“Financial stress can result in significant mental health disorders … and acutely lead to headaches, heart palpitations, chest pain, weight gain/loss, and problems with your sleep. Over the long term, this can result in high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes, to name a few chronic health conditions. The symptoms are also not mutually exclusive and can actually feed into one another.”
—Judy Wright, MD, JW Health Consulting, LLC
(CMR) While money may not buy happiness, research has shown that there is a relationship between health and money, namely, financial stress and poor physical and psychological health. To put it simply, money provides healthcare, and healthcare is the basis of wellbeing.
Whether or not you want to believe it, your financial life is intertwined with your physical and mental wellbeing. Money is a basic need to survive. When you don’t have a means of survival, it can be compounded into stress.
Chronic stress over time creates not only mental health challenges but also adverse physical reactions such as digestive problems, immune disorders, sleeplessness, and unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Money and mental health have a reciprocal relationship. Namely, negative feelings can translate into spending habits that perpetuate debt. When you’re constantly concerned about money and the ability to pay bills, your body reacts with a trauma response. Poor money habits continue the cycle of negative feelings, making it difficult to improve one without improving the other.
“Financial stress can result in significant mental health disorders … and acutely lead to headaches, heart palpitations, chest pain, weight gain/loss, and problems with your sleep. Over the long term, this can result in high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes, to name a few chronic health conditions. The symptoms are also not mutually exclusive and can actually feed into one another.”
—Judy Wright, MD, JW Health Consulting, LLC
According to Possible Finance, here are 10 ways your finances can affect your health:
1- Depression: Money insecurity can lead to feelings of depression. Often low-income situations lead to a feeling of hopelessness. There's a sense of entrapment when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, and it’s difficult to see further than what’s immediately in front of you.
How to combat: Ask for help from friends or family and seek professional help if the feelings become life-threatening.
2- Anxiety: When you have money concerns, they can often turn into hypervigilance about what could go wrong in every situation. Because you’re not in a position to support emergencies, a single unexpected expense could cause financial ruin and therefore becomes a source of anxiety. That stress, in turn, can lead to nervousness to improve your financial situation and continues a cycle of mental hardship.
How to combat: Don’t ignore money problems. Start with small financial goals and build confidence in your ability to improve your situation.
3- Low Self-Esteem: It’s in our nature to want to provide the basic necessities for ourselves and our loved ones. When we have financial stress, there’s a lack of perceived power and worth.
How to combat: Consider money affirmations to visualize abundance and improve self-worth.
4- Memory Impairment: Financial instability can create memory loss because you tend to be reactive instead of proactive in response to situations. As anxieties and stress come up from different expenses that are difficult to manage, it causes an inability to compartmentalize other aspects of your life.
How to combat: Practice self-reflection regularly. Consider creating a budget to log income and expenses.
5- High Blood Pressure: Consistent stress over time creates tension from high cortisol levels. When these levels are heightened for a prolonged period, they can result in chronically high blood pressure.
How to combat: Practice relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises to reduce hypertension and lower blood pressure.
6- Headaches: Muscle tension from heightened stress can cause headaches and migraines.
How to combat: Hydrate with room temperature water to calm your nerves.
Stress is a reaction to external threats that causes your body to produce adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that prompts increased breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure known as “fight or flight.” This is a reaction that occurs in order to protect ourselves from the proposed threat.
7- Sleep Problems: Insomnia is often a result of feeling out of control, whether with money or otherwise. Additionally, coping mechanisms such as drugs, alcohol, and unhealthy eating can negatively impact sleep quality.
How to combat: Stick to a consistent sleep cycle to improve your day-to-day memory, productivity, and focus.
8- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): Early-in-life stress and abnormalities to your nervous system can lead to IBS. Financial stress can inhibit signals from your brain to your large intestine, causing this gastrointestinal effect.
How to combat: Properly manage your diet, lifestyle, and stress to ease symptoms.
9- Weight Gain: Weight gain is a compound result of multiple financial stressors. Lack of sleep, poor diet, depression, and anxiety can lead to weight gain when not adequately managed.
How to combat: Take at least 15 minutes per day for physical activity and create a healthy diet within your means.
10- Medical Care Avoidance: The rising cost of healthcare has directly impacted those in low-income situations. Nearly one-third of Americans avoid medical care due to the perceived and actual cost.
How to combat: Consider resources for low-income individuals that provide healthcare assistance.
Financial health isn’t about the number of zeros in your bank account, and it’s about how your money management supports your overall life goals. The best strategies to improve health and money address both at once.
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