Panic attacks over money?

October 21. 2008 4:51AM

Subprime mortgages KO’d the economy like Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard took out Tom Brady.

But the economy has a reach more vast than any football season. Jobs and homes can be lost, retirement accounts and life-savings can shrink, personal futures and whole communities can be threatened.

A sense of well-being can be the first casualty. It starts with feelings of loss of control and lack of security, says Stephen Slaten, a clinical psychologist who is executive director of Jewish Family Service of Worcester.

It’s bad enough that people are worried about being able to maintain their lifestyle, but the events causing the economic landslide are something “you don’t have any control over,” Mr. Slaten said.

“We’re designed to be able to cope with stress and change. But when you’re in a situation where nothing (you) do makes a difference, then that’s where the stress becomes much more profound,” he said.

On top of that, there seems to be nowhere to turn for financial advice on how to react to an economic climate that hasn’t existed in more than 50 years. Not long ago “the experts were telling us the economy’s not so bad except for the energy prices,” Mr. Slaten said. Now the economy’s in the Dumpster while oil prices are falling. “You can’t rely on experts who have been wrong” about the economic situation all along, he said.

Mr. Slaten said it is important for people feeling the effects of a shrinking 401(k) to guard against overeating, drinking, becoming a couch potato or other things that will worsen how they feel in the long run.

Instead, he suggested people do things with their family, get involved in a political cause they never had time for, or volunteer their time to meaningful causes. Exercise improves the mind as well as the body, he said.

Worcester residents have found their own ways of responding to these events. Roscoe Gay, a customer service representative at Fallon Community Health Plan, said, “I go to church and pray about it. I have faith in God that he’s going to take care of all my needs.”

“Those are circumstances that I really can’t change. I’m not going to be depressed,” he said.

Besides, he said, he needs to keep a positive attitude for others. Mr. Gay, 21, said he has a family member who lost his job more than a year ago and has had to sell his car because he is still unemployed. He said the family member has “got that male ego. He is supposed to be a provider” but finds himself depending on his family’s help right now.

Frank Wilcox, a car salesman at Patrick Subaru in Shrewsbury, has seen fewer customers come through the door. “I think people are a little bit nervous,” he said.

Six weeks ago it got so bad that he didn’t have enough money to make his full child support payment. He said he has since made up for that shortfall, but it hasn’t been easy.

However, having lived through three economic slowdowns, Mr. Wilcox, 54, said, “I’m kind of numb to it.”

The outdoorsman’s activities are more than enough to keep him out of a funk. One day last week, he spent five hours hiking in the woods. He also fishes and is an archer who hunts deer, he said.

Kathleen Farley, a special education teacher at Westboro High School, said she is upset with the federal government — President Bush specifically — that “we are at this point” financially and with the country’s moral standing in the world.

Ms. Farley, 56, said she feels worse for other people because she does not have to “worry where my next anything’s coming from.” But she has gotten conservative in her spending habits.

Her 401(k) statement arrived two weeks ago and remains unopened on her kitchen table because she can’t bear to look at it. When her “stimulus” check arrived from the U.S. Treasury in July, she kept the cash at home rather than spend it. If everyone followed her practice, it would defeat the intended purpose to pump up the economy by giving people money to spend.

Ms. Farley has a house on the Cape, but with a tank of gas costing $50, she said she goes there only every two or three weeks instead of the usual weekly visits.

She used to go to TJ Maxx, Marshalls or Solomon Pond Mall every week or two. “I can’t tell you the last time I was there,” she said. And every grocery item in her shopping cart last Thursday she bought “on coupons.”

Anne West, who works at a credit union, said that between the economy and the political climate, she has reduced the amount of television she watches. “It’s redundant — more bad news on top of more bad news. I’d rather read a book.” She’s currently reading Philippa Gregory’s “The Other Boleyn Girl.”

It’s probably a good escape from those pesky customers at work who have suddenly begun asking how much their accounts are insured for.

Ms. West, 55, said that she has become “a little more conscious of what I’m spending.” While she’ll buy Reese’s peanut butter cups for Halloween, she’s buying fewer of them, so the little hobgoblins and princesses who visit her house will walk away with lighter goody bags than usual.

And that ceramic pumpkin is likely to remain on the store shelf. “I’m not buying a lot of useless stuff” these days, Ms. West said.

Carlos L. Rivera, 17, a supermarket cashier in Worcester, said that nowadays “you’re going to have to give up things you don’t need but are good to have.”

He’s got a “low-class” MP3 player, he said, but he’d really like an iPod. “I’ve learned to live without it,” said Mr. Rivera, a junior at Doherty Memorial High School. He said that “at times” it gets him angry because of how hard it is to save money, especially when he sees “people who haven’t worked one day in their life having cars and stuff.”

I think people are a little bit nervous.
Frank Wilcox,
SALESMAN AT PATRICK SUBARU

Frank Wilcox of Patrick Subaru, has seen fewer customers coming through his showroom door.
(T&G Staff/STEVE LANAVA)