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.”
So my I’ve been watching this Tidy Your Life show on CBC
Probably 80% of the people who are hoarder types come from poverty and they grew up with very little, so they can’t stand to throw things away and the clutter overwhelms their life and things get worse.
But it’s all very logical — you don’t know what you’re going to need but don’t have, so you need to hold on to all these random things, or you see a deal and you might need it later.
That’s just one vignette into people’s lives, but yeah, poverty is mentally awful.
I never lived in poverty but my mom and grandmother did, and I feel huge shame when food expires and I have to throw it out.