM family medical physician, reports seeing morepatients seeking help for sleep disorders, fatigue, muscle pain andanxiety -- all by-products of stress.
He and others help patients cope by recognizing the situationcausing the stress and mapping out strategies to change behaviors.Feeling boxed in is a major contributor to stress.
''One way we define stress is an individual's adaptive capacity todemands placed on that individual,'' UM's Shaw says. ``Peoplereadily experience stress as painful while others may experience itas an opportunity.''
In the case of Clark and her daughter Caroline, her calmexplanation of her company's restructuring and her resultant jobloss allayed her daughter's fears.
''That made her feel more at ease,'' Clarke says. ``Life bringsthese things and the way I acted was going to show them how to actwhen something in the future goes bad. What they thought of me andhow I handled myself in front of them was important.''
Clarke also began to regularly jog and started working out on anelliptical machine.
''Those runs allowed me to be by myself and to think and rethinkand reposition those thoughts. It was an opportunity to work outphysically but also to put myself together again,'' Clarke says.
The next step was to craft a winning résumé.
''I hadn't done one in 18 years,'' she recalls. ``That was adaunting experience. I couldn't remember what I've done. You haveto go through a lifetime.''
She ultimately composed a list, whittling a four-pagerésumé down to a more marketable two-pager. ``Thatmade me feel good: `I've done all of this.' I can start rebuilding. I went through a lot of personal changesand growth. The interview process helped me build confidence.''
Clarke found her new job in the same field in March.