Fury, Anxiety of Jobless Grow, Experts Say

Alan Winterbourne was not alone in his rage.

Thousands of long-term jobless Southern Californians are growing angrier and more mentally unstable each day their search for work fails, psychiatrists and job counselors said Friday.

None may be sick enough to snap and vent their frustration at the world through the barrel of a gun. But the number, illness and fury of the region’s long-term unemployed are festering dangerously as the recession drags on.

“There’s very high frustration levels. They’re very quick to anger,” said Bill Souza, who for nine years has run a Ventura employment agency.

“With most of them, it’s unfocused anger,” he said. “They’re nebulous about it--’I’ve been employed 20 years, I worked hard and now look at me, I’m not worth anything.’ . . . I call it economic homicide, and some (newly jobless) can get very vindictive.”

Psychologists and job counselors have no name for the sometimes violent syndrome of unemployment-related depression.

But they say it is growing as layoffs, automation and widespread corporate streamlining put more Southern Californians out of work and keep them jobless longer.

Psychologists are seeing more long-term jobless people than ever before sunk into a vicious cycle of depression, said Mervyn Cooper, president of the American Psychotherapy Assn., based in Santa Monica.

Because their identity is so tightly linked to their jobs, trained professionals fall even harder than most--as the Cal Poly-educated Winterbourne did, Cooper said.

“The more training people have, the more they’re going to suffer” when they can’t find a job, said Cooper, a licensed social worker who specializes in unemployment-related depression. “They may eventually wonder why they were put on this Earth. . . . Some people really do go through decompensation, and they fall apart.”

Unable to find a job, they think less of themselves. They let their grooming and manners falter and eventually give off the air of someone employers would rather not hire anyway, he said.

“The more they are out of work and the phone isn’t ringing and things aren’t happening, their physical appearance starts deteriorating,” he said. “It’s like putting a sign out, saying, ‘Don’t expect too much of me.’ They put up barriers saying, ‘Don’t hire me’ because they don’t feel they have what it takes.”

Their home life can suffer, too.

Single people may find strife growing in their friendships or relationships with relatives and loved ones as their depression deepens, Cooper said. Even if they go back to work, they may put those around them under stress by continuing to live in a state of anxiety, always waiting for the ax to fall again, he said.

In families, Mom or Dad’s job loss becomes the excuse for foul moods, arguments and beatings, said Dr. Richard Reinhart, psychological director of the Ventura County Department of Mental Health.

Single working mothers are increasingly feeling the burden of financial responsibility added to the depression caused by lost jobs, but men are still hit hardest, Reinhart said.

“This is going to sound like a sexist remark, but many, many men feel as though they should be the primary breadwinners in the family,” Reinhart said. “I know that women get depressed when they lose a job, particularly when they’re a single parent--wow, that’s hard. But in couples, when a husband loses a job, it’s much harder on him in terms of the expectations he has of himself.”

Helping anyone who is out of a job can be hard.

“People begin to feel that ‘everyone out there is against me,’ ” said the Rev. Luther McCurtis, a Ventura Avenue minister who runs the Employment Aptitude and Placement Assn.

“A psychologist once told me that when you’re like that, you’re like an animal that’s by the side of the road who’s hurt. He doesn’t care who he bites. Whoever tries to help him, he’ll bite at them,” McCurtis said.

McCurtis said the Winterbourne rampage will make him and the job counselors he employs more careful not to blame the unemployed for their condition.

“We have always tried to be very helpful,” he said. “But after hearing about this incident, this will make us be much more sensitive. Because sometimes we go saying to people, ‘You are unemployed, you are homeless, you are divorced because of what you’ve done.’ And we’ve got to begin to be careful that we help people instead of hurting them.”

The therapists and job counselors agreed that many depressed job-seekers will only continue to fail and grow more despondent unless they summon the courage to get professional advice or support from their peers.

Reinhart, Cooper and Souza recommended that the jobless join support groups through employment agencies or the state Employment Development Department, where they will find strength in knowing they are not alone.

“When you get a group of people who are struggling with the same problem . . . that is such a relief,” Reinhart said. “The successful groups are not just groups that offer people a chance to get out their gripes, but most of them also focus on very practical items such as how to search for jobs, how to write a resume and how to present yourself in an interview.”

Such help will be in more demand as companies strive to downsize, Cooper said.

Even those who are not laid off face harsher pressure at work: Married couples may be assigned to different shifts, or firms that have shrunk may make tougher demands on the employees who are left, Cooper said.

“People feel they either have to work harder to keep their job and are looking over their shoulder in constant fear they’re losing their job,” Cooper said. “If they’re motivated by fear, they’re more likely to become more snappy and easily aggravated . . . They have to keep running faster and working harder, where they should be taking more time, and relaxing to balance out their life more.”

Empathy for Winterbourne ran high Friday among the jobless in Ventura County, who say they battle frustration every day.

Isidro Meza, 28, of Moorpark said he could never see himself imitating Winterbourne’s murderous outburst.

“But you never know,” he said. “Other people are going to go out and do the same thing. It’s scary.”

Frustration often worsens in the face of state Employment Development Department workers who seem not to care, said Lawrence Madison Jr. of Moorpark.

“It builds up animosity in people,” said Madison, a union welder who often deals with the department between jobs. “You got a lot of people out there like that guy in Oxnard.”

Times staff writer Joanna M. Miller contributed to this report.

Depression Warning Signs

Depression caused by long-term joblessness may be more serious than it appears to outsiders, said psychotherapist Mervyn Cooper. He recommends that friends and family help the depressed job-hunter find counseling and support if they spot these warning signs:

* Low self-esteem and feelings of guilt, shame or worthlessness.

* Loss of appetite or lack of sleep.

* Obsessive or compulsive behavior.

* Apathy about getting involved in anything other than job-hunting--or apathy about job-hunting itself.

* Major changes in weight or personal appearance that indicate the person is giving up control of his or her self-image.

“You can walk into a room, and with some individuals, the hair will go up on the back of your neck,” Cooper said. “It makes you feel something’s really wrong, and you have this feeling that that person is going to strike out. . . . Those are things (friends and relatives) should pay attention to. They really shouldn’t ignore those.

“They should say that they are really concerned, and point out the differences they see and try to get (the person) involved in a support group.”

Coping With Depression

For job-hunters who find themselves depressed, psychotherapist Mervyn Cooper recommends:

* Find support. Join a group made up of other job-hunters, where you can learn how to improve your chances for employment and find strength in sharing your experiences with others in the same situation.

* Consider psychotherapy, which can help you work through your depression. Many therapists can serve you at costs matched to your ability to pay.

* Network. Ask everyone you know about possible job contacts.

* Join professional associations to meet others in your line of work who may be able to help with job leads.

* Consider going back to school and training for a new type of work.

* Do not let pride hinder you. “Say, ‘Look, I want to work with this place,’ ” said Cooper, president of the American Psychotherapy Assn. “(Say,) ‘Even if you don’t have a job for me now, I’d be willing to do volunteer work or any kind of work you have if you could use me. . . . I’ll do anything and everything to demonstrate I’m the type who, if you hire me, will be the best you have.’ ”

For information on self-help support groups, UCLA operates the state-funded, nonprofit Self Help Group Support Hotline. Call 800-222-5465 for free referrals.