Tough times can take toll on your health
Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, August 8, 2008 at 11:09 a.m.
The financial bad tidings — high gas prices, rising home foreclosures, job layoffs, escalating food prices, mounting credit card bills — take more than just a toll on your pocketbook. They also affect your health.
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Financial woes can set off emotional problems that affect your physical health.
Short of winning the lottery or coming into an inheritance, there are practical ways to address the problem: Plan a budget, consolidate debt, trim expenses, live more simply. But there also are strategies and recommendations from the experts for dealing with the underlying stress linked to the struggle for legal tender, before it takes its toll on your health.
“The stressor, you can’t control. It’s how you relate to the stressor is what we address in our classes,” said Alena Walls, executive director for the Northern California Center for Well-Being.
Mental health professionals say financial pressures are especially challenging because our relationship to money is fundamental. It’s linked to our sense of survival and to self-esteem.
Economic calamity, such as losing your home in a foreclosure, can produce obvious negative effects, such as feeling depressed, angry, anxious and any number of associated symptoms, including headaches and stomach disorders.
Being economically pinched over a long period can produce more subtle, chronic stress.
“You’re not really quite aware it’s going on, or how to cope with it,” said Dr. Warren Mills, a retired oncologist and board qualified psychiatrist who teaches meditation through the Center for Well-Being in Santa Rosa.
Mills said financial pressures are one of the heaviest contributors to stress diseases, such as coronary problems and immune system problems, which can be associated with cancer.
Money isn’t the only culprit, but it can be one of the most overwhelming.
“Financial pressures, the world pressures, Iraq, it’s getting tougher every day to live,” said Mills.
Some mental health experts even advise going on a “media diet”, since the news tends to be negative and fueled by fear.
“This is a time of significantly increased stress for many people in the community,” said Sonoma County Public Health Officer Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, who said that in addition to financial issues, people are losing their health insurance or being forced to pay more for it.
“People are at an increased risk for substance abuse. Some people will cope with stress in that manner,” she said, adding that the conventional wisdom still applies for coping: Get sufficient sleep and exercise and employ stress-reduction techniques.
Mental health experts say having some type of contemplative practice, whether its meditation or a walk in the woods, can help provide some clarity.
“It won’t correct the cause. It will clear the brain, so you can begin to logically move ahead,” said Mills. “Instead of getting wrapped up in what you’re going to do, you relax and think better.”
Alan Dreifuss, a Santa Rosa Kaiser clinical psychologist, said people need to keep perspective to ward off distorted, destructive thinking patterns.
Financial difficulties can appear overwhelming and produce negative thoughts about being a failure or a loser.
“One may think ‘I’ll be on the street, no one will help me, I can’t do anything right,’” he said.
But in those situations, he said it is important for people to slow down and be willing to challenge their thoughts, because they aren’t always accurate.
For a person who cannot afford their mortgage payments and is losing their home, they may need a period of grieving. Those who lose a job and feel hopeless need to remind themselves they’ve found jobs in the past, he said. And that other things in life are good.
“Don’t lose sight of the fact you are alive, you’re breathing, you’re hugging someone you love and your legs work,” Drei-fuss said.
When a person has a sense of well-being, he said, “opportunities for what to do next become much more available.”
And along with that can come a sense of dignity, he said, in which a person is willing to “ask for help, search out other possibilities and create some options.”
Some introspection can lead to rediscovery of the self, according to therapists.
“Instead of looking for the answers outside, you begin to go inward and start to answer the question, ‘Who am I, what do I want, and what am I going to do about it?’” Mills said.
He also believes a meditation practice can lead to childlike openness: “laughter and bliss and love and hope, and all those big, big fundamental things,” he said.
Lizbeth Hamlin, a Santa Rosa psychotherapist, said meditation, yoga, joining a health club, are all great for reducing stress.
We may not be able to fix our money troubles right away, she said, but we can live a bit more simply. Hamlin agrees it’s important to have gratitude for what’s going well in our lives, to focus on that, and do the best to stay in “a fairly good frame of mind.”
She said it’s also important to treat others with kindness, “knowing that the stress is very, very high for so many people.”
Spending time in nature as well as with people that we love, she said, is one of the remedies.
Feeling isolated can accompany aging, along with increased financial challenges.
Seniors are experiencing more financial stress than ever, according to Shirley Zane, who has a master’s degree in counseling and also heads the Council on Aging in Santa Rosa.
“We’re seeing a huge rise in bankruptcies among seniors,” said Zane.
She noted that according to the American Association of Retired Persons, between 1991 and 2007 the number of bankruptcies went up more than four-fold for those ages 75 to 84.
Locally, seniors, many of whom are on fixed incomes, are being stretched more than ever and calling for help in warding off aggressive creditors, she said. She also is seeing smaller cash donations being collected from seniors who eat at senior dining facilities.
Zane said there are many more seniors these days taking advantage of a Monday afternoon produce market where donated fruits and vegetables are available to them for free.
For increasingly stressed seniors, Zane advises “not to be watching the (financial) market every day so closely, make sure their blood pressure is checked, and get exercise and sunshine every day.”
Also seek out a friend who can really listen. “And if you have a pet, spend time holding and petting that pet,” Zane said. “Pet therapy is important.”
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