Debt and Mental Health - How have your debts affected you?

Bossofmoney

Sleepless nights, depression, struggled to get out of bed but the absolute worst part was the mood swings. One day i just decided id had enough. Looked online for inspiration, wrote a small list of goals and started working on them. Got through them all and made more challenging, longer term goals. Kept repeating that. Started small with no days in bed. Hour of fresh air a day on non work days. Keeping good hygiene and a tidy house. Small things all add up.

Now on my journey i feel iv walked miles to get to the bottom of a mountain. The only way is up.

Practice

immoral_angeluk said:

I have chronic depression and anxiety, and was in debt from the age of 18 as soon as I could get a credit card. Over the years as relapses have come and gone, the debt has fluctuated with it. The lower I get, the more I'm likely to spend recklessly on things to try and cheer myself up without thinking of the consequences (Such as a buying holiday on the credit card). The more anxious and 'hyper' I get, the more I'm likely to 'panic buy' things (like non urgent car repairs, new carpets, etc).

Mental health and debt go hand in hand. Money has such a stronghold on our lives, it's only natural to expect that it would affect our financial lives as well. It's a trap. On the one hand you have the viscious cycle of mental health, and on the other you have the viscious cycle of debt. They work together to create a perfect storm of emotional, physical and financial chaos that can make things 10x worse if you are not careful.

Mental health is a very complex area, and the psychology of mental health and debt has been looked at before, but it's only really when you've lived it and been in that hell that you can truly appreciate what a desperate situation it can be.

I've got friends that have a very similar story.  It's very difficult.  I try to help them, and maybe they get a little traction, then they do what you wrote and run up their debt to make themselves feel good.  It seems to me this definitely is tied to mental health and I think that mental health is tied to physical health.  So maybe try to get your physical health better first?  Try exercising, eating whole foods, and getting 8 good hours of sleep.  If you feel your making your physical health better, then maybe try your mental/financial health.

Princess1996

Hi all

I’m wondering whether anyone can help me and give me advise with an IVA.

Currently I am 24 and have £17,500 in debt (loan for debt consolidation, credit cards, very account) and at my age I’m really panicking because I’m worried I won’t be able to get a mortgage in the future with my partner.

We have been together for 5 years this year and I was hoping to start saving for a deposit soon, however because my monthly outgoings are so high, I don’t feel as though I can put money to a side without being completely ‘skint’.

I went onto the National Debt Management page and applied for help to see what my options were. The lady who I spoke to was lovely, really helpful and didn’t judge me one bit which made me feel at ease. The best option for me that we discussed was an IVA over 5 years, after this, whatever debt was left would be wiped clean. My only hesitation to this is I know it will be on my credit file for the 5 years but will I be okay after this to look to get a mortgage? Also I will be 29 when this ends so I don’t know if that’s classed as too late to be moving out from my parents house?

Obviously my debt is causing me to have massive anxiety issues and I constantly feel stressed but I have a problem with spending and buying new clothes!

Any advice would be welcome!

tkdally

I had poor mental health on and off for years (decades) which caused me problems managing my money therefore I went into debt. So kind of the opposite of the question posed when this post was first created - the debt didn't cause poor mental health, poor mental health caused the debt.

After many years of suffering with bouts of wellness and illness I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. When I am manic I spend money because there are so many things I feel that I NEED and so many things I WANT to do. When I am depressed I spend to make myself feel better. When an episode passes I look back and the carnage in my bank account is really shocking. It has left me with a feeling of dread for when the next episode comes and what damage I might do to my finances.

Anyway, thanks to medication and the support of mental health specialists I have been feeling better for quite some time now. I still have occasional episodes but they are nowhere near as extreme as they used to be. I recently made the decision to invest in counselling to help me deal with the difficult emotions around my diagnosis and money, as well as a number of other things, and through that I gained the courage to take a close look at my bank accounts, my income and expenditure and start considering how I can repay the debt in a realistic way. Arguably the money that I'm spending on counselling would be better spent on repaying debt  (I had to go private there were no NHS services that were appropriate for me) however counselling is leaving me in a better place throughout all aspects of my life that I feel that short term 'pain' of spending money on counselling will be worth the long term gain. Now I have a realistic monthly budget, I am tracking my spending and I am seeing that I really am capable of being 'good' with money. I am not naturally 'bad' with money, it's just that sometimes my mental health causes me to less 'good' for a while, but it won't last forever.

