Judy Schwartz-Naber
Judy is a blogger with a specific mission: help people with mental illness and who struggle financially find a way through. She’s currently in the middle of writing a book discussing the realities of fighting mental illness and how people can lend a helping hand to make it easier for mentally ill individuals to cope with their health and financial concerns. Find more of her work in Insights by Judy.
My Story: Money and Mental Illness
Money and mental illness. At first glance, what’s the connection? While you might think that the topics are unrelated and far apart, that isn’t the case. As someone who has lived with mental illness her entire life, I truly know. I grew up with a mentally ill mother. My mother was named Maxine, and her illness impacted every aspect of our life together. Maxine didn’t understand how to manage money.
In those days, we had one wage earner in the family. My father worked, and she stayed home. Because she was severely mentally ill, she wouldn’t have been able to get a job. Maxine stopped bathing when I was 8 years old. She was angry, abusive and unable to care for her family in a functional way. She also spent money indiscriminately. Budgets were unheard of. Which ended up being another reason for her abuse.
Maxine was always screaming at my Dad because in her view, he didn’t make enough money. The thought that you can’t spend money you don’t have didn’t occur to her. Maxine spent money on ‘coffee’ out. She bought expensive tools to do leather working and spent untold amounts on a craft that she wasn’t functional enough to perform. She insisted on ‘lessons’ for my sister and myself, such as horseback riding, ballet, baton, or whatever. Whether my sister and I wanted the lessons or not.
She would spend on whatever caught her eye. She was impulsive. Her purchases weren’t rational. That kept my family in a constant struggle. It made Dad angry. It resulted in screaming matches that made my childhood a horror. I could have done without baton twirling lessons. Peace in that household would have been far more in keeping with my wishes.
Predictably, I grew up to work in the field of treatment for mental illness. At one time, I was a case manager who did community casework. Many of my clients had financial difficulties. More than a few were homeless. I found out even more about the connection between mental illness and money problems as I worked with mentally ill people in a professional capacity.
Many of the clients I worked with had depression. Some had bipolar disorder. There were differing levels of dysfunction. Those served were severely mentally ill because that is all the agency dealt with. Problems with money were common with all of them. Many lived on disability payments from Social Security. Luckily, my agency effectively worked with that issue. They became money-managers for my clients.
Money went straight into an account and was dispensed with oversight. Housing was provided for. Food was taken care of. Medical needs were addressed. It was a lifeline for many. It made me acutely aware of the impact that mental illness has on the safety and security that only become available to people based on financial responsibility.
We’ve all heard about gambling addictions, which involve people who use money and gambling like a drug. We understand that such an addiction can have serious financial consequences because an addict who gambles is bound to lose. However, finances are also impacted when a person deals with other types of mental illness. During my social service career, I worked in a psychiatric hospital. One of the patients was a very successful lawyer living with bipolar disorder. She was involuntarily hospitalized after she became suicidal after spending copious amounts of money on things she didn’t need.
Did you know that this kind of behavior can be a diagnostic criterion in determining whether someone has bipolar disorder? How can depression be of impact?
I can tell you that depression, which I’ve experienced my entire life with varying degrees of severity, has impacted my earning power and my financial decision making. For me, the way that this shows up is in the fact that planning and taking responsibility for my financial decisions is difficult. When I’m depressed, I don’t have the energy for taking care of business. The impact is felt on the employment end and in terms of managing my finances.
Even at my best times, I struggle with these problems. I’ve taken a job that doesn’t involve huge stress for me to care for myself in terms of my depression. However, the consequence is that I don’t earn much money. Which means that managing what I have is still a problem. I battle the hopelessness that financial instability causes in people all the time. I don’t want it to become so serious that I literally trigger a depressive episode from which I don’t recover. Suicide does happen. I’ve been at risk many times throughout my lifetime.
So, is there a connection between money and mental illness?
From my very personal perspective, there absolutely is. We all know that money, or the lack of it, is of impact in many health situations. If you don’t have insurance, you usually don’t get care.
Sometimes, insurance isn’t even of adequate protection because insurance companies sometimes discourage getting treatment for mental illness. There is stigma attached to mental illness that prevents people from getting help generally. Having worked in a hospital setting, I’m very aware of the constant “Is it covered?’ question as people seek treatment. It makes a difference. I’ve literally seen how people struggle to get treatment when finances aren’t in order.
The part that makes it so difficult is that mental illness frequently seriously impacts the state of your finances. So, the whole thing is a vicious cycle. If you are sick, you don’t have the money to get treatment. To become or remain well, you must have treatment. That may involve hospitalization, medication, case management, or other services. All of it is expensive.
You are literally in the middle of the problem. No treatment = sickness. Treatment is expensive, and your sickness prevents it.
How do we work our way through?
Having competent financial assistance is helpful for people living with mental illness. The service that my former agency provided in managing funds for the severely mentally ill was wonderful. I saw how it worked for my clients. I saw people who maintained housing because their limited funds were being managed. We need to address stigma. Mental illness isn’t a character defect. People with these problems aren’t bad, they are sick. Recognizing that this is the case can be lifesaving. A full range of options, including employment assistance and therapy, can be helpful in making it possible for people to function in life. Finally, the most important thing is to be able to recognize when people are behaving in a certain way because they have a mental illness. Intervention and available treatment options make all the difference for many.
I’d love to hear from you about what you think. How should we address the connection between mental illness and financial stability? Has this been of impact in your life or in the lives of your loved ones? Dealing with this comes with conversation. Let’s talk!
