Poverty and mental health present a classic “chicken and the egg” conundrum. Does mental illness hamper economic success? Or do financial failures threaten one’s mental well-being?
Those are the questions a multinational group of researchers sought to answer with a groundbreaking study in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. And the short answer is, yes. The two aren’t just linked; they’re part of a causal relationship.
“This study indicates that certain mental health problems can make a person’s financial situation uncertain,” Amsterdam UMC psychiatrist Marco Boks said. “But conversely, we also see that poverty can lead to mental health problems.”
Therapy costs money
And just because you get a therapist doesn’t mean that you got the right therapist, or a good therapist, or a therapist that is capable of helping you deal with the issues that you’re going to therapy for.
Therapists are human beings and therefore fallible, and the systems that enable access to therapy are designed by human beings and therefore fallible, and many, many people fall through the cracks.