Bipolar & Money

BobbyJJK wrote: »

Hi, I am bipolar and suffer from a borderline personality disorder and PTSD, like most people with these conditions, I have very poor impulse control. When things are very bad, during a manic episode for example, I can dissociate and spend money on anything, sometimes I don!!!8217;t even open parcels when they arrive, and weeks or months later I will find items I!!!8217;ve purchased that I have no recollection of, and obviously this is disastrous for my finances, and can lead to major debt problems. I just wondered if anyone else had similar problems and found a way of dealing with it, either buy not being in charge of your own finances, or therapy/medication that helped with the impulsivity. Is it ever a good idea to hand control of your finances to someone else ? Is it ever advisable to put your money in a relatives bank account, so that you don!!!8217;t over spend ? I would welcome any advice.

Do you have a CPN or care manager? This is something they can organise, setting up an appointee and giving you spending money, making sure your bills are paid.

But not something I!!!8217;d personally do with a relative given relationships can change and what happens if you have an argument or is that just my family!

Hi, my brother has schizophrenia and got himself into around 7k of debt through catalogues and payday loans so I have been helping him. He was robbing peter to pay paul with pay day loans and being hounded with calls. It was only the fact that they were calling my Dad endlessly (who was then calling me) that gave me an insight into how bad his situation was. Now he is with step change thanks to the suggestion of his support worker and gentle encouragement. I can understand how hard it is to budget as he has found it hard since his benefits were changed from weekly to monthly, plus there is a lot more week for him to get through as he isn't working. I persuaded him to have all his benefits paid to me, and I now pay his DMP and other bills, divide the rest and send him a standing order twice a week. I don't mind doing it although I should have used a dormant bank account (will change it eventually) as I've still got my own finances to keep track of. We set the amounts based on a budget but it was a bit of trial and error and we had to change the days as apparently it was hard to make money last four days : ) I think he is getting into the habit of watching the pennies more now as he has stopped asking for advances. And no more pay day loans : ) It's not a permanent plan - more a solution to the current debt problem. I agree it does take a sympathetic family member. Sometimes family don't know and can be more supportive than you think if you tell them the problem and what you need help with. Maybe it could be part of an temporary emergency crisis plan i.e. when you know you are about to spiral, while you get back on track.


I would imagine cognitive behaviour therapy would be helpful as it's good for dealing with specific problems and changing thoughts/behaviours, although it depends if they will fund it for you. Your doc can refer you.


While helping my brother I also found out is that there is a term called 'lacking capacity'. Basically if a company knew you 'lacked capacity' to make a decision e.g. have a mental illness, but gave you credit then you might not be liable. I don't know how you this would work in practise (how would they know unless you told them?) but I did use it to get my brother out of another mobile phone contract he had defaulted on. They very kindly cancelled it, more as a good will gesture, though it was only £15 a month. I also found our that you can, I believe, have a note put on your credit file to say that you lack capacity and should not be given credit, although you'd need to check it could be removed if you wanted to.


To be honest, half the battle is recognising it so you're more there than you think. If online shopping is your weakness, there might be some helpful threads on here on kerbing it. I found deleting all my card details saved on online sites to be helpful. Talking about is good too.


Good luck