Job Loss

Dear Dr. LeCrone:

Due to a hostile takeover, I was recently laid off from a company where I had been employed as an account executive for 35 years.

I am 60 years old and need several more years of salary and benefits to adequately fund my retirement. My wife and I never dreamed that this could happen to us and didn’t plan any strategies for this catastrophe.

We do enjoy good health and have a strong support network of family and friends, but in spite of this, I am now suffering from a combination of shock, disbelief, depression, anger and anxiety.

At my age, finding another job that pays what I was earning along with my lost benefits is utterly hopeless.

I have been in recovery from alcoholism for many years thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous, but I feel that relapse is a real threat at this time. Where do I start if I am to survive this disaster?

-A reader in Maryland


Dear Reader:

Your first priority should be to go back to Alcoholics Anonymous. Finding solutions to your predicament would be greatly complicated by starting to drink again.

Firmly decide that you can and will move on with your life in a healthy fashion. Resolve that panicking, giving up, losing hope or seeking unhealthy avenues of escape are not options for you.

Next, perform a thorough inventory of your truly important assets, achievements and accomplishments, including your health, friends, family, and, most of all, your wife.

Your next order of business is to start thinking outside of the box for solutions to your future happiness. A carefully chosen financial planning consultant might help you see retirement options that you didn’t know you had open to you. Search the Internet or consider purchasing COBRA for short-term health insurance plans until you turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.

Another option is to take a lower paying job that has health insurance benefits, at least until something better emerges for you.
Re-evaluate what you thought you had to have to successfully retire. Separating needs from wants is an appropriate exercise at this point in time.
A traumatic experience such as the one that you have experienced requires utmost vigilance in caring for yourself.

Proper diet, exercise, good sleep hygiene anf stress management techniques are all important.

Let this career shift be a challenge rather than a tragedy.