When money becomes a mental health issue and not just a normal concern. Specialist: “This blocks any form of action”

In the current economic and social context in Romania, we all worry about money. It's normal to worry about income, savings and paying bills. Specialists warn that this concern for money can also turn into a clinical problem.

The reality of money and financial anxiety Photo source Pixabay

Financial fears: It's not always about money

The latest study by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology proves how much truth there is in the saying “money doesn't buy happiness, but it keeps it”. The specialists who conducted this study say that basically, when we know we have enough money, we also have freedom.

When our bank accounts show us that our financial situation is good, we get that sense of autonomy, the freedom to choose what we do with our lives. This is the strongest feeling of happiness that people experience in relation to their money.

So personal finances are either a source of happiness or unease. When you don't have enough money, you think about how you will pay the bills, the food, the shoes your child needs.

This worry is experienced most intensely before falling asleep and is referred to by specialists as financial anxiety. It is directly related to freedom, control and autonomy.

How to recognize the symptoms of financial anxiety

Psychologist and psychotherapist Aloma Odogwu, in an interview for Adevărul, talks about how mental health and financial well-being are deeply interconnected. As long as we live in fear of poverty, of lack of money, we enter a vicious circle of fear and self-sabotage.

The expert explains what happens to our mind and body and what causes financial anxiety to turn into a health problem.

“Saddle let's not forget that we are set on survival mode. The mind and body perceive such a state as a threat, like being in a fire and needing to survive. I have these over-worries about money and this fear can become a difficulty when I spend hours checking my balance, when I have insomnia because I'm constantly thinking about money and how I'm going to manage. Rumination, excessive, obsessive thinking blocks me from helping me act, affecting my physical and social quality of life,” says Aloma Odogwu.

The psychologist emphasizes that anxiety manifests itself through a behavioral pattern that is important to pay attention to. You know you are in such a state if you spend hours checking the balance, recalculating the budget, even if the situation has not changed; you wake up at night obsessively thinking about bills and catastrophic scenarios; you give up the doctor, necessary repairs, education, out of fear, avoiding essential expenses.

You're stuck in a decision-making block, you can't change jobs, you can't invest, because “it's too risky”. The clinical manifestations that appear in the situation of anxiety, fear are easy to identify and need specialized help.

“It is important to connect emotions to the body, because they echo inside us and then they can be signals for anxiety. The symptoms I found were tachycardia, irregular heartbeat, restless digestive system, abdominal pain, then insomnia, migraines, constant agitation. These are the generally valid symptoms that anxiety generates, which comes from this excessive fear of our finances, of the lack of money”. explains the psychologist.

Important steps in calming emotions and recalibrating your relationship with money

Financial anxiety can be treated like any other form of anxiety, but with different nuances.

1. Calming the nervous system

“Anxiety is anxiety, because it's about the internal process. It's not like we can push a button and our nervous system says 'done, get out of survival mode.' Whether I'm in a good financial situation or, really, I'm in a financial situation that doesn't allow me to do certain things, the nervous system will react in survival mode. And the first step we have to do is calm the nervous system. When I'm in a panic, in constant running, the body perceives that as on a threat that blocks us from acting differently,” shows Aloma Odogwu.

2. Acknowledging inherited beliefs, the step that helps us to realize that we live according to a learned script, not according to our own values.

3. Cognitive rewriting, i.e. we can rewrite our money story.

“We're talking about the malleability of our brains and our bodies. We're resourceful, we can repair, we can rewrite the story,” argues the psychologist.

4. Financial education combined with therapy

Acknowledging the problem, calming the nervous system and rewriting the story are the first steps to a healthy relationship with money. And when you feel that you cannot do it alone, specialists, both psychotherapists and financial consultants can become allies in this journey.

“Financial education is amazing and I'm very happy to know that there are more and more initiatives. Because often we don't know what to do. On the other hand, we can turn to a mental health specialist if we notice that there is rumination, insomnia, physical quality and the quality of relationships are deteriorating, we stop socializing and sit and just count money.” emphasizes the specialist.

Watch the full interview with Adevărul and learn from psychologist Aloma Odogwu that emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with financial education!