Stress. It?s the other side of paradise. People in other countries sometimes assume that Bermudians spend their time sweeping the beach for a living and otherwise laying about enjoying the sunshine. Cue to real world Bermuda, where every bit of open space is under threat by developers, and many people hold down multiple jobs while battling skyrocketing rental prices, traffic snarls, family snafus, crime and radio talk shows. Those who actually have time to lay on a beach are a lucky bunch. As Mental Health Week kicks off, The Royal Gazette reporter Jessie Moniz met with Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute (MAWI) clinical psychologist Dr. Maggie Cormack.

Dr. Cormack works in the Acute Community Mental Health Programme at MAWI with a team of doctors and nurses who help people to deal with stress in their lives.

?Stress is quite a problem,? said Dr. Cormack. ?A lot of people who don?t live in Bermuda think it must be very stress-free here. The reality is that it is the same here as everywhere else.

?What makes everything more stressful for some people in Bermuda is that they work more than one job. Just travelling to work can be stressful.?

According to Dr. Cormack, stress is about the interaction between a person and their environment. What stresses one person, may have little to no effect on someone else.

?If a person has experienced stress a lot sometimes they think themselves a weak character,? said Dr. Cormack. ?That is not so. Anyone of us is subject to stress.?

Dr. Cormack said some people react by worrying a lot, eating too much or too little, drinking alcohol, or withdrawing from family life, among other things.

Other people have physical symptoms such as muscular tension, gastric upsets or headaches.

?I think one of the big problems for people is noticing when they are stressed,? said Dr. Cormack. ?When we give training on stress management, one of the first things we have to do is find ways of helping people to recognise that they are stressed.?

Most of Dr. Cormack?s patients are referred to her by their general practitioner or health consultant. Although people can come in of their own accord, Dr. Cormack recommended that people see their general practitioner first.

?We have psychiatrists who are able to offer medication,? she said. ?There are a lot of things that can be done. A combination of medication and psychological therapy can be useful for some people.?

Dr. Cormack works with patients to identify what is troubling them. Once a person finds the source of their stress it is easier for them to work at eliminating it or coping with it.

?With more complex problems, the work is more about trying to find new ways of looking at the situation, new ways of tackling the situation and changing aspects of lifestyle, perhaps talking through their history and what has happened to them in the past,? she said.

She cautioned that drugs and alcohol including caffeine, chocolate (yes, chocolate) and sugar are no cure for stress; these things only compound a person?s problems.

?Over the longer term, these things make it worse,? she said. ?Work can also be an obvious source of stress. Some people enjoy a challenge, and may take on a new project full-tilt.

?If they don?t have the time, energy, or resources for the project or it turns out to be more demanding then they originally thought, then they get out of their depth.

?At that point they start to move along a continuum towards stress. If that continues over a long period of time they might move towards burnout, the end point of stress.?

Symptoms of burnout can include losing any sense of achievement. The person might feel that nothing they do is worthwhile even if they are saving lives.

?People experiencing burnout might also distance themselves from others,? said Dr. Cormack. ?They just don?t feel they have the energy to be connected. A third symptom of burnout is emotional exhaustion.

?They might find they just don?t have the energy for the people who are nearest and dearest to them. That is linked to depression.?

Working in a busy office, Dr. Cormack said she is vulnerable to stress just like anyone else.

?What I find good about my job is that, at one level, I am not the person sitting in the other chair,? she said. ?Sometimes that is very happy thing. Whatever my stresses are they aren?t so bad that I had to sit in that chair.

?Also, I work in a team, so I am rarely the only person available to help that person. People who come here usually see a doctor, a nurse and whatever.

?There are a number of us who can help that person. If there are things I find upsetting about what people tell me, then I have supervision from my psychology colleagues, so I can say, ?help me with this one?.

?I don?t find my work here stressful, everyone has their moments, but overall it is not stressful.?

Dr. Cormack recommends that if a person is stressed, the first thing they should do is look at their diet.

?She said that large amounts of caffeine and sugar can throw many people off balance.

?If you are not getting a good enough balance of nutrients then you might need to reform your diet,? she said. ?People probably don?t eat that healthily these days.

?They don?t realise exactly what they are eating and how much they are eating. It is also important to exercise. Everyone talks about it, but how many of us do it?

?Something like that on a regular basis is very important. The advantages of exercise are not just increasing your heart rate, it is that a lot of exercise is rhythmic whether it is walking or running and something like that can be relaxing.

?We rock babies. Something about rhythm is important to our lives. When we exercise we get an hour of rhythm.

?Water also keeps stress level down. When I am feeling stressed the first thing I do is drink a glass of water. I always keep water on my desk. Keeping hydrated is more important than a lot of people realise.?

@EDITRULE:

Please contact your doctor for more information about stress, burnout or depression.