When the cause of anxiety is identified and treated, complete recovery is often possible. Where no cause can be readily identified, you may feel anxiety for a long time, perhaps your entire life, unless the symptoms are treated. Treatment can result in anxiety being successfully managed if not cured.  Counseling, psychotherapy, and some medications can be highly effective.

Defining financial stress as the unpleasant feeling that one is unable to meet financial demands, afford the necessities of life, and have sufficient funds to make ends meet. The feeling normally includes the emotions of dread, anxiety, and fear, but may also include anger and frustration. Economic hardship may be due to such things as the loss of a job, unexpected medical or legal expenses, chronic overspending, investment losses, or gambling. The economic hardship may be acute or chronic, anticipated or unanticipated, and it may be attributable to uncontrollable forces (such as the economy) or controllable forces (e.g., poor personal financial management).

When looking at one’s financial situation is of less interest to psychologists than is one's perception of the financial situation because it is this perception that produces the financial stress, which in turn is implicated in a host of individual, familial, and social consequences. If one fails to realize the dire predicament of one’s financial situation, then one will not feel financial stress.

One of the most consistent findings in the literature is that financial stress is associated with a higher incidence of mental and physical health problems. This point comes first from observational studies conducted in the 1930s (Jahoda,1979), second from analysis of annual population data (e.g., Brenner, 1973), and third from surveys of individuals going through financial stress (e.g., Price, Choi,& Vinokur, 2002). Brenner (1973), for instance, analyzed data collected annually by the State of New York between 1914 and 1967 and found a strong and consistent correlation between economic indicators (e.g., manufacturing employment index) and admissions (voluntary and involuntary) to state psychiatric institutions, particularly for men. As the economy worsened, admissions increased. Brenner also reported that as the economy soured, incidence of suicide and alcoholism also increased significantly. Based on US government data, Brenner demonstrated that as the rate of unemployment increases, cigarette consumption
increases, as does the proportion of people living alone. As the rate of business failures increase, so too does alcohol consumption. Findings that financial strain is associated with poorer physical health and with mortality have been reported in the United Kingdom. Fox and Chancey (1998) analyzed the responses of 366 randomly selected adults from urban southeastern US and found that financial stress was correlated negatively with perception of one’s health, self-esteem, marriage satisfaction, and family functioning. They also found that as financial stress increased, couples were more likely to fight, and were more likely to break up. Also, people who had a greater degree of financial hardship were more likely to report headaches, stomach aches, or insomnia daily or at least a few times a week.

Innumerable studies show that financial stress increases levels of both depression and anxiety, and decreases quality of life in men and women. In addition to the effects that financial stress have on mental and physical health, financial stress also has an adverse effect on marital relationships. Several studies indicate that as financial stress increases, couples argue more – particularly over money. Financial pressures increase, couples become preoccupied with financial issues, and their perceived lack of control over the situation often leads to frustration, anger, and general demoralization. As individuals become more depressed, they withdraw more from their spouse, offering less emotional support and spend more time arguing and blaming each other. As financial stress increased, couples were more likely to fight and more likely to break up.

Once depression sets in, several other things begin to happen. First, people who are depressed become pessimistic about their future, come to see themselves as failures, stop taking care of themselves, and become irritable with, if not hostiletoward, others. Depressed people are not fun to be around, and therefore it is not surprising that under such conditions, alcohol and drug use increases (Peirce et al., 1994), and family discord emerges (Conger et al., 2000). Satisfaction with the marriage suffers and many relationships end (Fox & Chancey, 1998). Children who would otherwise receive warmth, encouragement, and compassion from their parents now receive distracted attention, criticism, and punitive and inconsistent discipline (Mistry et al., 2002). These changes in parenting lead to changes in children's behaviour at school in terms of a drop in academic performance and increases in disruptive and antisocial behaviour (Flanagan & Eccles, 1993). Children of depressed parents are at increased risk of developing depression themselves, and are also at increased risk of developing alcohol and drug dependencies (Conger et al., 2000). Soon, financial stress cascades into a series of stressors that overwhelm one's ability to cope.

With headlines declaring that the economy is getting worse each day, it can be hard not to get stressed out about how this will affect your personal finances. Fortunately, there are strategies you can utilize to quickly help manage anxiety during this economic crisis. Here are five simple methods:

1. Do a reality check by making a budget . This is the number one thing you can do to decrease financial anxiety. By making a budget, you will become aware of where you are spending money, how much you owe, and where you may need to cut back. Not knowing where your money is going can cause you a great deal of unnecessary stress, so get organized and create a budget.

