Local Doc, Counselor Agree

Debt Stress Is Threatening Newtowners

BY JOHN VOKET

On any given work day, Newtown Youth & Family Services counseling face an expanding array of clients, many facing the stress-related effects of today’s economy. Clinical Director Rebecca Cohen has even faced clients dropping out of their sessions “because they can’t afford the gas to get there.”

And across town at the local one-afternoon-a-week public health clinic Kevin’s Community Center, the numbers served so far this year are staggering.

Clinic founder Dr Z Michael Taweh said many of the issues he is seeing in his practice, and his volunteers are treating at KCC, are also directly due to economic pressures.

The stress from deepening debt is becoming a major pain in the neck — and the back and the head and the stomach — for millions of Americans. And it is putting heavy demand on mental health services, as well. Local medical and mental health professionals agree, telling The Bee this week that Newtowners are by no means immune.

“We have done our best to accommodate our schedules so that families who have several members receiving therapy can all come at the same time reducing the travel cost for them,” said Ms Cohen. “Unfortunately, many residents of Newtown are faced everyday with the stress of not being able to pay their monthly bills.”

When people are dealing with mountains of debt, they are much more likely to report health problems, too, according to an Associated Press-AOL Health poll released June 9. And not just little stuff; this means ulcers, severe depression, even heart attacks.

Dr Taweh said he is not only treating the most common and known medical complications of emotional stress and financial hardship, which include headaches, insomnia, or hypersomnia, chronic fatigue, irritability, stomach ulcers, neck and backache, and fibromyalgia, “I am seeing less known but increasingly prevalent complications, namely stress-induced cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome [Takotsubo], which mimics myocardial infarction, but in the absence of coronary artery disease.”

Although most people appear to be managing their debts all right, perhaps 10 million to 16 million are “suffering terribly due to their debts, and their health is likely to be negatively impacted,” said Paul J Lavrakas, a research psychologist and AP consultant who analyzed the results of the survey. Those are people who reported high levels of debt stress and suffered from at least three stress-related illnesses, he said.

That finding is supported by medical research that has linked chronic stress to a wide range of ailments. And the current tough economic times and rising costs of living seem to be leading to increasing debt stress, 14 percent higher this year than in 2004, according to an index tied to the AP-AOL survey.

Among the people reporting high debt stress in the new poll:

*27 percent had ulcers or digestive tract problems, compared with 8 percent of those with low levels of debt stress.

*44 percent had migraines or other headaches, compared with 15 percent.

*29 percent suffered severe anxiety, compared with 4 percent.

*23 percent had severe depression, compared with 4 percent.

*6 percent reported heart attacks, double the rate for those with low debt stress.

*More than half, 51 percent, had muscle tension, including pain in the lower back. That compared with 31 percent of those with low levels of debt stress.

People who reported high stress also were much more likely to have trouble concentrating and sleeping and were more prone to getting upset for no good reason.

It is not known for certain whether such stress is causing health problems, says Mr Lavrakas, who while at Ohio State University in the late 1990s helped to develop an index to measure the extent to which people are stressed from financial debts.

But medical research suggests that most of the symptoms reported in this poll are indeed typical of chronic stress. The body reacts with a “fight-or-flight” response, releasing adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol.

That helps one react fast in an emergency, but if the body stays in this high gear too long, those chemicals can wreak physical havoc in numerous systems — everything from a rise in blood pressure and heart rate to problems with memory, mood, digestion, even the immune system.

Dr Taweh said he is seeing men and women whose sexual and reproductive functions are being compromised.

“Infertility is becoming an increasing concern with stress factors as cause. Stress also affects patients’ reactions to pregnancy loss during infertility treatment and pregnancy complications,” he said. “[Complaints of] erectile dysfunction and low libido, with or without depression, is increasing as well.”

And no, stress does not cause stomach ulcers — most are caused by bacteria — but stress can worsen the pain.

“Irritable bowel syndrome, manifesting with chronic abdominal pain and altered bowel habits in the absence of organic cause, is on the increase, with prevalence of about 15 percent in North America,” Dr Taweh explained, adding that functional dyspepsia is very common, and presents with nonspecific abdominal pain, bloating, pressure, and discomfort. “And peptic ulcer disease, which has been long recognized as an intensive care unit problem, is now diagnosed more frequently in outpatient settings like Kevin’s Community Center.”

Between his practice and KCC, Dr Taweh has even treated cases of costochondral and rib cage pain, with strong muscular and soft tissue components, often mimicking cardiac chest pain, along with psychogenic purpura or “painful bruising syndrome,” which presents with painful ecchymotic lesions, mostly on the extremities and the face, seen mostly in Caucasian women with emotional stress and concomitant mental illness.

The survey found that upwardly mobile, middle-class families were among those who had the most debt stress. Others were women, couples with small children, low-income working families, Democrats, and those who graduated high school but have not taken college courses. Those least likely to be stressed from debt include men, retirees, empty nesters, college graduates, and Republicans.

“This very difficult economic time is just adding to the high stress level that so many of our clients are already faced with,” said Ms Cohen of the many seeking support from NYFS. “Financial struggles often lead to depression and anxiety ultimately effecting not just an individual, but an entire family unit.”

The AP-AOL health poll involved telephone interviews with 1,002 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii and was conducted from March 24 to April 3 by Abt SRBI Inc. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The Associated Press contributed to this report.