Stress: Can We Cope?

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Mormons, nuns, symphony conductors and women who are listed in Who's Who. This suggests that something in the way these people live, possibly even such abstractions as faith, pride of accomplishment or productivity, plays a role in diminishing the ill effects of stress. "The most significant observation," says Rosch of the American Institute of Stress, "is that widows die at rates three to 13 times as high as married women for every known major cause of death. Why? How does this work?"

Psychologists point to a number of personal factors that seem to be helpful in coping. Among them: the sense of being in control of one's life, having a network of friends or family to provide what researchers call "social support," and such personality factors as flexibility and hopefulness. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Caroline Bedell Thomas has correlated psychological factors with the long-term health records of 1,337 medical students who graduated between 1948 and 1964. One of the strongest prognosticators of cancer, mental illness and suicide, she found, was "lack of closeness to parents" and a negative attitude toward one's family. A 1978 study of 7,000 people in Alameda County, Calif., confirmed the importance of social support. Epidemiologist Leonard Syme of Berkeley, Calif., who conducted the study, found that even after adjusting for such factors as smoking and histories of major illnesses, people with few close contacts were dying two to three times faster than those who regularly turned to their friends.

Animal studies also support the notion that company prevents misery. Squirrel monkeys become more agitated if alone when confronted with a boa constrictor than when several monkeys confront the snake together. Mice that are injected with cancer cells and then isolated develop tumors more rapidly than those who remain with their cage mates.

The warm family support given to Barney Clark was considered by his doctors to have been crucial to his remarkable endurance after receiving the artificial heart. Lonely heart attack patients have been shown to live longer when given a pet. Herpes sufferers seem to be helped just by participating in a self-help group. Says U.C.S.F. Psychiatrist Horowitz: "These self-help groups, for everything from single parents to rape victims, are very useful. They replace the smalltown systems that we've lost."

Studies of former Viet Nam prisoner; of war have revealed that communication with fellow captives, sometimes involving complex tapping codes, was a vital factor in their survival. In a book to be published this fall, one former P.O.W. relates that even while he was being beaten by his captors, he could hear other prisoners tapping out the supportive message "God bless you, Jim Stockdale."

Other studies of prisoners and hostages have also pointed up the importance of maintaining a sense of control over one's environment. NIMH Psychologist Julius Segal was astonished to learn that one of the American hostages in Iran achieved this by saving a bit of food from his meals and then offering it to anyone who came into his cell. That simple coping strategy had the effect of turning the cell into a living room, the hostage into a host welcoming visitors.

Research with animals has shown that when stressful stimuli can be regulated, they are rendered