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Mental health can affect people of all ages and walks of life as it can be triggered by physical, social, environmental and/or genetic factors.

Many people are susceptible to debt but people with mental health problems can have specific problems with money related to their illness. The link between mental health problems and money is well established. Financial strain is a powerful predictor of the onset and longer duration of common mental disorders. It can also make people more vulnerable to psychological stress after major life changes.

Debt is on the increase. There are many people for someone to get into debt from credit cards and store cards to mail order catalogues, from hire purchase to mortgages.

Sometimes people have started work and then it ends suddenly because of mental illness and are left with changes in income that make it more difficult for them to budget and manage on their income. Some people living on benefits with low income have no money to cover one off costs.

Often because of mental illnesses people simply do not claim benefits that they are entitled to. At the extreme end people with mania are known to increase spending when they are ‘high’ and spend money that they do not have.

The debt spiral can start with one missed payment and can eventually lead to letters from collection agencies whose demands are likely to be more intimidating and anxiety-provoking than contact with lenders. The combined pressure of debt and creditor demands can generate enormous stress People become overwhelmed and try to ignore what is happening. It is at this point that mental health can be most affected.

When money problems lead to depression, the downward spiral can be difficult to stop.

Generally when people experience money troubles, the underlying causes and problems are not about the money at all.

Take Liz for example. She shared a flat with her sister Frankie. A lovely lady in her mid twenties with looks to match – long, shiny hair, a figure that every women would envy and a happy, sunny and kind personality. She was generous too and would always think of others by buying gifts, a bottle of perfume here, concert tickets there.

Liz was everyone’s friend and they loved her dearly. But things started changing over the months. Outwardly to her friends she was the same bubbly, outgoing young lady but Allie knew her better. What’s more an awful lot of people were phoning asking to speak to Liz. She never wanted to talk to them and would tell her sister to tell them that she wasn’t in. And what about the pile of letters addressed to her which always remained unopened on the kitchen table?

After a while Frankie began to lose her patience. What was the matter with Liz? She was so moody - always biting her sister’s head off when she was only trying to be caring. And Frankie was even more fed up because Liz was always in the bathroom. In fact she seemed to hog the room! So a row erupted between the girls and Frankie was horrified at what she learnt.

All the phone calls and letters were from collection agencies demanding their money. In her own mind Liz couldn’t believe that people liked her for who she was. So she felt that she had to buy her friends and family presents to maintain a relationship with them. Very soon she had to take out a loan and then another and then another. And there were the two credit cards. Then when the demands from creditors commenced she started to buy herself things as a way of escaping her problem and relieving stress. She was also suffering from bulimia which was an attempt to gain control over her life.. Frankie persuaded Liz to seek medical help. Strangely enough it wasn’t the money problems or the bulimia that the doctor was worried about. Instead she treated Liz for depression. So you see debt wasn’t the problem. It was the symptom of a problem.

The bottom line is that It’s easy to dismiss people who spend more than they can afford as irresponsible, but recent studies have shown that in some cases, the explanation is not quite as simple as this.

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Steve

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