In this blog post, I discuss the relationship between money and mental health which can be unhealthy for both yourself and your wallet.
Everyone has a different story when it comes to their financial situation and also their mental health. For many, these two factors might never become linked, whilst for some people they correlate far too often to the point where they can’t control it.
Trigger warning: I will be discussing mental health and eating disorders in this blog post.
Emotional spending – mental health and money
You have probably heard of emotional eating, but have you ever heard of emotional spending? What about ‘retail therapy’?
I’m certainly guilty of this and I know that lots of you are too.
If you’re going through a tough time or even a great time, sometimes you might go a little overboard and buy something new when you really didn’t need to. See some examples below of emotional spending and the link between mental health and money:
- Depressive mental state – you buy something to make yourself feel better and give you that ‘pick me up’ feeling.
- Addiction – you have lost control over your spending, possibly due to having a gambling, alcohol or shopping addiction that leads you into debt.
- Celebrations – something good and you’re going overboard with splashing the cash on celebratory thinks or because you deserve it. (it’s fine to treat and reward yourself but there is certainly a difference between buying those shoes you wanted and buying 6 pairs you can’t really afford just because you did well on a test).
Read this blog post on 5 ways to control emotional spending if you’re guilty of emotional spending and want to learn some ways to curb it.
TW: Eating disorders
Did you know that 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder and they are most common in people aged between 14 – 25 years old?*
* Data from www.priorygroup.com/eating-disorders/eating-disorder-statistics.
This blog is all about money – specially saving money. Most of my readers are within the prime age range of those most likely to be affected by an eating disorder, so I thought I’d raise awareness for eating disorders as 25th February 2019 – 3rd March 2019 is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week in the UK.
It’s great to save money wherever you can, I’m a huge advocate of that. What I’m not an advocate for is taking money saving too far, such as to the point where you don’t buy food just to save money – that’s not healthy. If you can afford to feed yourself sufficiently, please do so. There are several ways to save money money on food and I have a dedicated area on this blog for those posts, but not eating or reducing the amount you eat will never be one them! You’re actually more likely to eat more and spend more money on food because you’ll be feeling super hungry by the end of the day/week.
As part of this mental health and money blog post, I was kindly gifted and asked to review a new book, Hope with Eating Disorders: A self-help guide for parents, carers and friends of sufferers by Lynn Crilly (which you can pre-order here). I don’t ever read books but this one I found easy to read because the clear chapters allow you to read the sections most relevant to you or your situation so I didn’t have to concentrate on it for hours on end (phew!).
I had an eating disorder as a teenager so I have first-hand experience with what it’s like and how it can affect your family and friends. This book would’ve been so helpful for those around me when I was going through a tough time.
Hope with Eating Disorders is a book written to help those who are affected by an eating disorder due to someone else having one. It’s written from a personal perspective at points and there are lots of anecdotes and examples from other people too, which makes you realise you’re not alone. See the extensive table of contents below:
Helpful contacts
If you’re suffering with a mental health issue, please reach out and seek professional help. NEVER self-diagnose or try to diagnose somebody else with a mental health issue, leave it to the professionals. Please see this list of mental health helplines for help.
Visit www.nationaleatingdisorders.org for loads of information and resources regarding eating disorders.
I think that this is such an important post! The relationship between money and mental health is too often ignored, and can manifest in so many different ways. My parent’s have been in debt pretty much their whole lives, so for me the possibility of being in debt causes a lot of anxiety; my friends often don’t understand this and make comments like “why do you care so much about money”, I certainly don’t want to be greedy with my finances but I equally don’t want to be constrained by my bank balance!
Thanks for sharing Emma – I agree, we need to talk about it!