[back to top]

Striking Back at Stress

If you feel like some nut case who's pounding the pavement wondering a) why you've lost your job, b) if you'll lose your job, or c) when the proverbial ground beneath your feet will become stable again, guess what? You're not alone, and you're not crazy. And while no one seems to be able to control the stock market, there are tools and techniques that the overstressed can use to reduce the panic. Mental health professionals offer these tips:

Name it, claim it and dump it: sharing your anxiety is crucial, says psychotherapist Armand DiMele, but you need to choose your outlet wisely. As much as we hate to say it, you probably won't feel better after sharing this brand of scary stuff with your partner.

Why? Say Herb's afraid that he's going to get laid off, and he rushes to his Betty for solace. While he's telling her about the whispers he's heard at the firm, she's thinking about how she'll have to give up the apartment she's just finished decorating and move in with Herb's parents, who hate her. Needless to say, when she speaks up, she's not likely to help Herb feel any less stressed.

Let go of the guilt: Most people who get laid off feel a sense of guilt, says psychotherapist Jeffrey Kleinberg. It's common for the downsized to spend time wondering how they could have avoided it by working harder, being smarter or making better choices.

Let it go, he says - and if you can't do it on your own, get help. "Guilt is an immobilizer," he says, adding that it's commonly misplaced. "Layoffs are often due to unfortunate events in our economy, not something that a worker did."

Put things in perspective: Remember that this uncomfortable moment isn't your whole life or your entire career; it's just a blimp on the screen of your career over a lifetime.

"You have to realize that if you lose your job, you're going to get another one," says career coach Deborah Brown-Volkman.

Psychotherapist Tom Kersting reminds his clients that a job is an external thing. Work serves a function just the same way as food, clothing and shelter do. If you lose your coat, you will get another one, right? Same holds true for a job.

Take action: If you're employed but nervous about losing your job, "Get prepared for change," says psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert. Make a list of tasks that will help ground you for example, evaluating your finances, listing your strengths (professional and personal), tweaking your professional network and brainstorming your options.

If you've already lost your job, one of the most important things you can do is to structure your day, says Alpert. Even though you can sleep in, "Wake up with the masses," he says, and go to work as if your job is finding a job. Keep a disciplined hourly schedule such as looking at job sites from 9 to 10 a.m., sending out resumes from 10 to 11 a.m., following up on resumes from 11 to noon, networking from 2 to 3 p.m., and so on.

New York Post

[back to top]

Thoughts Can Heal Your Body

Our thoughts can make us sick, and they can help us get well. That may seem like New Age thinking, but medical research increasingly supports the role played by the mind in physical health.

"People have been seeking healing through prayer and intention since Paleolithic times," notes Dr. Herbert Benson, founder of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. "What's new is our detailed scientific knowledge of how the mind-body connection operates."

Scientists first proved a link between stress and disease in the early half of the last century. Since then, researchers have examined old and new practices - including biofeedback, meditation, guided imagery, spiritual healing and deep breathing. The fast-expanding field of psychoneuroimmunology, which examines how the neurological and immune systems interact, is providing new clinical evidence of the connection between thoughts and health.

"We now can measure changes in immune cells and the brain in ways that give us objective scientific proof of the connection between them," says Mary Jo Kreitzer, director of the Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota.

Some people still are surprised to discover that thoughts can control physical sensation. "The body responds to mental input as if it were physically real," explains Larry Dossey, a physician and an advocate for mind-body study since the 1980's. "Images create bodily changes - just as if the experience were really happening. For example, if you imagine yourself lying on a beach in the sun, you become relaxed, your peripheral blood vessels dilate, and your hands become warm, as in the real thing."

Similarly, under clinical hypnosis, someone who is told he is being touched by a red-hot object often will produce a burn blister, even though the object touching him was at room temperature.

Brain scans show that when we imagine an event, our thoughts "light up" the areas of the brain that are, triggered during the actual event. Sports psychologists have done pioneering work in this area. In one study, skiers were wired to EMG monitors (which record electrical impulses sent to the muscles) while they mentally rehearsed their downhill runs. The skiers' brains sent the same instructions to their bodies whether they were doing a jump or just thinking about it.

