Economic turmoil is real, and it feeds fear among us

These are the times that try men's psyches.

There's so much to worry about: the war, the election, Wall Street, the credit crunch, housing values, the unemployment rate, bank failures, our 401(k)s, our jobs. Even without a little marital discord or a family illness, you've got a recipe for high anxiety.

"In my 20 years of practice, I have never seen anything like the last couple of weeks in terms of what we're seeing coming into our offices - the volume but also the intensity of the anxiety," said Nancy Molitor, a psychologist who works in suburban Chicago.

"It feels to people like the sky is falling."

Uncertainty and lack of control stoke anxiety, so it is no wonder, psychologists said, that a lot of people are feeling edgy or angry. Here we have a potential economic disaster rooted in math so complex most of us cannot understand it.

A lot of people do not trust the folks who are trying to fix this mess. And, given how we are feeling, it is not much comfort that the financial experts keep saying that our financial system is built on trust and consumer confidence.

The anxiety, Molitor said, crosses class and age barriers. Older people are worried about their retirements and how their children will fare. College students fear they will never equal their parents' lifestyles. High school students are worried their parents will not be able to afford college.

"Deep inside, it's about losing. It's about losing your dream. It's about the security you thought you had for your family," said Lynne DiCaprio, director of Delaware County Professional Services.

"I think people's dreams are shaken."

Her practice had 37 percent more new patients last month than in September 2007. Because of the increase, she hired five new therapists, bringing the total to 60. She said she believed most of the increase was due to patients who are more cost-conscious and are choosing her practice, which accepts many insurance plans, instead of going to psychologists who demand cash.

Tom Whiteman, who runs another big suburban psychological practice that accepts insurance, said his business rose 27 percent last month, the biggest increase in 20 years.

The people he is seeing are anxious and angry. "They've seen their 401(k) go down, and it's somebody's fault and somebody should pay," he said of their attitude.

Gary Buffone, a psychologist with a wealthy clientele in Jacksonville, Fla., said he had patients who were "distraught" over stock market losses. But this is not just about people who seek counseling.

"You don't have to be a patient to feel this stuff," he said.

A few random conversations at the Gallery's food court last week proved that.

Vikki Fackler, a 43-year-old nurse from New York who was in town for a meeting, worries that funding for her public health job will dry up. She has four children in college. "It's constantly on my mind every day," she said.

At a nearby table, a group of longtime female friends grabbed lunch before seeing a show. "Listening to the TV set makes me very anxious," said Ellen Dickinson, 70, of Springfield, Delaware County.

"And angry," chimed in Kathleen Hoban, 69, of Havertown.

"There's so many different opinions, you don't know what to believe," Dickinson said.

"I feel helpless," said Patricia Mescanti, 71, of Kennett Square.

Much as you would like to give in to the fear, financial experts say that is not good. Unless you are loaded, your bank deposits are insured. If your stocks are diverse, they likely will regain value.

Jon Scott, associate professor of finance at Temple University, said the stock market fell sharply when U.S. troops went into Iraq, then rose quickly after the march into Baghdad. "If you weren't invested at that time, you would have missed most of the gain for that year."

Investors have a habit, he said, of "buying high and selling low. That's not how you want to accumulate wealth."

Alex Edmans, who teaches finance at the Wharton School, said the market might have overreacted to all the gloomy news. He did a study that found stock markets dropped in European nations after their teams lost soccer games. "The fact that even irrelevant news can have a negative impact suggests that bad news can have an extremely bad or terrible impact," he said.

Nonetheless, psychologists, some of whom are feeling a little anxious themselves, have a challenge right now when it comes to calming down their clients. It is not as if people are worrying about something they all know is a little silly, like maybe a forecast for an inch of snow. Some of them now have legitimate concerns.

"If there's no lion running behind you, it's anxiety," DiCaprio said. "There

is

a lion here, so it is really fear, but there's nothing to do about it. I think people are walking around afraid."

"It's not like people are afraid of nothing," Buffone said. "It is a problem, and a lot of people . . . are losing significant amounts of money or having other kinds of losses."

Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University, said he worried about the "piling on" of frightening developments that people are experiencing now. "It's hard to keep perspective and keep balance in that kind of atmosphere," he said.

Reed Goldstein, a psychologist at Pennsylvania Hospital, said anxiety was not all bad. Studies have shown that a little of it can sharpen performance.

But too much makes it hard to function. Molitor said she was seeing people who were drinking and eating too much and sleeping too little. Some are not opening their bills. Some freeze up and stay home from work.

Those clearly are bad coping strategies. Instead, psychologists suggest taking control of what you can. Find out how your investments and savings have been affected. If you are in debt, start saving. Participate in politics. Go to work and do a good job. Take a walk. Read a book. Turn off the catastrophists on TV. Find something other than money that matters to you - what Goldstein calls "diversifying into other forms of self-worth."

And know that this likely will pass, Farley said. "We've always bounced back effectively from recessions, and we'll do it again," he said. "The best prediction of the future is the past."

Back at the Gallery, Virginia Pierce, 63, a home health aide from Philadelphia, said it about as well as anybody. "Sometimes we just have to cope with things and stop complaining all the time," she said, secure in the knowledge that she has saved well for retirement. "As far as the economy, you can't do a thing about it, so why worry about it."