Janice Dorn, MD, PhD
Neuropsychological Trading Coach
Janice Dorn, M.D., Ph.D., has been a full-time futures trader since 1994. Doctor Janice holds an M.D. in psychiatry and is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in general psychiatry and addiction psychiatry. She holds a Ph.D. in brain anatomy. A graduate of Coach University, she is a pioneer market psychiatrist and financial neurobehaviorist. Doctor Janice has written over 500 articles on the financial markets and coached over 600 traders worldwide. She is the Global Risk Strategist for Ingenieux Wealth Management Group, Sydney, Australia.
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TRADING WISDOM
STRESS 101
Any discussion of stress can be complicated and confusing because there are different types of stress--acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress -- each with its own characteristics, symptoms, duration, and treatment approaches. This is just a brief introduction to a highly complex and pervasive issue which touches each of us as traders, almost every moment of every trading day, and in the hours when we are not trading, but studying, planning, worrying, or anticipating.
It is my personal opinion that untreated or unrecognized stress is the greatest killer of modern times. The majority of illness is, in one way or the other, related to stress and its multiple manifestations in the lives of each of us. The single best thing you can do for yourself as a trader and a human being is anything and everything possible to recognize, control and minimize the effects of stress on your mind, body and spirit.
Acute Stress
Acute stress is the most common form of stress. It comes from demands and pressures of the recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Acute stress is thrilling and exciting in small doses, but too much is exhausting. Traders ( most of whom are chronically sleep-deprived) wake up ready to attack the markets, may do fine for a few hours and may actually feel exhilarated,particularly if they happen to knock out a few good trades. As the day goes on, the trader becomes more and more weary, and the feelings of exhilaration tend to be replaced by ones of fatigue, frustration or anger.
He or she may start to overtrade, and be in a state of bombardment with news, media, chat rooms and every manner of information which comes during the trading day. After a few hours, it is just too much, and the trader begins to feel overwhelmed. Over-doing ( be it trading or any other activity) or short-term stress can lead to psychological distress, tension headaches, upset stomach, and many other symptoms.
Because it is short term, acute stress doesn't have enough time to do the extensive damage associated with long-term stress. The most common symptoms are:
- emotional distress--some combination of anger or irritability, anxiety, and depression(the three stress emotions);
- muscular problems including tension headache, back pain, jaw pain, and the muscular tensions that lead to pulled muscles and tendon and ligament problems;
- stomach, gut and bowel problems such as heartburn, gastric reflux, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome;
- elevation in blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dizziness, migraine headaches, cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, and chest pain.
Acute stress can crop up in anyone's life, and it is highly treatable and manageable. This is the time to recognize it and be extremely proactive about dealing with it. Become aware and do not let it progress, because it just keeps getting worse and worse.
Episodic Acute Stress
There are those, however, who suffer acute stress frequently, and whose lives are so disordered that they are studies in chaos and crisis. They're always in a rush, but always late. If something can go wrong, it does. They take on too much, have too many irons in the fire, and can't organize the myriad of self-inflicted demands and pressures which always appear to be competing for their attention. They seem perpetually in the clutches of acute stress.
Such individuals may describe themselves as having "a lot of nervous energy." Always in a hurry, they tend to be abrupt, and sometimes their irritability comes across as hostility. Interpersonal relationships deteriorate rapidly when others respond with real hostility. Work becomes very stressful for such people, and they may turn to food, drugs or alcohol for what they perceive to be comfort and release.
Unfortunately, this is the start of addictions...caffeine, nicotine, uppers, downers, all-arounders, alcohol, food, sex, gambling and just about everything else with a 12 step program. Not good.
The cardiac prone, "Type A" personality described by cardiologists is similar to an extreme case of episodic acute stress. Type A's have an "excessive competitive drive, aggressiveness, impatience, and a continual sense of time urgency." In addition there is a "free-floating, but well-rationalized form of hostility, and almost always a deep-seated insecurity or lack of self esteem. These personality characteristics appear to create frequent episodes of acute stress for the Type A individual who is much more likely to develop coronary heat disease than Type B's, who show an opposite pattern of behavior.
Another form of episodic acute stress comes from ceaseless worry. "Worry warts" ( I call these the "Apocalypse Now "People) see disaster around every corner and catastrophe in every situation. The world is a dangerous, unrewarding, punitive place where something awful is always about to happen. Such individuals also tend to be hypervigilant and tense, with a high degree of anxiety and depression.