The "placebo effect" is an example of how the connection between brain and body works in healing. It has been demonstrated that when a patient believes something will relieve pain, the body actually releases endorphins that do so. In a recent study, Parkinson's patients who were given fake surgery or fake drug treatments produced dopamine (a chemical their bodies lack) in quantities similar to those they might have received in a genuine intervention. Medical research has suggested that 30% to 70% of successful treatments may be the result of the patient's belief that the treatment will work.

There is ample evidence that negative thoughts and feelings can be harmful to the body." says Lorenzo Cohen, director of the Integrative Medicine Program at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stress is known to be a factor in heart disease, headaches, asthma and many other illnesses.

Studies by Janice KIiecolt-Glaser and Ronald Glaser at Ohio State University demonstrate how even minor psychological stress - that of newlyweds having their first fight or of students facing an exam - can compromise the immune system. The researchers found that a marital spat delays wound-healing and that the stress of caring for an Alzheimer's patient leaves the caregiver more vulnerable to illness even years later.

When the body fights a virus or heals a wound, it releases cytokines (literally, "moving cells"), chemical messengers that call in immune agents. The Glasers' research showed that stress distracts these cytokines from doing their proper work, instead sending them ranging wildly through the bloodstream. "When the cytokines are misdirected," says Kiecolt-Glaser, "they produce something you don't want - a prolonged inflammatory response that far exceeds what is needed with infection."

Just as our thoughts can make us ill, they also can help us heal, say those who practice mind-body therapies. There is growing clinical evidence that imagery is beneficial in treating skin disease, diabetes, breast cancer, arthritis, headaches and severe burns, among other conditions. Imagery also has been
helpful in managing pain. "The mind is our most potent weapon in the battle for health," says Lyn Freeman, a researcher of mind-body therapies for chronic diseases. "It can be both slayer and healer."

By Robert Moss

[back to top]

Take the Stress Out of Change

Change makes everyone feel insecure. To face new challenges, you have to believe you can deal with the unknown. Psychologist Dr. Joy Browne offers tips on how to enter the future with confidence:

PLAN FOR THE WORST. Imagine the worst-case scenario, then figure out how you would deal with it. Once you're ready for the worst, you'll be okay with whatever happens.

YOU'VE DONE IT BEFORE, YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN. When you're heading into a new situation, recall what you've done in the past that's similar. Even if it wasn't exactly the same, knowing that you got through a tough time before will give you perspective.

KEEP A LOG. Write down everything you are going through. Next time you're facing a new challenge, you can read your log and see that you were probably nervous about all the wrong things.

[back to top]

Things You May Not Know About Your Personal Finances

1. Medicare doesn't cover nursing home care.

Nearly 60% of Americans think Medicare pays for nursing care, and 52% assume that it covers assisted living, according to a 2006 survey by AARP.
Not so, Medicare's coverage of long-term care is extremely limited. It'll cover part of the cost of a skilled nursing facility while you recover from an injury or illness. But this coverage lasts just 100 days.

Medicare doesn't cover custodial care, such as help with bathing and dressing. Need to enter a nursing home because you're no longer able to take care of yourself? Medicare won't cover any of your costs. Medicaid by contrast, will cover nursing home costs - but only for people with little or no assets.

2. The way banks process checks and debit card transactions can cost you big.

Banks tend to process transactions from the largest to the smallest dollar amount, rather than in the order they're received. This policy is another way for banks to boost profits, says Ellen Cannon, managing editor of Bankrate.com. That's because processing first high, then low, dollar amounts makes if easier for banks to hit consumers with multiple overdraft fees.

Say you have $100 in your account and you have four transactions processed one day, for in order, $20, $45, $30 and $90. The bank will process the $90 transaction first, so it can charge you a fee - of up to $39 - for each of the three transactions that will then bounce. If the transactions had been processed in the order in which they'd been received, you'd face only one fee. Most banks charge more than $30 each time you overdraw. Some also charge a fee of $5 or more for each day that your account remains overdrawn.

3. Once you turn 50, you can put away more pretax money for retirement than younger workers can.

Many older workers fail to exploit the 401(k) "catch-up" rule, which lets people 50 and older contribute an additional $5,000 a year to their 401(k) accounts.

