Finan­cial prob­lems can arise in many forms, from the plunging economy to the after­math of nat­ural dis­as­ters. We asked Randy Colvin, an asso­ciate pro­fessor of psy­chology at North­eastern, to dis­cuss the psy­cho­log­ical impacts of a looming double-​​dip reces­sion paired with the dev­as­ta­tion caused by nat­ural dis­as­ters such as Hur­ri­cane Irene — as well as ways people can improve their emo­tional health in the face of such stress.