Depression and Finances: Socioeconomic Status
Posted on May 16, 2008 by Him and tagged depression, finances
First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their support and warm comments regarding my newly diagnosed depression. I'm still learning much about it and how to effectively treat it, and welcome your stories and comments.
My psychiatrist gave me a document that outlines depression, from the etiology to risk factors to complications to treatments. It is an interesting and eye-opening read, and is also available on the web. In it, I found an interesting tidbits on depression and social/economic status:
The role of society and economics has specific implications for women. Being in a low socioeconomic group is a major risk factor for depression in anyone. Money, of course, allows greater access to good medical care, but this factor does not fully explain the higher rates of depression in impoverished people. People at any income level are likely to be depressed if they have poor health and are socially isolated. Some studies suggest that Western cultural attitudes that link income to social status may play a significant role in the connection between poverty and depression:
- In one British study, actual poverty or unemployment increased the duration of any existing depression, but it did not appear to play any important causal role. Feelings of financial insecurity, however, both caused and prolonged depression.
- Another study reported that Mexican adults who immigrated to America had half the psychiatric illnesses as did Mexican-Americans born in the U.S., regardless of their income. But the longer the immigrants lived in the U.S., the greater their risk for psychiatric problems. Traditional influences of Mexican culture and social ties appeared to protect newly arrived immigrants from mental illness, even when they were poor. Eventually, however, the consequences of Americanization added to poverty and led to feelings of alienation and inferiority.
It is indeed interesting how finances and social/economic status contributes to mood. When Her realized that she was on the path to financial hell, she suffered from anxiety and loss of sleep. Since we've managed to clean up our financial act, she sleeps much more soundly.
Her and I have seen how finances affects our moods both ways: Our finances have affected our mood, and our moods have affected our finances. Hopefully we will be able to get all of this in check.
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I'm glad you're open and honest about your depression diagnosis. I've been depressed, and it's something I struggle with on a regular basis. So I hope you overcome it, and emerge stronger, better and happier :)
Been there and have come out the other side. I suffered the same anxiety while my husband suffered with his depression, and we were both in therapy (together and separately) for 1 year. Things are so much better now, both emotionally and financially, and we have a much stronger marriage. Keep working on it, one day at a time, and I know that you and Her will be just fine.
Thank you very much for bringing awareness to this cause. My wife is involved with a local "moms" group and one of the discussions that keeps coming up among the group is the feeling of being "isolated" from other adult interaction and how it wears them down mentally not having that interaction.
Maria @ Financial-Tip | May 26, 2008
This explains why some family members who never found financial peace struggled with depression... at least, that might have been a contributing factor.
Kudos to you for sharing this with your readers. I am somewhat skeptical of studies about socio-economic factors and depression. The criteria for diagnosing depression are fairly stringent, but there are many kinds of depression, and there is also the fact that since stigma remains (right or wrong) rich people are more able to choose not to disclose their depression, whereas for poor people it is more likely to be a matter of public record, public medicine being their only real treatment option.
KB | May 19, 2008
Boy, I really give you credit for making your struggles with depression public. I prefer the more stoic approach, holding in my feelings so may family won't know how much our money struggles affect me. Sadly, it's that same approach that caused my brother-in-law to take his own life due to a failed business, too much debt, etc. So, your approach sounds much healthier, all the best!
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