At some companies, higher-paid workers aren't allowed to contribute the full $15,500 maximum to a 401(k) if not enough lower-paid workers at their company invest in the plan. But the catch-up rule lets all older workers - even the higher-paid ones - boost their annual contribution by $5,000. This is especially beneficial if only one member of a couple has access to a 401(k) plan, and the couple would like to boost their family retirement savings. It's also helpful to women who return to work after an extended absence.

4. If you didn't get a tax rebate last year, you may be able to claim it when you file your 2008 tax return.

Millions of taxpayers received rebates during 2008. But many others only received a reduced amount, or none at all, because their 2007 income was too high. Congress phased out the rebates for single taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000, and married taxpayers with AGIs of more than $150,000.

Here's what many taxpayers don't realize: Some of them will get a second chance to claim the rebate. The rebate is actually an advance credit on 2008 taxes. But since the Bush administration wanted to get money into consumers' wallets as fast as possible, the rebates were calculated using 2007 tax returns.
So if your income has dropped from 2007 to 2008, you can claim the rebate when you file your 2008 return. This second-chance provision will also benefit those whose rebates were shrunk or eliminated because their 2007 income was too low.

5. Real estate isn't a very lucrative investment over the long run.

The real estate party over the past decade or so - even when you factor in the recent price drops - has left many people assuming that real estate is the surest long-term investment out there. Not so. Over the long haul, on average nationwide, returns for real estate fall far short compared with other investment categories.

Housing has returned a 4.7% average annually over the past 25 years, according to an analysis for USA TODAY by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com. Over the same period, the S&P 500 stock index produced an average return of 13.3%. Other investment options also outperformed real estate. The three-month Treasury bill produced a 5.4% annual return and the 10-year T-bond 7.1%.

6. You can't just give away your money and then immediately ask Medicaid to pay for nursing home care.

If you want Medicaid to pay for your nursing care, without touching your assets, you'll have to give that money away at least five years before you apply for care. An elder-law attorney can suggest asset-protection strategies.

But if you use Medicaid to cover your long-term care, you'll face a more limited choice of nursing homes. And Medicaid doesn't normally cover at-home care. You might be better off using your money to buy long-term care insurance. Or save enough to cover at least a year in a facility. By law, a nursing home that accepts private-pay and Medicaid patients can't force you to move to another nursing home once you run out of money.

7. Your best investment: Time

Thanks to the extraordinary magic of compounded returns, saving early is the easy way to a rich retirement.

Let's assume your goal is to amass $1 million by the time you retire at 65. If you start saving at 22, and your investments return, on average, 6% a year, you'll need to invest $413 a month to reach your goal. But if you wait till age 35 to start saving? You'll need to invest far more each month to reach the same goal: $996 a month. And if you start at 50, you'd better have a high-paying job; You'll need to save $3,439 a month to reach $1 million by age 65.

8. Grace periods on credit cards apply only to people who don't carry a balance.

If you pay the full amount you owe on your card each month, you're basically enjoying an interest-free loan from the bank. But card users often don't realize that if you're carrying any balance at the end of the month, the card issuer will charge you interest starting from the day you borrowed the money, says Megan Bramlette, managing associate at Auriemma Consulting Group, which consults with banks.

9. You can find fascinating things in youe mutual fund's prospectus.

Buried in a fund's official literature are such nuggets as how much money the fund's manager has personally invested in the fund. It's nice to know if his or her money is at stake along with yours.

Or you can find out how much you're paying a fund company to invest your money. If you invest $10,000 in Fidelity Contrafund, for instance, and it returns an average of 5% a year, you'll fork over $1,096 to Fidelity over 10 years. Dodge & Cox Stock Fund will charge you less - $653. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund will charge just $192.

10. Mortgage lenders will question a cash gift used for a down payment.

A cash gift from a parent can help a young adult buy a home. But it may come as a surprise that many lenders will raise questions when such gifts are to be used as part of down payments. Some see a big recent infusion of cash into a buyer's account as a red flag that a cash-poor buyer may lack steady income. Many banks will want to see the origin of a cash gift.

In any case, parents should try to make any cash transfer at least a month - and preferably up to six months, some suggest - before a buyer begins applying for mortgages.

Managing Your Money

[back to top]