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.”
I literally have PTSD from a decade of struggling in extreme poverty and can’t sleep most nights, I can’t look forward to anything and can’t enjoy anything because everything feels like it can be lost or taken away at any moment, and instead of enjoying good moments, I can only fixate on things that can go wrong and things that could help me if I lose everything. Again.
I’ve been in and out of therapy for this and for other issues, and have gotten a lot better but this is permanent scarring, if you’ve been harmed by society, that harm lasts as strong and as real as actual physical wounds.
I feel that so much. I’ve improved after about 5 years of proper stability since finding a wife, but it still shows in minor ways.