Whilst I could be attacking my debt more aggressively if I wasn't paying for counselling, now that I have a more clear view of my finances I am able to service the debts month-to-month i.e. minimum payments or fixed amounts agreed with creditors. This will eventually get me to a point where I am no longer in arrears and that will feel like such an achievement. Once my counselling is complete then that money will instead go to debt.and then my journey to being debt free will gain speed. I am desperate to settle my CCJ!!!

I just wanted to share some of my story in case it helps anyone not to feel alone. Your ambitions to be debt free, or more in control day-to-day, or have enough money to go on holiday, may have to wait because of poor mental health but that doesn't mean that you will never get there. There are others that have been in a similar position to you so reach out for support, whether that's from a family member, friend, mental health specialist, debt adviser, this forum, or any other way you can think of. If you ask for help you will receive it.

alt80

Last few days hardly sleeping / can't concentrate on work and I've had a panic attack. I run my own business so need to get in a better mindset. All started when I saw the figures in black and white on my soa. I suppose the realisation I've been kidding myself for a long time. I remortgaged my btl portfolio due to personal debt previously now its all I can think about that I leveraged that to the max to deny I had a problem. Ashamed doesn't cover it tbh.

hilalm84

During this covid period.. it has been stressful with debt but managing to spend money in the right areas has helped..

Uniscots97

I was given notice of redundancy a few weeks ago. Trying not to stress about it but definitely needed my inhaler more. 

BadDebtor

Debt is a massive cause of mental health problems, it does not help that it seems never ending, many on this site will attest to how companies get back door CCJ's on post 6 year debt  which cost £300 to deal with only to have the stress and pressure start over from it being sold again.

Even debt post bankruptcy is chased and sometimes a CCJ sought

I think one solution is to increase the £20k limit on DRO's to £50k or even £100k 

The debt recovery industry operate some extremely sharp practices and we need huge fines to stop this behaviour or penalties payable to the people they are harassing.

I think the whole industry needs licensing and I think that the lenders have to take responsibility for irresponsible lending.

It is now that we have this pandemic that a lot more people are falling off the ladder.

Like I did they are probably servicing debt like mugs, keeping the debt alive when they have no hope of paying it off.

The problem is we all believed we would come through financial problems and start over and we availed ourselves to debt we were offered when there really was no hope.

I think this will domino to so many people who will experience serious mental health problems and some will take their own lives.

Maybe with so many people being affected someone in Government will say "there has to be a better way".

gozzer

Hi all - not sure if this is posted in the correct place, so here goes and am sure you lovely people will point me in the right direction....
My wife who suffers from chronic depression and sometimes cannot cope with the day to day, hence I look after all budgetting and bills etc so as not to expose my wife to any more than she can cope with.  To cut a long story short my wife lost her long term job back in 2009 due to various illnesses. She relies on ESA, however I do work fulltime (when not furloughed).

Help/guidance needed on the below if at all possible.
1. We had on 1st February received a letter from Capquest to advise one of my wifes old credit card debts (c£3k) is now being managed by DrydensFairfax. Bear in mind we had a payment arrangement in place with Capquest for £1 per month. This has been in place since 2010. Drydensfairfax also sent a letter on 1st Feb advising taking over account.
2. Drydensfairfax sent a 2nd letter on 10th Feb requesting that we make payment arrangements as there are none set up. At this point, my mum had passed away on the 4th Feb and had been very ill since Dec, so my eye was firmly off the ball.
3. 4th March I received a 3rd letter from Drydensfairfax advising that this letter is in accordance with 'Pre-action protocol' and have 30 days to respond.
These guys seem to be playing hardball and not sure what to do. The debt is old with account open in 2003, we have paid significant debt sums off over the last 10 years, this was the least concerning and had never been an issue until now. 
What is my best course of action? Do I issue them with a CCA request just to be awkward? Do I make a ridiculous settlement offer? What would you guys do? Kind regards Ian

PiPi2019

All i can say is that debt makes alcohol more appealing, especially with the anxiety and stress that accompanies it.