We’re all well aware of the most common outcomes of debt from the constant loan rejections, incessant calls from bill collectors and the never-ending stack of late bills and fees that rack up. When you’re experiencing these annoyances in the moment, it’s hard to feel like they’ll ever come to an end. You might not realize it as you move through life, but you’re more than likely dealing with a lot of emotional baggage that you haven’t even begun to think about. The emotional side effects of debt are with you all the time and they could be the cause of a lot of different issues. Sure, owing someone a sizable amount of money is very tough to wrap one’s head around, but you might not even realize the fear and helplessness that’s plaguing you while you live it. Not only is your debt and the emotions tied to it a problem, but you have all kinds of other things going on in your life that only add to the overall pressure you have to work through on a daily basis. You have to be aware of the emotional side effects of debt tolearn the best ways to deal with your emotions.
The Unbearable Stress
The American Psychological Association conducted a study in 2014 that proved that the most common reasons for American adults to stress is because of money woes and pressures at work and when you really look at it, job pressures might ultimately boil down to problems that involve money or fears of not having enough due to losing a job. Now you might be asking: how is debt related to all this? Well, whenever someone has a feeling that they might be falling or pushing themselves “into the red” or negative financial territory, heightened negative emotions come into play. These feelings are more than certain to be stress-inducing and if there’s no plan or forethought in place, you might be liable to buckle under all the burdens.
Not only are the mental implications of stress a lot to handle, but the physical ramifications can weaken the immune system and make you susceptible to all kinds of illness and disease. Stress is one of the biggest causes for disarray in the body and this is one of those emotional side effects of debt that can be potentially deadly.
How you can fix it: Stress usually comes into play when you can’t seem to properly grasp the gravity of a situation at hand. When you can’t think clearly, it’s easy to imagine the worst and wrap yourself up in the illusion. Denial won’t get you anywhere, and it’s important to go after the help that you need when you need it. Know exactly what you need to pay back to get off on the right foot.
The Crippling Fear
Fear can take shape in many different forms but it comes into play most often when you feel that you’ve lost control or you can’t see what’s coming to you in the future time. Almost all kinds of debt become debt for the fact that you’ve done some things to make it so, but watching yourself slip further into the hole with no idea about what’s on the way can be extremely frightening. Fear is one of the emotional side effects of debt that can guide our thinking and decision-making in harmful ways and make us react with unsafe and ill-advised actions. It’s also been hinted that fear could be a big part of the reason that we make financial decisions that aren’t the wisest.
How you can fix it: You can’t do much about the amount of money you owe once the dollars have been spent, but you can place your focus on the range of time that you foresee erasing your debt. Putting a positive spin on your thoughts will push fear farther back in your mind which will make your situation easier to handle.
The Painful Regret
We usually try to forget about most of the decisions that we choose to make that aren’t the smartest. If debt is the problem though, thoughts of regret usually tend to hang around longer than we would like them to. Every time we have to make another payment, all we can think about is the fact that we should have never put ourselves in such a situation. Of course there are some kinds of debts that don’t necessarily qualify as mistakes, but if yours is a mistake, it doesn’t take much to get down on yourself about it.
How to fix it: The only way you’ll ever get over it is by sitting with those feelings and learning from your mistakes. Taking action to ensure that you don’t do the same things again in the future is key.
The emotional side effects of debt can be a lot to bear, but those emotional side effects of debt don’t have to mean the end of your days.