How To Cope With Financial Stress

A few weeks ago, I was searching for a few things online and I came across one more site providing information about how to cope with financial stress and anxiety that is wholly incorrect and will therefore not help sufferers to find relief. Briefly, the website made the following assertion:

"The majority of people who are suffering from stress, anxiety and depression are doing so because they are enduring difficulties with their finances. Debt is a big problem for a lot of people, and many struggle to service debts because they are on a low income. Being out of work, financial need and low self-esteem due to falling short of monetary expectations are additional issues. Money is one of the biggest causes of stress and depression in the Western world."

I've come across this sort of information in both the online and offline worlds, from health counselors and therapists to sufferers. Identifying money as being at the root cause of stressful illnesses is something you've heard too and from a variety of people, undoubtedly.

To state that the root cause of stressful illnesses lies in concerns over money is not accurate, in fact, it is completely false. Financial circumstances, no matter what they are, CANNOT cause you to become stressed, depressed and anxious. In fact, they have NOTHING to do with the root cause of these problems WHATSOEVER.

It is so easily proved it's amazing that some people believe otherwise.

Let's ask a question:

If money issues and impoverishment are the root cause of stress, depression and anxiety, then is it true to say that all people who have concerns with finances or who is at the low end of the wage scale will therefore become a sufferer of stress and related illnesses? The bottom line with this claim is that if one is poor, one must suffer from a stressful illness. Agreed?

Additionally, one can apply logic to also state:

If you are wealthy, without debt and earning a high income, you cannot be depressed, stressed or anxious because the root cause doesn't exist in your life. You have money so you don't need to know how to cope with financial stress, right?

In a nutshell: Being poor causes mental trauma. Being well off doesn't.

Reality clearly does not bear this out.

All of the people who are finding it difficult to manage their debts, are on a low income and dealing with money problems aren't suffering from a stressful illness. Indeed, many people throughout the world live in extreme poverty and yet they're happy. And, just as I have, you probably know or have known people who don't have much in life and they're happy.

And immunity from stress, depression and anxiety is not given to people who have found fame and fortune. Elton John, Marie Osmond, Mark Twain, Britney Spears to list just a few examples. When I was at my darkest point with depression, I had paid off the mortgage, was completely debt-free and had accumulated savings.

I couldn't have cared less about any of it.

That last sentence illustrates how self-esteem has nothing to do with being financially solvent. I drove a $25,000 sports car, owned two houses outright and had many investments and yet I felt life had nothing for me, that having lost everyone and everything I ever loved I'd completely ruined my life beyond repair and I just couldn't take anymore.

So you can see, financial hardship does not and cannot cause you to become stressed, depressed or anxious. And financial success doesn't mean that you'll be free from mental trauma. That's because the root cause as to why anyone enters into an episode of stress, depression and anxiety is because they perform flawed, harmful modes of thinking to make sense out of the circumstances they are faced with.

Tackle these harmful modes of thought that cause people to become stressed, depressed and anxious and you will take a major step towards eliminating these problems from your life, whether you're down to your last penny or your last million.