2. Don’t stress about what you can’t control. Just as you can’t control if the weather is going to be bad tomorrow, you can’t control whether the $700 billion bailout package is going to improve the economy. What you can control, however, is your own finances, which will help improve your self-efficacy and reduce stress. So stop thinking about things you can’t control and focus on the things you can.

3. Start being more careful with credit cards. Simply because you have credit available doesn’t mean you should be using it, so start trying to pay with cash more often than credit cards. This will help you feel more in control of your finances and save you the stress of receiving a large bill at the end of the month that you may not be able to pay in full.

4. Get some exercise. Research has shown time and time again that exercise is one of the best ways to reduce anxiety and stress. In fact, exercise has been shown to be just as effective as therapy and medication when it comes to improving some symptoms of depression. You don’t have to exercise for long period of time or even have an intense workout. Consistency is the key, so aim for exercising for 20-30 minutes 3-4 times a week doing your favorite kind of physical activity.

5. Focus on what’s most important in life. Make a conscious effort to start spending more time doing things you really enjoy. This doesn’t have to be anything major but rather, spending time doing simple things that make you happy such as hanging out with family and friends, finally starting that hobby or project you have been putting off, or even doing some volunteer work to help other people.



Information garnered from :
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~jmantler/pdfs/financial%20distress%20DSI.pdf
and
http://www.lindseypollak.com/archives/guest-post-5-ways-to-manage-financial-anxiety

Friends with benefits, no strings attached, part-time boyfriends or girlfriends, one-night stands, flings, hook-ups, booty calls, last calls. The murky vernacular of campus dating has mystified parents for years, but a new survey might offer some translation.

Researchers from the University of Ottawa have gleaned plenty about the shadowy rules of engagement in casual relationships – no, it’s not okay to sleep over after a booty call – after extensive interviews with 18- to 24-year-old students. They also conducted online focus groups with 900 respondents under age 30.

The findings, published in The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Taking casual sex not too casually: Exploring definitions of casual sexual relationships, delineate four major types of casual sex encounters: the one-night stand, the booty call, the friend with benefits and the “sex” buddy (the actual term is more profane). Each entails very specific rules around initiation, communication, emotional attachment and the inevitable dump, rules that are rarely explicit, yet remain widely understood by teens and twentysomethings. The new terminology is a far cry from the dainty monikers used by scientists in the 1960s – “permissiveness without affection” and “premarital coitus.”

“Young adults appear to be developing broader conceptualizations of what constitutes a relationship,” wrote lead author Jocelyn Wentland, a PhD student in experimental psychology at the University of Ottawa’s Human Sexuality Research Laboratory. “It’s about a prolonged adolescence” ahead of increasingly delayed marriages, said Ms. Wentland.

While “casual sex relationship” screams oxymoron to many, those who chronically engage in loose liaisons would beg to differ; it would be worthwhile for all clinicians and sex educators to learn their language, the researchers argue, especially as casual becomes increasingly normal.

The first misconception the researchers clarify is that intercourse isn't always involved in casual sex: Studies have shown that prevalence rates drop to 15 per cent when actual intercourse is involved, shooting up to 75 per cent when “sexual activity” is the descriptor.

Surveys conducted over the past decade suggest friends with benefits (FWB) – pals who develop sexual relationships – are extremely widespread. Some studies estimate that 50 per cent of post-secondary students engage in FWB. While not traditionally monogamous, FWBs are the most “sexually exclusive” of the casual-sex-relationship types: You are expected to disclose information regarding other partners who may be floating around. “It is the most like a real relationship – it was most likely to lead to a real relationship,” said Ms. Wentland. “You respect your friend with benefits.”

Respect aside, secrecy pervades FWB unions, so as not to “ruin group dynamics” – set tongues wagging, that is. While some FWBs evolve into romantic relationships that can eventually be disclosed, others end when one partner finds someone else.

“Sex” buddies are commonly mistaken for FWBs but are actually the reverse, beginning as one-night stands that evolve into something akin to friendship as partners meet more frequently and get properly acquainted. Still, monogamy is not expected and partners go their own way once the appeal has weakened.

One-night stands, meanwhile, are singular sessions typically fuelled by shots at the bar. Booty calls are one-night stands set on repeat. "These individuals are convenient, transient sexual partners with no emotional investment,” the Journal authors write, noting that “emotionally intimate acts” such as hand-holding and even kissing a partner’s face were verboten for booty calls, as were sleepovers and breakfasts the next morning. (Sleepovers are acceptable for one-night stands, but not breakfast.)

