What to do about financial stress?

The current financial crisis has been taking place for months. The collapse of Wall Street was preceded by rising gasoline prices and home foreclosures. Major lending agencies and investment banks have been going under and retail prices are on the upswing. Now we're heaping anxiety on top of anxiety.

People feel out of control. Our leaders are not giving us any indication when the current monetary fallout will come to an end.

Counsellors and Doctors are seeing people with sleep issues, gastrointestinal illnesses and people who are dealing with a surge of autoimmune deficiency conditions. Levels of alcohol consumption are up as well.

BusinessWeek referred to a poll that has found Americans are indeed more stressed than they were six months ago.

So what advice can we follow during this current time of emotional upset?

• Remain calm. The worst thing you can do is to start panicking in a crisis and make bad decisions. Some amount of anxiety is good for you. When you're a bit on edge, you're more motivated to make changes and think about the consequences of your decisions. However, if you're overanxious, your emotional state can interfere with your ability to make healthy decisions.

Don't allow your anxiety to cloud your ability to be cautious, careful and full of confidence. It's never easy to go through a crisis, but when you have the confidence that you'll make it through a tough time, it makes all the difference. If you've gone through stressful times before and survived, you can do it again.

• Refuse to accept everything you hear. This nation has survived many incredible catastrophes from Wall Street crashes, the Great Depression, the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11. If listening to media and news reports gets you all riled up, you may need to go on a media fast for a few days. Please, whatever you do, don't spend all day checking the stock market averages.

• Be proactive. The worst thing you can do is to watch everything fall apart and do nothing but complain. Any action - big or small - you can take to get your finances under control will be helpful for reducing anxiety. Keep your focus on what you can do and not on what is not happening.

• Keep your life in balance. Prevent yourself from becoming consumed with all of the financial information streaming across the TV screen and ignoring your own needs. Do not neglect your eating habits, make sure you engage in activities you enjoy and keep that balance between how much time you devote to staying up on the current financial crisis and how much attention you pay to your own sense of well-being.

• Take stock of your life. Use this time to assess how you handle your money. If you lose your job, you may want to consider that this is the time to change your line of work. Perhaps your hours have been reduced. Yes, you'll go through a tight squeeze financially, but it may be an opportune time to start looking elsewhere and initiate a career change.

• Seek good counseling. Stress and anxiety are treatable by a qualified therapist. Start feeling better today. Get into counseling.

[Research by John Tesh]