The kids are running around the house. The phone is ringing. You are trying to do ten things at once and it just isn't working!

You're going crazy.

What do you do? Yell for your spouse? Not if you're a single parent. Right now there's no help, no advice and no support. With those odds stacked against a single parent, the result might be "role overload," says Janice Denehy, a retired professor in the University of Iowa College of Nursing.

"Energy crises" are an occupational hazard for all parents when dealing with their children. But acting as both mother and father puts undue stress on single parents, Denehy says, and they may eventually "pull back in exhaustion, unable to manage it all."

Statistics show there is a growing phenomenon of one-parent families, nearly 90 percent of which are headed by single mothers, she says. As they struggle to provide for their children, single parents may neglect their own needs, Denehy says, and their physical and mental health can slide away. Single parents are often plagued by depression, low self-esteem and, as a by-product of their scrambling to survive, poor health.

"The personal needs of your family cannot be met if your own needs aren't being met," Denehy says. Conditions in single parent households can jeopardize elements of the family atmosphere such as love, trust, support, and encouragement, she says. "How can single parents transmit values if they're tired after working all day and the children have been in day care? If parents are struggling and suffering, it will affect the children's attitudes."

Denehy says single parents can turn to health care professionals who will help them locate resources, both internal and external, both private and professional, to deal with their problems. "Good health is a hidden resource we all have but don't recognize until it's gone," she says. "It's easy for single parents to overlook their own health needs, particularly when they're concerned about their children and when they only have a limited amount of money."

Denehy suggested that single parents, either by themselves or in cooperation with health care professionals, examine their own diet, energy, and exercise patterns and learn about health and childcare services.

Although it will never be an easy road, Denehy says the single parent can suceed if they progress slowly and steadily. By making small, realistic lifestyle changes, single parents can work toward concrete benefits for the entire family.