As for communication styles, the authors found that booty calls rarely call, preferring to text: “A ‘booty caller’ would sometimes make a telephone call if the caller was too intoxicated to compose a legible text message or if a text message notification would not be loud enough to wake the other individual,” the authors explained. Indeed, with the exception of one-night stands, who don’t converse much beyond their drunken collision, and FWBs who talk on the phone, teens having casual sex overwhelmingly communicate via text, with MSN and Facebook chat a close second. This way, “fears of rejection are minimized.”

The death knell for all casual relationships, of course, is emotional attachment, which “violates the idea that this is easy access to sex without the complications, as impossible as that may be for either party,” said Ms. Wentland.

Respondents agreed there was no need for a “formal termination conversation” among one-night stands, booty calls or even “sex” buddies – just stop texting. “A booty call could just disappear” and be replaced by some “other bigger and better booty call,” according to two women who were interviewed.

This notion of trading up – disposal, even – ran through the focus groups. When isolated from the women, male respondents offered up some unique terms for the one-night stand – “Hit it and Quit it,” and “Use ’Em and Lose ’Em” the more genteel among them. “They’re definitely not respectful,” Ms. Wentland said of the terms, which she nonetheless wrote off as “bravado.”

While many studies have examined the consequences of casual sex, from risky sexual behaviours to regret, emotional distress and depression, the current study did not. For all the implicit rules, previous research suggests it’s women who more often feel the burn when casual arrangements fizzle. Respondents here said women were more likely to get attached during a FWB scenario, while a 2010 Colorado State University study found men were ultimately motivated by sex and women by “emotional connection.”

But as Ms. Wentland – and no doubt many a fleeing fling – point out, “There’s that implicit, tacit agreement: ‘We both knew what this was when we got into it.’”

So why do so many twentysomethings take casual over committed? “Filling the void/boredom” and “fall-back plan” were two reasons cited, as was the obvious: sexual desire. “There are women who will say, ‘I was only engaging in casual sex with him because I thought he’d be my boyfriend.’ But there are lots of other women who say, ‘I took him home from the bar because I was horny.’”

http://www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom/news-details_2485.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/sex/sex-sexuality/sex-without-commitment-doesnt-mean-there-are-no-rules/article2257136/

Weather and mood have some connection. People have some foggy days and some fine days within them; their prosperity or misfortune has something to do with their matter and emotion.

Howard and Hoffman (1984) had 24 college students keep track of their mood (by filling out a mood questionnaire) over 11 consecutive days. They found a significant effect on mood correlated with the weather, especially with regards to humidity (a component of weather not always measured):

Humidity, temperature, and hours of sunshine had the greatest effect on mood. High levels of humidity lowered scores on concentration while increasing reports of sleepiness. Rising temperatures lowered anxiety and skepticism mood scores.

The number of hours of sunshine was found to predict optimism scores significantly. As the number of hours of sunshine increased, optimism scores also increased.

Keller and his colleagues (2005) examined 605 participants responses in three separate studies to examine the connection between mood states, a person’s thinking and the weather. They found that:

Pleasant weather (higher temperature or barometric pressure) was related to higher mood, better memory, and ‘‘broadened’’ cognitive style during the spring as time spent outside increased. The same relationships between mood and weather were not observed during other times of year, and indeed hotter weather was associated with lower mood in the summer.

These results are consistent with findings on seasonal affective disorder, and suggest that pleasant weather improves mood and broadens cognition in the spring because people have been deprived of such weather during the winter.

In conclusion, weather does appear to impact our moods. And that effect may become serious. Look no further for evidence of this than the very real condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD is characterized by feelings of sadness and depression that occur in the winter months when the temperatures drop and the days grow short. This specific form of depression is often associated with excessive eating or sleeping and weight gain. Women are twice to three times more likely to suffer from the winter blues than men.

Some helpful strategies for dealing with poor weather and your negative mood :

Make your environment sunnier and brighter. Open blinds, trim tree branches that block sunlight or add skylights to your home. Sit closer to bright windows while at home or in the office.

Get outside. Take a long walk, eat lunch at a nearby park, or simply sit on a bench and soak up the sun. Even on cold or cloudy days, outdoor light can help — especially if you spend some time outside within two hours of getting up in the morning.

Exercise regularly. Physical exercise helps relieve stress and anxiety, both of which can increase seasonal affective disorder symptoms. Being more fit can make you feel better about yourself, too, which can lift your mood.

Eat a Balanced Meal.  Eat three meals a day with plenty of fruits and vegetables.  Drink at least six glasses of water a day.  Avoid alcohol until you feel better.  Take a Vitamin D tablet once a day