Crisis is a given in the field of journalism. In many ways, it's what makes the profession so exciting. Some people are drawn to the field because of this excitement. But any crisis brings with it stress. Every profession has its occupational hazards, and for journalists, stress is the winner.

Few consider the fact that in the news business, one crisis follows the next. Think back to 2001. Yes, 9/11 was a huge crisis, but look what followed it within a few short months: anthrax attacks, the threat of more terrorism, the Iraq war, SARS, the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, and many other big stories. The stress in this business does not let up. That's something most young journalists have to learn. Bob Schieffer talks about this in his autobiography, This Just In. He says that in 1962 when he covered the riots at the University of Mississippi as James Meredith was being enrolled as its first African-American student, he felt that "...we were covering the story of our lives." But in a year, he was covering the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and many other crises followed that. Consider, for example, the subtitle of David Brinkley's 1995 autobiography: "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News..."

And crises don't have to be the top story to have an emotional effect on you. The routine stories on the news like fatal traffic accidents, shootings, domestic and sexual abuse, and fires, all hold the potential to become stories that haunt you with their graphic details.

It never stops in the news business. As novelist, Michael Connelly, says of police work, "...every case is a battle in a war that never ends." Crises present circumstances that you can't change. The hurricane will hit, wars will happen, terrorists do exist in the world. What you can change is the way that you deal with these events.

In order to continue to cover these crises both big and small, you have to realize that this business is a marathon and not a sprint. Even in a major catastrophe, you have to take care of yourself so that you can avoid burnout. I often tell clients that you have to stay in training to do this job well. Just like an athlete, you have to think about all the ways that you can stay healthy and emotionally balanced.

Staying in training is not just for your benefit either. You have a responsibility to remain focused on the most important part of your job, which is to convey information to the reader or listener in a calm and focused manner. You should never add to a crisis in the way you report it. In radio and television, for example, many times the tone of voice, the rate of delivery, the volume of the voice, and nonverbal communication say more than the words themselves are saying. In a catastrophe the last thing that is needed is for broadcasters to create panic because they are portraying panic. I call it the "Chicken Little Syndrome" when an anchor or reporter makes us think the sky is falling because of his or her panicked delivery.

It doesn't take a tragedy of a huge proportion to call for journalism that is focused and calm in the midst of crisis. No story is insignificant. For someone, it is the most important story they'll ever read or hear. Broadcasters should never be shouting in live shots or rushing a track, and print journalists should avoid inflammatory phrases.

One of the reasons that we fail to respond well to major stresses is because we are not taking care of stress as it happens.  We need to deal with stress on a daily and almost an hourly basis. One Washington, D.C., client told me, after covering 9/11 and the anthrax stories followed by the D.C. sniper a few months later, she felt like she was carrying around a garbage dump of emotions. She was feeling overwhelmed because she had not taken time to deal with all that she had been through. You can't be ready for the next crisis if you haven't dealt with the past one. This might mean journaling about traumatic events or talking them out with someone to be able to get past the feelings.

So how do you deal with the stress of this business and remain focused? I think you have to practice what life coach, Thomas Leonard, calls, "Extreme Self-Care." This includes eating well, staying hydrated, and sleeping a minimum of seven hours a night. It also includes finding ways to process any emotional baggage you're carrying from previous stories. And this has to be a practice that becomes part of your daily life. Think of it this way, you wouldn't start hurricane-proofing your house once the hurricane hit, would you? So you can't start stress-proofing yourself when the stress hits. It's a process that needs to happen all the time.

To be a really good journalist, you must keep yourself healthy and balanced so that no matter what the crisis, you can withstand it and stay focused on your job as a journalist. To borrow the slogan of WETA, the D.C.-based public broadcasting station PBS, you will be able to offer, "In an uncertain world, a steady voice."

Ann S. Utterback, Ph.D. is a broadcast voice specialist and the author of Broadcast Voice Handbook, which can be purchased at www.UtterbackPublishing.com