When you lose your job, the stress can take a toll on your family, your relationships and your health. A recent study shows that people who lose their jobs are 83 percent more likely to develop a new health problem, like high blood pressure, arthritis, or heart disease. This makes learning to deal with stress even more important.
When the housing market started to slide Dennis O'Donnell's kitchen designing business went right down with it. Now, he's doing odd jobs just to make ends meet and pay the bills.
His situation is stressful and his body is showing signs of it. "I've lost some weight and there's a lot of nights that you don't get any sleep," O'Donnell said.
Psychologist Nancy Panganamala counsels people on stress management. "So one of the things people might notice speaking on the body level is a shortness of breath or maybe they'll feel it in their chest or they'll feel it in their tummy," Panganamala explained.
The first step to managing the stress is recognizing the signs. "The mind may also have certain reactions like racing thoughts or deer in the headlights, they go blank or they go numb they can't even speak or answer. These are all stress reactions," said Panganamala.
Stress and sleep go hand and hand. Stress can keep you up at night.
"Sometimes I'm up all night and I'm thinking the whole time, I cannot relax enough to actually sleep," said O'Donnell.
Panganamala recommends a routine bedtime and routine waking up.
Financial stress can be hard on the family, but dennis and his wife do their best to keep things as light as possible.
"Everyone in a family will pick it up if somebody is stressed. Children all the time are very perceptive about their parents levels of stress," Panganamala said.
Panganamala says deep belly breathing is a quick way to drop your stress level.
Studies show that exercise can help your mind and body relax.
"The exercise the yoga, they are good for us. The reason they are such good prescriptions is because they are good for the mind, good for the body," said Panganamala.