The symptoms of episodic acute stress are the symptoms of extended over arousal: persistent tension or migraine headaches, , hypertension, chest pain, and heart disease. Treating episodic acute stress requires intervention on a number of levels, generally requiring professional help, which may take many months.
Often, lifestyle and personality issues are so ingrained and habitual with these individuals that they see nothing wrong with the way they conduct their lives. They blame their woes on other people and external events and are unwilling or unable to take personal responsibility for their lives or their trades. It is always about "Them" or "Those People" who are responsible for the misery and anger. Such individuals are very resistant to treatment, since they can only look outside of themselves and blame others for bad trades, bad lives, bad relationships or health issues.
Chronic Stress
While acute stress ( even the stress of a winning trade or the "hope" that the trade will very shortly be in the black) can be thrilling and exciting, chronic stress is not. Chronic stress ( waiting for the market to turn, waiting for a losing position to "come back," waiting and hoping for anything, can be totally debilitating.
This is the grinding stress that wears people away day after day, year after year. Chronic stress destroys bodies, minds and lives. It wreaks havoc through long-term gradual deterioration of the body, mind, and spirit. It's the stress of the trader who is continually losing, of feeling "trapped" in a position in the markets or in an unhappy situation in the trader's personal life.
Chronic stress comes when a person never sees a way out of a miserable situation. It's the stress of unrelenting demands and pressures for seemingly interminable periods of time. With no hope, the individual gives up searching for solutions, and adopts a mind-set that, no matter is done, there is little or no hope. The worst aspect of chronic stress is that people get used to it. They forget it's there. People are immediately aware of acute stress because it is new; they ignore chronic stress because it is old, familiar, and sometimes, almost comfortable. This is the worst of all possible situations. People keep doing what they are doing, and keep getting what they are getting-- older, more physically ill, more mentally unstable and just plain toxic.
Your reaction to a specific stressor is different from anyone else's. Some people are naturally laid-back about almost everything, while others react strongly at the slightest hint of stress — and most fall somewhere between those extremes. Genetic variations may partly explain the differences. The genes that control the stress response keep most people on a fairly even keel, only occasionally positioning the body for fight or flight. Overactive or underactive stress responses may stem from slight differences in these genes.
Life experiences may increase your sensitivity to stress as well. Strong stress reactions sometimes can be traced to early environmental factors. People who were exposed to extreme stress as children tend to be particularly vulnerable to stress as adults.
What to do about this? I could write volumes, and this is just a tiny taste of the massive amount of knowledge about stress and anxiety and ways to deal with them:
Since stress develops when the demands in your life exceed your ability to cope with them. It follows, then, that you can manage stress by: Changing your environment and your expectations so that the demands aren't so high
Learning how to better cope with the demands in your environment and your expectations for yourself and others
Doing both
Here are some helpful techniques:
Look after your body. It's the only one you have and it is your most valuable resource. To handle stress, your body requires a healthy diet ( if you do not know what a healthy diet is, please write to me?) and adequate rest. Exercise to a sweat at least three times a week, which will help you by via distraction from stressful events and release of nervous energy.
Learn to relax. Relaxation is the polar opposite of the stress response. Deep-breathing exercises are very helpful for relaxation and there are a multitude of different ways to practice deep, mindful breathing.
If you have persistent trouble relaxing, consider taking up meditation or studying yoga or tai chi. Eastern disciplines focus the mind, calm anxieties and release physical tension. Therapeutic massage may also loosen taut muscles, provide lymphatic drainage of toxins and soothe an hyper-excited nervous system.
Shift your outlook. In many cases, simply choosing to look at situations in a more positive way can reduce the amount of stress in your life. Step back from the conflict or worry that is tying you up in knots, and ask what part of it is troubling you the most. Are you afraid of losing something or someone? If so, would it really be that bad? Are you angry or frustrated to the point of losing self-control? If so, is your reaction out of proportion? Take a break, talk to someone you trust and attempt to get a different perspective.
This is so brief, and I have so much more to write about this. But, for now...this may serve to help some of you get in touch with ways to improve your lives and bring some sort of inner calm to what may be the greatest source of damage to you and those you love.
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