Is losing money traumatic?
Financial hardships and losses can have a lasting impact on mental health, causing trauma, stress, anxiety, and even suicide. Financial trauma affects relationships, self-esteem, and decision-making. It is important to talk about financial struggles and seek support to cope with such trauma.
Trauma is when we experience very stressful, frightening or distressing events that are difficult to cope with or out of our control. It could be one incident, or an ongoing event that happens over a long period of time. Most of us will experience an event in our lives that could be considered traumatic.
Recently, psychological research scientists have presented evidence that stresses surrounding your finances—or financial traumas—can actually create the same negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are more commonly connected with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).
Practice self-compassion: Honor your financial traumas and how they may have impacted you emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Stop self-blame and harsh self-judgment. View past challenges as opportunities for learning, growth, and increased resilience.
Physical injuries are among the most prevalent individual traumas. Millions of emergency room (ER) visits each year relate directly to physical injuries.
Current research has shown that monetary loss shares common neural bases with pain. We found that monetary loss and pain, whether physical pain or social pain, engaged overlapping neural regions.
What Is Loss Aversion? Loss aversion in behavioral economics refers to a phenomenon where a real or potential loss is perceived by individuals as psychologically or emotionally more severe than an equivalent gain. For instance, the pain of losing $100 is often far greater than the joy gained in finding the same amount.
In the event of particularly severe losses, and even possibly with those that do not threaten one's financial survival, there are cases in which people suffer from depression or even despair.
People face emotional hardships because they are unable to get a job or earn as per their expectations. Shame and avoidance are another result of financial trauma. People who lose their hard-earned money in business and gambling, often end up being in guilt and not being able to talk about it, said Dr Kakoli Roy.
Money dysmorphia can also mean feeling insecure and unstable despite having plenty of money in savings or being in a stable position because it's more about how you see yourself than the real life numbers.
What does financial trauma look like?
One telltale sign of financial trauma is money avoidance, Dr. Melkumian said. In other words, some traumatized people might refuse to create a budget, open their bills or discuss their finances. Avoidance can also mean neglecting to spend when you should.
Poverty trauma maybe considered as Complex Trauma if a person experiences different trauma over time, for example experiencing a childhood trauma and then experiencing poverty later in life. Poverty trauma can develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Neglect and psychological, physical, or sexual abuse. Natural disasters, terrorism, and community and school violence. Witnessing or experiencing intimate partner violence. Commercial sexual exploitation.
Objective: To examine relationships between 5 types of childhood trauma (witnessing violence, physical neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse) and an aggression score based on 21 self-reported aggressive behaviors in adulthood.
The lifetime prevalence of PTSD for women is 10% to 12%, compared to 5% to 6% for men. This disparity is in part due to the fact that women and men experience different types of trauma and at different times in their lives, according to the study.
No one type of trauma is “worse” than another. You can even experience the same type of trauma—or even the same event—as someone else and have different reactions to it. If something hurts you, it hurts, and your natural emotional reaction is valid. It can be helpful to think about “big T” trauma and “l*ttle t” trauma.
Complex Trauma. Complex trauma refers to experiencing chronic trauma with long-term emotional and physical symptoms. This kind of trauma may be the most severe- it can ultimately affect someone's development and sense of safety in the world.
The stress of debt or other financial issues leaves you feeling depressed or anxious. The decline in your mental health makes it harder to manage money. You may find it harder to concentrate or lack the energy to tackle a mounting pile of bills.
Financial stress can trigger or worsen mental health conditions for some people. If you are feeling depressed or anxious about your situation, it's important to seek support to reduce the risk of this happening.
at a loss bankrupt behindhand defaulting delinquent in arrears in debt in dire straits in hock in the hole insolvent nonpaying to the bad unprofitably.
How do I stop thinking about my lost money?
Focus on nurturing self-care and prioritizing your health. Educate yourself on ways you can manage your financial stress through breathing exercises, working out, meditation, drinking lots of water, sleeping more, spending more time doing the things you love, and being with people who make you happy.
“While there is no known singular cause for chrometophobia, real experiences around a significant loss of money with related hardships and trauma may be related,” said Peters. “Some people may even have experienced food or housing insecurity during childhood, or in their family history.
Chrometophobia is an irrational fear that can make it hard for you to spend money or pay your bills, even if you can afford to do so. Being too scared to spend money can affect your health, relationships, overall well-being, and daily life.
42% of U.S adults say money is negatively impacting their mental health, according to a recent survey from Bankrate and Psych Central. The survey polled 2,457 adults about how finances affect their mental state. Feeling stressed is the top response to finances, according to 70% of survey respondents.
"Overspending is often more than just a lapse in financial judgment; it frequently signals underlying emotional or psychological triggers. For instance, some people may overspend as a form of escapism, temporarily distracting themselves from stress or emotional pain," Hathai says.
