Some thoughts on how money affects mental health, wellbeing, and quality of life. 

2. 

We talk about scarcity versus abundance mindset like it’s a millennial hack. It’s not. 

Very simply, when a scarcity mindset dominates, our relationship with money is dictated by fear rather than fulfilment. And consequently, that leads us to make poorer purchase decisions and injures our saving habits, among other financially damaging actions.

On the other hand, an abundance mindset is based on the belief that there’s plenty out there for everyone: money, opportunities, resources or love. These resources are not finite; they do not deplete if one person has more of them. This way of thinking allows you to be open to possibilities, options, and alternatives because you don’t feel insecure about losing out on their limited reserves. For instance, we all know that if you don’t make some investment in your business, you will not be able to grow it. A scarcity mindset will tell you that money should not be spent and that marketing expenses are frivolous. A healthy, abundance mindset will push you to make judicious investments and in turn, reap rewards in exponents of what you spend. 

Now, my question to you is simple: how do you expect someone born in a financially tumultuous household to feel comfortable spending money, even if they are earning decently enough to sustain themselves now? How can you expect someone who grew up eating out only once a year to suddenly get comfortable with the idea that money will never run out, even if you are allowed to spend and #TreatYourself. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pinches hard, but even harder pinches the default response of hesitation in making purchases. On the other hand, the response could be another extreme: spending in alarming quantity because of the fear that the resources available today may not be available tomorrow. 

The difference between a healthy financial relationship and an unhealthy one is this fear. It’s what I like to call a financial cushion, which I learnt is referred to as generational wealth. When you come from a family that had even an average flow of consistent money, your relationship with money is healthy: your mother teaches you to be frugal, your father leads by example. Then, one fine weekend, both your parents decide it’s a day you are allowed to indulge: a better ice-cream parlour, a high-rated restaurant, branded shoes instead of mass-market ones…it teaches you to reward yourself every now and then. For those without resources, none of these experiments pans out. For someone living from hand to mouth, these lessons have no place or priority. 

3. 

Access to decent financial resources can prevent suicides.

For those wondering in disbelief, I’m not exaggerating or hyperbolizing here. I come bearing proof. For the purposes of this argument, let’s time travel to Brazil in 2003. The then-president, Lula da Silva introduced a conditional cash transfer programme called the Programa Bolsa Família (PBF). The conditions for cash transfer included practices like sending children to school, or timely & proper vaccination of children. The idea was to reward actions that feed into a cycle of socio-economic health and, by extension of these transfers, wealth. This led to a drop in the number of people living below the poverty line.

A study by a group of global health and medicine experts investigated the effect of Bolsa Familia, the world’s largest conditional cash transfer programme, on suicide rates in some parts of the Brazilian population. Here’s what it found:

“Individuals who were BFP beneficiaries had a 61% lower suicide rate than non-beneficiaries. While there is no ultimate guarantee that the association is causal, the robustness of the findings strongly suggests this claim can be made. Cash transfer programmes play an important role in poverty reduction, and improvements in the beneficiaries` well-being, potentially protecting individuals from becoming a victim of suicide. These findings are important considerations when designing suicide prevention strategies. They could be especially important when the upcoming financial recession will place millions below the poverty line and cause rising unemployment levels, with associated adverse consequences.”

Another study explained that higher minimum wages are linked to reduced suicide rates. While suicide is a layered, complex policy issue, interventions like these can contribute immensely to reducing the alarming rates. In order for people to flourish, they need to be shown, through actionable steps, that living isn’t going to be hard. 

In simple words, when people are not combatting the strains of economic hardships, they are less likely to be driven into suicidal ideation. Sure, life throws challenges at us all. In the case of many such challenges, when people have financial resources to deal with the affliction, they are not driven to a psychological place of despair and dejection. Instead, they can allocate resources toward solving the issue at hand. 

Besides, if you have the basic resources at your disposal, you can prevent a substantial number of such problems, if not all, in the first place. This is the unspoken grief my depressive episodes of 2016 were rooted in. When I first mustered the courage to reach out and seek therapy, I was in for a bitter reality check. Therapy is an expensive affair. Part of what prompted my decision to seek therapy was the distress caused by my financial situation. The rates at which quality, consistent therapy was available meant that I had a choice: either I can save money to salvage the financial turmoil I was in (read: I was trying to fund my education) or seek expensive therapy sessions that are normally a long-term investment, rarely relying on quick fixes if your therapist is any good. I wasn’t alone in this realisation, as multiple reports have shown. 

Student debt also reportedly drives people to experience suicidal ideation. It's because debt can be a constant knife over your head. It is a slippery slope: your debt can become your entire identity. It can take over all the other aspects of your life, and govern and redirect all your resources and decisions. I know, because I’ve been there.

4. 

Financial hardship changes you as a person.

The knife of financial hardship cuts deep. If point 3 didn’t make it clear, it can alter how you view life. Optimism, then, is a function of your financial standing. In her fiercely honest account of therapy, I want to die but I want to eat Tteokbokki, Baek Sehee writes, “When life becomes something one just lives through, when the demands of survival take up all of our time and effort, leaving no strength for any other demands, and when time rushes by drying up or rotting whatever we have had to neglect, expecting someone to carry on being the same is truly too much of a burden.”

5. 

As if it's not enough I’m poor, the system is rigged to make it worse for me.

The failings of my life are actually failings of a system that refuses to acknowledge financial wellbeing as a major component of life quality and as a determinant of mental health support and knowledge available to a person. 

Instead, the system sets poor people up for failure. At its worst, it accords the blame of poverty on the victim; at its best, it extends healthcare resources without practical access for the intended beneficiaries. Poverty deprives a person from having some crucial formative experiences that only come from socializing with others…all of which can come with hidden costs that financially functional families or households aren’t even counting.

6. 

Financial Wellbeing Doesn’t Just "Solve"; It Can Potentially Prevent Issues Altogether

For many sections of the population, financial independence and financial stability can be highly empowering, a strong force in swaying them towards hope. This is because financial well-being has a ripple effect.  Being financially stable and sufficient directly implies that you can afford to tke risks, make mistakes, learn from them, and try again. For someone with no or limited resources, experimenting or taking risks just isn’t an option. 

Our mental health does not operate in silos, it is very much impacted by our environments — physical, social, economic. If either of these environments is being disturbed by negative experiences, it can directly impact our mental well-being. Therefore, poverty, inequality, and discrimination place some people at a much higher risk compared to others not subject to these living conditions. 

Cover Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash

Written by Kritika Narula

Kritika Narula is an Advisor-Member of the Lived Experience Committee at Generation Mental Health. She’s a journalist and content strategist based in Delhi, India. She can be reached at @KritikaTweeting and @kritika.narula