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Two kinds of depression
Economic ills lead to stress, particularly among adolescents and elderly
by Casey Weiss
Mountain View Voice Staff
Since stocks started tumbling late last month, Judith Webb has been cutting way back on shopping trips, visiting only her local grocery store to buy necessities.
Webb, 65, works for Avenidas, a local senior care organization with branches in Mountain View and Palo Alto. Like her, many other senior citizens have been rolling back expenses, she said, as they wait to see what happens with the economy.
"There is so much uncertainty," Webb said. "We are all in a state of anxiety."
While the nation's attention is on the financial sector, staffers at local agencies say the economic problems are having direct psychological effects, particularly on seniors and adolescents, who worry about the hardships facing their families.
In Palo Alto, counselors at Adolescent Counseling Services, an agency working with local schools and students, say they have seen an upsurge in stress among students due to the economy, particularly as some of their parents have lost their jobs or are struggling to keep their homes.
"The people we see are really struggling," said Margaret Murchan, on-campus counseling program director.
"Sometimes when parents are under stress teenagers feel it," she said. "Sometimes there's a minor problem parents would have not reacted to before, and they take it out on the family now."
Murchan said parents who are struggling financially often become more restrictive, and are sometimes easily angered by their children. Teens, meanwhile, manifest their stress in different ways, Murchan said, with some struggling in school. The agency provides individual and family group sessions.
Back at Avenidas, Nancy Jensen, who participates in support groups and dancing lessons there, said the current state of uncertainty and anxiety reminds her of living through the Great Depression.
"I lived through a time that was comparable to what we are going through now," she said.
Jensen was born in 1932 in a poor fishing village in Alaska. She said she always had enough food and clothing growing up, but her neighbors and friends were often anxious about their financial situations.
These days, she said, members of her own family are experiencing hardship. Her son is currently unemployed and living with his children in the house she owns in Menlo Park. He is learning new skills to reenter the workforce, but money is owed on the mortgage. If not for her new husband's economic stability, Jensen said, she would have trouble supporting herself.
Even the support agencies themselves are feeling the pinch. Avenidas' regular speaker series, which cost only $3 for members, is suffering a low turnout as seniors -- worried about their pensions and savings -- opt for free events instead.
Kari Martell, director of marketing and communication at Avenidas, said the center had to cancel a conference last month due to lack of participation. Senior citizens have not wanted to talk about their troubles, Martell said, but she credits a "drop in enthusiasm" at Avenidas to the economic hardships.
"Where people can, they are cutting back," she said.
Printed with permission by the Mountain View Voice
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