Stress

Robert Fellman can see it on his employees' faces: the fear, stress and discomfort that come from a difficult, even scary, economic climate. "There's panic in their eyes," said Fellman, director of PC Professor, a computer training company with offices in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, Fla. He also hears it when they reassure him that they'll do whatever it takes to keep their jobs: "If there's anything you need done, I'll accept the criticism, just let me know" is what he hears from staffers.

A Porter Ranch man who murdered his family and killed himself last weekend as he faced financial ruin is the latest and most extreme case of a wave of distress washing over the American psyche. Karthik Rajaram, an unemployed financial advisor, left a suicide note saying that his financial state left him few options but to kill his wife, three children and mother-in-law. Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore described Rajaram, 45, as a man stuck in a rabbit hole of despair.

Psychological counseling, muscle relaxation and other strategies for reducing stress in breast cancer patients can cut their risk of death from the disease by more than half, according to a study published online Monday in the journal Cancer. The study also found that psychological interventions reduced the risk that tumors would come back by 45%. Even when tumors returned, patients who received the counseling had six more cancer-free months compared with those who did not.

Stocks are falling. Companies are handing out pink slips. Home values are collapsing. Financial icons are folding. And Americans' stress is rising. The 2008 Stress in America survey, conducted by the American Psychological Assn. and released in October, found that stress levels have increased significantly over the last two years, particularly in the last six months. Money and the economy top the list of concerns.

While not every stress reduction technique suits everyone, any incremental change -- a little more exercise, a little more sleep, a little deep breathing and a few more nights out with friends -- will help. -- Get moving Evolution has conditioned us to respond to stress as a physical threat, which is why our bodies produce hormones that prepare us to flee from trouble or fight back physically.

IF you're reeling from job stress, take heart. A new study has found that weekly one-hour stress-management sessions at lunchtime can promote cardiovascular health and maybe help stop that eye from twitching.

When life gets tough, the stressed often get hungry. Exactly how many people experience stress-related eating isn't known since there are no national surveys to measure it. But there's growing scientific interest in the topic. "Fight or flight is the normal response to stress," says Tatjana van Strien, professor of psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands. "All the blood goes to the muscles so that you're ready for action and not for eating....

Lt. Col. Dirk Levy, commander of a California National Guard battalion that took heavy casualties in Iraq, said he can't get used to civilians slogging through training exercises alongside his uniformed troops. "I keep thinking, 'Who are these people?' " Levy said.

Accomplished worriers -- the ones who went to the Woody Allen school of catastrophizing -- have something new to fret about: New research suggests that it \o7is\f7 possible to worry oneself into an early grave. In a study to be published in next month's issue of Psychological Science, investigators at Purdue University tracked 1,663 men middle-aged and older over a 12-year period starting in 1988.

Fewer than half of U.S. soldiers and Marines serving in Iraq would report a fellow service member for mistreating an Iraqi civilian, and about 10% of those surveyed admitted they had abused noncombatants or damaged their property, according to a Pentagon report released Friday that examined battlefield ethics. The report said that misconduct occurred more frequently as stress levels increased, and that longer wartime deployments could erode morale and negatively affect mental health.