HIGHLIGHT
The X factor:
Stress!
by Patricia Wadsley
One morning in late 2009, Jennifer Whelan, diagnosed
with MS in 2002, rushed to get
her twin girls, Allison Grace and
Amanda Faith, ready for daycare
before starting the 30-mile commute to her job in the financial
industry.
Whelan’s everyday schedule
is enough to keep her busy, but
with the holidays coming, she
had to shop and cook, too. “At
the end of the day, I came home
loaded with extra work and
Christmas presents,” Whelan,
37, said. “Even before I was able
to stash the presents away, my
kids started yelling for attention.
I wanted to explode! Luckily,
my husband saw my face, and
maneuvered me out of the kids’
room. ‘I can tell that switch is
going to go off,’ he said. ‘Maybe
it’s time you took a rest.’ ”
EDWARD KOREN/ WWW.CARTOONBANK.COM
Stress+MS=not a good combo
When the holidays roll around,
sometimes all is not merry. For
instance, too many holiday-
related tasks
may make
people think
they’ll never
get everything
done. That in
turn makes
them think
that they are
inadequate, and they become
frustrated and angry, sometimes
to the point of sleepless nights.
Stress starts in the
environment but
can lead people to
feel helpless about
everything.
director for the Center for Tech-
nology and Social Behavior at
Northwestern University, which
studies stress and MS. “On top
of that, MS is most often diag-
nosed when people are in their
20s and 30s—when potentially
stressful life events such as mar-
riages, new jobs and children are
happening.”
Few people—with MS or
not—can sail through plan-
ning a wedding or starting a job
without a little anxiety. But the
effects of stress on people with
MS are of continuing concern
to clinicians. A recent study
published in the May 31, 2011,
issue of Neurology indicates
that stress does not cause MS.
