NO BAILOUT His business empire crumbling,
billionaire Adolf Merckle stepped in front of a
train at this spot near Ulm, Germany, on
January 6. His funeral was held a week later.
“People who like being in the top
position…it hurts them a lot more to lose.”
and unable to see a way out, according to Robert Simon, MD, a member
of the APA’s Workgroup on Suicidal Behaviors. While the current
economic turmoil is certainly a factor, a lot of stress-related disorders
simply come with the high-pressure territory of The Big Job.
A NEW WAY TO
A NEW WAY TO
TAKE BACK CONTROL
TAKE BACK CONTROL
Like someone suffering from depression, the Executive Mental
Health Program hides in plain sight in a nondescript professional park
in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. It’s nestled bet ween a Mexican
restaurant called El Torito Grill and, believe it or not, the Rock
Bottom Brewery. Clients enter through one door and leave through a
separate, anonymous exit to ensure confidentiality.
During the first visit, a client meets with a team of integrative
physicians, therapists, and nutritionists in one room to expedite the
comprehensive assessment process and avoid duplication of information.
Execs seem to appreciate the efficiency of the all-at-once approach
and the boardroom setting, says Dr. Soliman, as it appeals to the CEO
mentality of “let’s get it done.” After the meeting and assessment
interviews are complete, a personalized holistic program is crafted,
combining Western medicine with nontraditional approaches. This
means you might find yourself in appointments with acupuncturists,
massage therapists, and healers as well as Harvard-trained internists,
psychiatrists, and psychotherapists. Depending upon the results of your
assessment, you may be screened for hormonal imbalances and vitamin
deficiencies. If you need pharmaceutical help, doctors will prescribe
antidepressant and antianxiety drugs, but never without exploring
natural treatments that target the root of the problem, such as talk
therapy, nutritional approaches, energy medicine modalities such as
Reiki, and meditation practice to build up your chi. The center can also
arrange executive coaching to develop conflict-management skills and
rehearse better ways of interacting with subordinates.
“We look at the whole person and say ‘Let’s find out what is making
you feel this way,’ because it may be a number of components,” says Roya
Kohani, MD, a board-certified internist trained in integrative medicine
at the center and an associate professor of medicine at UCSD School
of Medicine. A molecular biologist by training, Dr. Kohani earned
her medical degree at Harvard, and then spent eight years working
with integrative-medicine guru Andrew Weil, MD. “Depression and
anxiety are only symptoms of other problems,” she says. “Our purpose
is to identify imbalances that are piling up, both physical and lifestyle
imbalances, and then empower your body’s innate healing capabilities.”
A typical individualized program at the center lasts five days over the
course of five weeks, with a 90-minute one-on-one session once a week,
plus phone follow-ups and additional workshops. For out-of-town
patients, the initial program is completed over five full days.
Interest in such an integrative approach to stress-based health issues
versus strict psychopharmacology is a growing movement that is being
fueled by both the financial crisis and advances in neuroscience that
are revealing why type-A personalities are more sensitive to stress,
says psychiatrist Gabriela Cora, founder of the Executive Health and
Wealth Institute, a similar program in Miami. “The current health-care
paradigm doesn’t address the real issues of stress,” she says. Antianxiety
pills are just a temporary fix. “The root of the problem is usually a misalignment of the personal and organizational life. That’s what keeps you
up at night. And that requires prioritization, organizational planning, a
repositioning of everything that people are doing in their lives.”
Another useful weapon: Look at new research to figure out why these
misalignments set us up for so much heavy anxiety in the first place.
UNDERSTANDING THE
NEW SCIENCE OF STRESS
UNDERSTANDING THE
NEW SCIENCE OF STRESS
You’ve probably heard along the way that there is good stress (the kind
that motivates you) and bad stress (the kind that paralyzes you). The
trick is to know the difference. “The CEO type tends to be very good
at using stress productively to excel and achieve,” says Dr. Soliman, “but
there’s a point at which stress over whelms and becomes destructive. It’s
a fine line.” Dr. Soliman says that by being aware of how and why your
brain processes fear, you may be able to manage stress before it crosses
that fine line and becomes an illness.
“We need to reframe how we look at anxiety. It’s not something to
run away from, but something that can be used as productive energy,”
says Robert Rosen, Ph D, author of Just Enough Anxiety: The Hidden
Driver of Business Success. Rosen has interviewed and consulted with
hundreds of top CEOs in the past 20 years. He cites an unchallenged
scientific truth: “Fear is the body’s way of preparing for action.”
But why is it that some men consume this fear as fuel while others
are simply consumed? New research offers some clues. According to
the latest brain science, highly successful type-A executives are at an
increased risk for stress-induced health problems, especially when
their status or control is threatened. Last year, cognition researchers
at the National Institute of Mental Health identified, for the first
time, parts of the brain that are activated when a person moves up or
down in the pecking order.
