By Helen Lee
December 14, 2009
This year, a more balanced perspective on gift-giving, and a newly discovered respect for "Scroogenomics," is saving my Christmas.
If you're a middle-class parent with a senior graduating from high school this year, you've probably been deeply involved in the frantic world of college acceptance. You've been sweating it out with your kid as he awaits that all-important letter from his school of choice. You've played the role of the patient counselor, but the truth is you're just as anxious as your young college-student-to-be.
As the recession continues to devastate our economy, one of the few professions benefiting from the downturn is the mental health industry. This sad irony is highlighted by media reports of suicides related to people's financial situations. One Johns Hopkins University sociologist has even calculated that for every 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate, there's an additional 47,000 deaths from suicides, heart attacks, homicides, and alcohol consumption.
