Stress less about this recession

By MP Dunleavey

You're worried about money -- or even your job. You're worried about your spouse's job, whether you should refinance your home or what you'll do if the economy gets worse.

Maybe the onslaught of dire predictions from the media is fraying your nerves. (Thank you, Mr. Buffett, for that inspiring image of our economy jackknifing off a cliff.)

Whatever the source, it's tough to escape a mounting sense of financial dread.

In a poll by the National Sleep Foundation released last week, one-third of respondents said they were losing sleep over the economy and their own financial situations. And a growing number of people have sought prescription help for their distress.

The number of prescriptions filled for anti-anxiety and antidepressant medication in the last quarter of 2008 was 3.6 million higher than in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Wolters Kluwer Health, which tracks pharmacy sales.

But there's a better way to cope.

When you feel lower than the Dow

At first, Melissa Dawson, a member of the Women in Red, didn't think the economy was getting to her.

"I have a job, I can pay my bills, and I have no debt outside of my mortgage," says Dawson, who works for a medical supply company in northern Massachusetts. "I really thought I was dealing just fine with the current economic situation."

But the signs of financial strain have been mounting, Dawson concedes. "I'm a lot more testy. I feel more on edge."

• Talk back: Are you stressed out over finances?

Dawson says she's smoking more and sleeping less. And her appetite for socializing has dropped; she spends more time "isolating," as she calls it. "I prefer to hunker down at home and be alone."

In many ways, Dawson is a classic recession stress case.

How stress works

There are plenty of stressors in life (planning a wedding, dealing with work deadlines, juggling sick kids, worrying about retirement). But no matter what strain you're under, your body produces a similar physiological response, flooding your system with adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. You probably know the response as "fight or flight."

It's not that stress itself is bad. You need that chemical surge in certain circumstances (if there's a fire or you have to act in self-defense). The trouble is, modern life being what it is, when the stress reflex gets turned on, it may not get turned off again, says Bruce McEwen, the author of "The End of Stress as We Know It." These hormones that are meant for acute stress become harmful over time.

When you're in a persistent state of stress -- high stress-hormone levels, blood pressure, heart rate -- "that causes wear and tear on the body," says McEwen, the head of neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University in New York.

You can't be attuned to these molecular changes. But as a result, like Dawson, you might experience (among other things):

• Anxiety.

• Insomnia.

• High blood pressure.

• Mild to moderate symptoms of depression.

• Chronic pain (which is aggravated by stress).

• PMS.

• Worsened arthritis.

Why recession stress is rough

Although financial stress may not be so different physically from other types of long-term stress, McEwen says there are important reasons why the economy is hitting people so hard:

• First, the bad news is nearly relentless. You wake up virtually every day to someone on CNN speculating about the market's record lows.

• Second, there's little you can do about financial bailouts or the unemployment rate or what's happening in Latvia, and that alone can make you crazy. "Helplessness, hopelessness and lack of control are among the most potent chronic stressors," McEwen says. They are also the emotional hallmarks of any recession.

• Thanks to the first two factors, people may turn to coping mechanisms that aren't exactly healthful: smoking, drinking or eating an excess of comfort food.

"These contribute to the chronic stress burden we call allostatic load," McEwen says.

Allostatic load refers to the whole picture: the immediate stress of the economy, multiplied by CNN, and exacerbated (potentially) by a host of lifestyle factors.

Continued: Take care of yourself

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