Menstuff® is actively compiling information on the issue of
stress.
Stress
Gender, Geography Factor Into
Stress
Understand your
sources of stress
Stress
Away Stress
Staying Healthy in Times
of Stress: Stress Can Make You Sick, but It Doesn't Have
To
Newsbytes
Issue - Related Happy
Holidaze.
Books
Resources
Note: Some of these symptoms can also be
caused by serious medical conditions. Consult your doctor if any of
these symptoms are intense or persistent.
Gender, Geography Factor Into Stress
"Before, it was like 'Big Brother will take care of me. My 401(k) with Lehman or my company will take care of me.' We could go out to dinner on a credit card. We could buy our groceries without thinking. We could fill the car up. We had choices," says Kathleen Hall, founder of The Stress Institute in Atlanta.
"What you're seeing this year — especially in the last three months — is the eroding of that security blanket."
It's all too familiar to Lizzette Anderson, 38, of Queens, N.Y. She and her husband and 12-year-old daughter had to move to a smaller two-bedroom apartment because they couldn't afford their larger one.
"We had been in the apartment 10 months, and then we spoke to the landlord and said we couldn't afford it anymore. He understood and let us out of the lease," says Anderson, an administrative assistant.
Her husband, Windel Anderson, works as a sales supervisor. They had been saving for a house the past three years, she says.
"We had almost $3,000, and we were just trying to put more money in to save it faster, but it turned out that it went backwards and we were taking money out," says Anderson.
The new survey also found that women appear to bear the brunt of the financial stress and report more physical symptoms and unhealthy behaviors. More women than men say they're stressed about the economy (84% vs. 75% of men); housing costs (66% vs. 58%); and health problems affecting their families (70% vs. 63%).
Also, 56% of women report headaches, compared with 36% of men; 53% of women report a lack of motivation or energy, vs. 45% of men.
To manage stress, 39% of women reported eating to cope, vs. 29% of men. Men were more likely to drink, with 22% of men drinking to deal with it, vs. 15% of women.
Colleen Bacckus, 43, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., says the economy has caused her to spend more cautiously, but her greater stress involves home and family. Bacckus' job as a project manager for a commercial interior design firm is key because her husband is a paraplegic who is unable to work; their children are grown.
"It's trying to strike that balance between working full-time and being the primary breadwinner and balancing the family time and the needs at home," she says.
Working in the garden, playing with their dogs and reading does help relieve stress, she says, but she has noticed changes as financial news has worsened.
"There will be sleepless nights, and I'll get a little snappish," Bacckus says. "I'm just like everybody else — you go for that comfort food if you get too stressed."
Social psychologist Viktor Gecas of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., says the current economic downturn is the most serious since the Great Depression, but he doesn't expect the lengthy and massive unemployment of that period.
"In the short-term, it does have consequences," which he says "do add to more individual stress, which also spills over into marital problems, parent-child problems and family stress in general."
Rev. T. Michael Rock, a 40-year-old United Church of Christ pastor in the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale, says he's been flooded with congregants seeking his ear to discuss financial concerns, which he says they don't often talk about openly.
"If I had 10 people in the last year, I had 10 people the past week, either for them or their children or their parents," he says. "They're coming to say 'I can't hold all this information by myself. I have to share it with somebody.' "
Gecas, head of Purdue's sociology department, suggests the economic downturn may have some hidden positives by forcing people to take stock of their lives and re-evaluate their lifestyles.
"It's easy to fall into habits of behavior that may not necessarily be good for you or the environment," he says. "If you do manage to cope successfully with the adversity, you might come out stronger and more resourceful in the end. This is not to minimize the pain of an economic downturn and the negative things, but it's not necessarily all bad."
Stress & Depression in Men and
Women
.
Help with this study on the different ways men and women experience
stress and whether symptoms differ between the sexes. We hope this
study will help us better prevent depression and other mood disorders
in men and women. This data will be used for research purposes and by
filling out the questionnaire you give your permission for us to
collect, study, and analyze the information.Can Stress Cause Stomach Pain?
Stress Seems to Block Deep Sleep
Is Panic Related to Your Personality
Profile?
Lowering Stress for Melanoma Patients
Stress Level Tied to Education
Level
Link Between Stress And Heart Disease
May Be Premature
To Reduce Stress, Spend Time With The
Family
Chronic Stress Can Interfere With
Normal Function Of The Immune System, Suggests New Research
Parents' Stress May Affect Behavior
In Children With Heart Defect
Managing Stress Key To Success
Gene May Link Alcohol Drinking And Stress,
Mouse Study Suggests In Science
Recognizing Stress And Some Ways To
Take The Pressure Off
Does Stress Really Cause Heart Disease?
Scottish Study Questions Link (5/23/02)
Researchers in Scotland followed a group of men for more than 20 years and found that those who reported the most stress actually died less often from heart attacks and had fewer objective signs of heart disease. Surprisingly, these men also tended to smoke more, drink more, and exercise less than other men in the study.
"We aren't saying that stress protects your heart, and we certainly aren't saying that smoking, drinking to excess, and taking no exercise are good for you," says lead author John Macleod, MD, of the University of Birmingham in England. "Of course, these things are bad for you. But we found that with regard to stress, other factors came into play."
Specifically, Macleod and colleagues found that men reporting more stress tended to be more socially and economically advantaged. These men reported more symptoms of heart disease, but they also experienced fewer heart attack deaths over the study period. This led the authors to conclude that the protective benefits of affluence, such as better access to medical care, help to offset an unhealthy lifestyle. The findings were reported in the May 25 issue of the British Medical Journal.
The researchers suggest that the link between stress and heart disease seen in past studies is largely due to reporting bias. In other words, the people most likely to report significant stress are also most likely to report symptoms of cardiovascular disease and seek treatment for it.
"There is no strong scientific evidence that stress is an independent risk factor for heart disease," Macleod tells WebMD. "I am sure that there will be people who disagree with our findings, and I hope this research prompts healthy debate."
Researcher Peter P. Vitaliano, PhD, of the University of Washington, contends that chronic stress is directly linked to heart disease risk, but that link is exacerbated by poor health habits.
Vitaliano and colleagues recently followed a group of older adults who were caring for spouses with Alzheimer's disease. At the start of the study, the caregivers had a prevalence of heart disease that was similar to that of age-matched adults who were not caring for spouses with Alzheimer's. But the incidence of heart disease among male caregivers was almost double that of non-caregivers two-and-a-half years later. The findings were reported in the May issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
"We found that the association between stress and heart disease is not simple. It is very complicated," Vitaliano tells WebMD. "There are many factors that come into play, but poor health habits are among the most important."
The researcher says male caregivers reporting poor eating and exercise habits were at the highest risk of developing heart disease.
"Psychological distress tends to promote poor health habits, and
this sets you up for heart disease," Vitaliano says. "But the other
side of this is that even someone who is under tremendous and
unavoidable stress can limit their health risks by adopting a healthy
lifestyle and maintaining a strong social support system."
Source: By Salynn Boyles, WebMD Medical News,
reviewed by Charlotte Grayson, MD my.webmd.com/condition_center_content/mhp/article/2950.1737
Stress: How does it affect by
body?
Simple Ways You Can Reduce Job Stress
Learning comedy may not make you a star, but it may make you a
better business person:
Source: The Fox News Story: www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52784,00.html
You don't get ulcers from what you eat. You get them from what's eating you. - Vicki Baum
 |
|
 |
