The hidden stress of unemployment

If you're still employed, you probably know someone who isn't. Lurking just underneath the surface, if not on the surface, is a huge amount of stress.

According to one study, finances and work lead the list of stressors in our society. It's serious business. Two economists have studied the stress of unemployment and concluded that long-term unemployment can reduce life expectancy by a year or more.

The effects extend beyond the one who is out of work.

A recent study at the University of California, Davis, found that children in families where the head of the household had lost a job were 15 percent more likely to repeat a grade. Ariel Kalil, a University of Chicago professor of public policy, and Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, of the Institute for Children and Poverty in New York, found in an earlier study that adolescent children of low-income single mothers who endured unemployment had an increased chance of dropping out of school and showed declines in emotional well-being.

In the long term, children whose parents were laid off have been found to have lower annual earnings as adults than those whose parents remained employed, a phenomenon Peter R. Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, mentioned in a speech last week at New York University.

Many years ago I left a company where I'd worked for 16 years. It was the only job my children had known. They were deeply affected. Having lost jobs over the years I know that the stress can creep up on you. You seem to be managing the transition well enough, but you're carrying some emotional baggage. Recognizing it is the first step in dealing with it.

Here's one breakdown of symptoms:

• Changes in body functions and physical health
• Changes in emotions and feelings
• Changes in behavior
• Changes in thoughts

That article breaks those down further and provides a chart for you to assess yourself -- and have someone else assess you, too. If you see yourself there, tell your doctor. Be aware, though, that busy doctors don't always listen closely to those complaints.

The stress of being a care giver

I know from watching my Mom care for my Dad, who had Parkinson's, how stressful it can be. So I took notice when I came across a study documenting the effects of this stress. It was conducted at Ohio State University.

The chronic stress that spouses and children develop while caring for Alzheimer's disease patients may shorten the caregivers' lives by as much as four to eight years, the study found.

The researchers focused on telomeres, areas of genetic material on the ends of a cell's chromosomes. Over time, as a cell divides, those telomeres shorten, losing genetic instructions. An enzyme – telomerase – normally works to repair that damage to the chromosome, said Ronald Glaser, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics.

“Telomeres are like caps on the chromosome,” said Glaser, head of Ohio State 's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research. “Think of it as a frayed rope – if the caps weren't there, the rope would unravel. The telomeres insulate and protect the ends of the chromosomes.

“As we get older, the telomeres shorten and the activity of the telomerase enzyme lessens,” he said. “It's part of the aging process.”

The care givers were more depressed than a control group.

“Symptoms of depression in caregivers were twice as severe as those apparent among the control group,” Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry, said.

“Caregivers also had fewer lymphocytes,” Glaser said, “a very important component of the immune system. They also showed a higher level of cytokines, molecules key to the inflammation response, than did the control group.” 

Other experiments showed that the actual telomeres in blood cells of caregivers were shorter than those of the controls, and that the level of the telomerase repair enzyme among caregivers was also lower.  

Much of the Ohio State work is now shifting to studies on how to intervene with that stress in hopes of slowing the weakening of the immune system in highly stressed people.