BlogHer - Are You Stressing Over Money? It Could Be Making You Sick. - Comments

Dollar is fastly going down

Lao Fang — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:48:06 -0500

Dollar is fastly going down against Chinese Yuan. As a Chinese I pain because when I go to China, I have to spend more dollars. Guess i will just change my travel plan and go to Mexico instead.

Reducing Stress by Changing My View

Noni Kateus — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:40:03 -0500

While I continued to try to work even though my health was suffering tremendously due to serious illness and multiple stress-mediated auto-immune disorders (an entire page on Excel spreadsheet), I was so worried about money (or lack of enough to pay my bills) that I wondered at times if anything was worth the hassle. I never became so depressed that I gave up and never became suicidal as some have, but life was, for a while, more burden than joy. I was okay with my debt load until my life and income became affected by other persons' choices and l chose to help someone who needed my money more than I did. My office job was wonderful but one person there was such a source of horrific stress that I was falling apart. Feeling very trapped and anxious to the point of having to start medication to deal with it, I got very angry. Then I realized that anger was part of the stress; one fed the other.

I rethought the debt load; the earth would not stop rotating if I did not get the bills paid on time. Since I didn't owe any loan sharks, I didn't have to worry about broken kneecaps. The worst thing that could happen was that a creditor could sue me. That was when I stopped worrying excessively. I remained concerned but not stressed to illness and began to feel that I was back in control. Although I could not continue to work and was actually driven out of the office by stress due to that coworker's actions that I could no longer afford to spend the emotional or physical energy trying to deal with, I am so grateful to not be working under those conditions.

Learning what is necessary for life, what is a 'conditioned' need (that is really an artificially inflated and overvalued option presented by Madison Avenue as a need), and being content with what works rather than what is the best, the latest, the newest...essentially, I stopped allowing external issues and individuals to dictate how I perceived my life. I am now doing what I enjoy, supplementing my Social Security and modest pension while working at home, and reducing my financial stress by keeping the focus on being content with all of the good things around me, appreciating that I can still express myself, get the medical care I need when I need it, and keep right on trucking.
N.Kateus www.FundraiserSoftwarePro.com

Are You Stressing Over Money? It Could Be Making You Sick.

Catherine Morgan — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:28:04 -0500

Do you stress over money? I do. With the way the economy is going, if you're not stressing over money now, you sure could be in the near future. Gas prices are going up, home values are going down, and what money we do have is buying less and less. The thing about stressing over money is...It doesn't pay the bills. What it can do, is make you sick.

Yes, stressing over money (or anything for that matter) can and does make you sick. How sick? Here is an excerpt from an article at About.com, that addresses Health Problems Associated With Stress...

Science is constantly learning about the impact that stress has on your overall health. Stress is or may be a contributing factor in everything from backaches and insomnia to cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (many people believe that CFS and fibromyalgia are the same illness).

Stress is often a key factor when women experience either absence of menstruation or abnormal bleeding. Hormonal imbalances caused by stress may proliferate the symptoms of fibroid tumors and endometriosis, as well as make pregnancy difficult to achieve for couples with fertility problems.

Heart disease is the number one killer of American women. High blood pressure, heart attacks, heart palpitations, and stroke may be stress related cardiovascular conditions. Some women experience changes in their sexuality and encounter various sexual dysfunctions such as loss of desire and vaginal dryness as a result of stress.

Often people feel the effects of stress as fatigue, various aches and pains, headaches, or as emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. Stress affects others by causing gastrointestinal disorders such as ulcers, lower abdominal cramps, colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Frequently people under the effects of over stress will have more colds and infections due to lowered immune system responses. Stress can initiate dermatological conditions such as itchy skin and rashes.

Wow. That's a lot of problems. So, what is a person to do? Well, learning to control the things we can control, and letting go of the rest, is a good first step...and potentially, the hardest step. Maybe we can find something that will help...

Here is a post from ChEsKa'S pRiDe -- The 10 Essentials for Relieving Stress

Also check out WebMD's Letting Go of Stess.

Everyone feels stressed these days. But do you really know what that means? Do you understand what daily stress does to your body, mind and spirit? Over the next four weeks, you'll learn to identify exactly what causes you stress. Equally important, you'll find out how to manage your stress and become more relaxed.

From About.com -- Money, Stress, and Happiness

If you stress about money, you’re not alone: a significant amount of Americans are deeply in debt, living beyond their means, don’t have a clear plan to solve their financial problems, and stress about it quite a bit. The fear, stress and conflict associated with money issues can also impact your personal happiness. The following resources can help you to create a plan for yourself to get out of debt, if necessary, make your money go further, and plan for your future. Once you have a plan, you should feel significantly less stressed about money. When money is less of an issue, rather than being enslaved by it, you can use it to do the things that make you truly happy.

Also See:

Your 6 Biggest Money Problems, Solved.

Are you stressing over money? Is it making you sick? Is there something special you do that helps reduce your stress?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
CatherineBlogs, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog