Stressed out by the economy

Area mental health professionals are bracing for a possible wave of anxiety and depression in the wake of the economic crisis. But for now, people are still trying to figure out how it will affect them.

Mount Pleasant psychiatrist Noel Hunt likened the crisis to watching a hurricane forming in the Atlantic Ocean. Not knowing when it will hit and how bad it will be fuels anxiety, he said.

"I don't think the impact has truly hit Main Street," said David Shiel, director of Clinical Services at Palmetto Lowcountry Behavioral Health.

Shiel compared the delay to what happened after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Initially, people were in shock, he said. After a few weeks, patients started showing up at their doctors' offices, and the referrals to therapists and hospitals followed.

Early manifestations of the stress will probably surface in emergency rooms, said Stephen McLeod-Bryant, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Medical University of South Carolina. People will present with chest pain and headaches related to stress and tension, he said.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.