When 26-year-old Lisa DeLeon had to move back to her hometown in Nebraska after spending years living a fun but financially reckless lifestyle in New York City, she felt like a failure. She didn’t have money for a new place or even for the plane ticket to make it there, but with her nanny job ending and no way to pay New York rent, her grandfather dying and her parents going through a divorce, she knew home was where she needed to be.
“When I came back, I would see people I went to school with, married and doing well — doing things I thought I would be doing at that age — and I was living with my parents and working part time,” says DeLeon, now 36. Careless spending on the East Coast paired with a few hospital bills after returning home left DeLeon awash in debt, with seemingly no way to get out.
Financial stress is far from unusual. Stress in America, a recent report from the American Psychological Association, shows that among more than 3,000 adults surveyed in 2014, 72 percent reported feeling stressed about money within the previous month. About half reported having no emotional support and feeling depressed because of that stress.
Coping With Financial Stress
DeLeon acknowledges that her coping method was flawed. She didn’t pay bills (she didn’t have the money), and her growing depression meant she didn’t have the motivation — so she didn’t even try.
“I was so buried, I didn’t even know where to start,” she says. “I felt like I was cowering in a corner, telling myself it was going to be OK only so I could continue to sit in that corner and not do anything about it. I was trying to talk myself into doing better and feeling better, but I wasn’t acting on any of it.”
Without realizing it, DeLeon had stumbled into a cycle of financial stress and depression, with each essentially feeding into the other. The lack of motivation and confidence common in depression leads to further inability to address financial stressors, which only worsens your financial situation.
Whether financial stress is brought on by a specific event, like losing your job, or a combination of factors, psychiatrist David Reiss of Rancho Santa Fe, California, suggests there are three triggers that can send someone from stress to depression.
“One is the fear of the future,” Reiss says. “This is the practical side of financial stress: How will I pay my bills? What’s going to happen?” Second, and “even more significant when talking about the progression to depression, is the feeling of failure, where people feel they are unable to support their family, or they are letting others down, leading to a tremendous sense of guilt.”
Finally, Reiss says, there is the feeling of letting yourself down. In the case of a job loss, for instance, it’s the loss of identity, or the feeling of not being successful enough, not measuring up to one’s own expectations.
Any one of these could spiral into depression, but Reiss says it’s typically a combination of all three.
Recognizing When It’s Not Just Stress
Still, not all stress leads to depression. The latter is a maladaptive response to the former. Reiss, who has worked with the California workers’ compensation system for 25 years, says he differentiates a healthy response to financial stress and one that may need psychological treatment according to how the person recovers.
“If a person’s not sleeping, not eating, not taking appropriate actions to do what they need to in order to get back on track, that’s where evaluation and treatment is useful,” he says.
In the case of losing a job, for instance, emotions and daily life will obviously be disrupted, but after a few weeks, most people begin to bounce back. If they don’t begin dusting themselves off and rebounding from the initial setback, it could indicate a more serious problem.
But Reiss says there’s an even bigger sign that someone needs help: when their condition turns physically dangerous.
Financial Stress Can Be Lethal
DeLeon’s condition culminated with a suicide attempt in 2005. She had held prior suicidal thoughts at bay, knowing the utter despair would lift, even if just slightly, the next day. But this time, she didn’t put up a fight, taking more than 70 pills, a combination of Flexeril and Benadryl.
“I was in a medically induced coma for three days. I remember coming out of it when they pulled the tube out of my throat,” she says.
Of course, DeLeon’s experience is not the norm. But for people in the throes of depression brought on or merely worsened by financial stress, the risk for self-destructive behavior is real. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there were more than 40,000 deaths by suicide in 2013, the last year for which data is available.
Like DeLeon, Americans suffering from depression may be too proud or too scared to ask for help, but resources are available for people under the heavy weight of money stress and its emotional effects.
Finding Help
If you’re fortunate enough to have health insurance, it’s likely that your policy covers mental health treatment, an ” essential benefit” that’s included on all compliant plans under the Affordable Care Act.
But if your financial situation means you’re living without coverage, you’ll have to get creative with your treatment.
Reiss says public mental health systems are available, but they are typically backlogged. He suggests contacting local universities, which often have free or low-cost counseling and mental health services. Also, consider support groups through your community center or church. Finally, if you qualify, Medicaid covers mental health treatment.
DeLeon was introduced to the psychiatrist she credits with saving her life when she was in the hospital. She now takes antidepressant medication to manage her depression, is working full time and feels “like a normal person again.”
“I’m paying on my debt, and even though I still have bills coming in that maybe I forgot about during that period, it’s easier now,” she says. “I have regular paychecks, my own place, money in a savings account and my fiancé and I are saving for our wedding in 2016.”
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The Dark Link Between Financial Stress and Depression originally appeared on usnews.com
