How Mental Health and Money Intertwine
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK this week (which I wasn’t actually aware of when I wrote last week’s post about anxiety and money… Finger accidentally on the pulse…) I have, like most people, mixed feelings about weeks like this - they don’t actually mean anything to me really - but I have always suffered from mental ill health, it’s something that I’m deeply interested in and I do think that awareness campaigns have normalised talking about it which can only be a good thing.
Money and Mental Health
The connections here are complex as I’m sure you’ll be aware. Poor mental health can absolutely lead to poor money decisions. Financial stress worsens mental health. And the cycle continues.
Mental ill health can take a toll on how you earn your money, spend your money and care for your money. Money issues can be at the root of some mental illness, or certainly an exacerbating factor. Money, or the lack of it, can be the difference between getting the help that you need or not, and whether you have the time and mental agility to be able to tend to your needs. Money issues are one of the most common causes cited in divorce cases.
There’s a cognitive load to financial worry which can affect somebody’s ability to make appropriate decisions - in life, work, relationships, health - all the biggies. Money is so tied up in safety, security, worthiness, success, status, relationships and it’s also, like mental illness, one of those topics that isn’t easy to talk about. There’s often a lot of shame involved in both of them.
One overlooked factor here is also class. Financial stress hits differently depending on where you started and where you find yourself in life. The common belief is that people from lower-income backgrounds can often have a complicated relationship with money that goes back to childhood scarcity but we can also flip that and appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit and need to succeed that might accompany that.
You can see that this is not just a one way street. It’s really a web of connections and interactions and the balance can be affected by which mental illness we’re talking about, the severity of it, the support networks somebody has in place, what’s going on in the world or anything else!
How Mental Ill Health Might Show Up In Money
This is definitely not a definitive list, of illnesses, symptoms or effects but a start to how these might affect our lives.
Anxiety and Money:
Not opening letters. Not checking accounts.
Thinking about money and making mental calculations all day long.
Feeling unable to spend money now because you need to save.
Depression and Money:
Inertia, unable to make a decision at all.
A lack of hope in the future - what’s the point of saving?
Impulsive spending - anything to cheer yourself up.
ADHD and Money:
Boredom at the thought of reading financial or legal information.
Setting up perfect plans just to forget them two days later.
Spending money on being liked to avoid rejection sensitivity.
OCD and Money:
Reassurance buying - products or appointments that soothe you.
Impact on earning potential when habits affect real life.
A sense of hyper responsibility to make the right decision leading to overchecking things.
Bipolar Disorder and Money:
Excessive generosity - especially during manic episodes.
Impulsive spending during mania and comfort spending during depressive periods.
Regret and guilt about money decisions during active times.
How To Solve Money and Mental Health Problems
That’s a biggie! And not one I’m going to be able to solve here on my own. This week will follow four separate blog posts, and a newsletter, getting into some of the deeper issues in a way I hope will be enlightening including hope, shame, depression and community care.
My go to suggestion for anybody feeling overwhelmed by ‘getting sorted with money’ is to take things slowly - bit by bit - it doesn’t have to be, and it shouldn’t be, 100% effort all the time. It should be 20% effort one day, 1% the next, 49% the next day, 5% for a few days. You do what you can, when you can, and you celebrate what you’ve done. So much of the work of being ‘good with money’ is compounding - opening a LISA and setting up a standing order for a tenner a month might only feel like 10% effort for you on the day you do it but you’ve set yourself up something truly worthwhile there which will follow you like a little twinkle of light that you created - a glimmer, if you will.
Another point is you are worth it. That can be very difficult to distinguish when you’re in the depths but you are as worthy of stability and good financial health as anybody else. I know you wouldn’t wish chaos and stress on other people, so even if you have to pretend that you’re worth it, even if you have to treat yourself well because you know that other people love you, if the only reason you’re doing it is because you’re treating yourself like a pet - do that. It’s worth it. You are worth it.
Finally, for today anyway, taking a step with your financial life is taking a step with your mental health. If going to the doctor feels too much, if having a shower isn’t on the cards, if all you feel able to do today is scroll on TikTok - is there a little 60 second money task that you could do? Check in on your banking app? Pull out one of those lovely journals you bought but haven’t filled out and write a bullet point list of what’s on your mind? Pay a bill? Then get right back into bed knowing that you did a thing which set you up well. Or maybe, you feel inspired to do just one more 60 second thing.
Lots more to come on this,
Love Eleanor. Xxx
