There is a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle of poverty associated with mental illness. You become poor. Sometimes through circumstances well beyond your control, such as losing your job, or perhaps because of a pre-existing mental illness or health concerns.
So you seek out government assistance to help you through the tough times.
But living in poverty for any significant length of time increases all sorts of risk factors for health and mental health problems. You are more stressed, worrying about money constantly, and how you’re going to pay the bills or have enough money to eat. You eat worse because bad, processed food is so often cheaper than nutritional food. If you can still afford to live on your own, you will likely do so in a neighborhood more prone to violence, exposing you to more trauma and risk for personal violence.
It’s a vicious circle where both poverty seems linked to greater rates of mental illness, and in some cases, certain kinds of mental illness seem linked to a greater likelihood of living in poverty.
Before posting, please read our blog moderation guidelines. The comments below begin with the oldest comments first. Click on the last comments page to jump to the most recent comments.
Before posting, please read our blog moderation guidelines.
Post a Comment:
Copyright © 1995-2013 Psych Central. All rights reserved.
Site last updated: 19 Jun 2013
|
fun fun fun. i had been doing remarkably well for four years or so. i had been working in a professional capacity for two years in the job i had at the time. i was married, and my husband and i purchased our home. my depression returned, worse than ever before. i was out of work for four months on fmla, back to work for a year, and now, off permanently. now, we are living on one income, his, and it is insufficient to meet our monthly obligations. we’re going to have to rent the house out soon to move into a cheap apartment. we’re scared to do that because we got one of those housing grants, and if you haven’t lived in your house for three years, they have to be paid back. i can’t afford psychiatric medications. i’m struggling to afford my counseling… it’s a miserable, snowballing situation. and, the lack of money has a hugely negative impact on my anxiety and my feelings of worthlessness; i’m not working, so i’m not lifting my family up out of this horrible situation.
I know that my mental illness has caused downward mobility. Whether or not the downward mobility will prove to be permanent remains to be seen, but it is directly related to the mental illness.
I read this post as, at least a bit, inferring that people who are impoverished would be likely to benefit from being on medications. Let’s be honest here, saying that people should be in mental health care by in large, at least what I have seen firsthand in my travels the past 5 or more years, are pressed to have psychiatric evaluations and get medicated. So, are you indirectly advocating for medicating the results of becoming impoverished?
I hope not. Medicating Axis 4 consequences are a waste of time.
I do think that mental illness can occur as a result of poverty. I do get worried about how you should be considered “disabled” to get benefits….
I actually wrote about a comic in Japan that focuses on those who are poor and forced to take on a large amount of debt because they think they can survive with it.
You can read it at: http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/12219533617/yamikin-ushijimakun-manga
Last I checked, SSI has a two-year “weaning off” program (“Ticket to Work”). The bigger obstacle to leaving disability or other benefits programs is the lack of jobs. There is an easy answer. Tax the uber wealthy and create the jobs they refuse to create with the hoarded wealth they made off the rest of us. The jobs created would include many more jobs in mental health counseling and rehabilitation. A full employment economy is possible, so is a healthy society. They money is available, the will to access it so far has not been but we should break out of our societal personality disorder of worshiping the wealthy and stop allowing them to rule over us in the oppressive manners that they do so that causes poverty and promotes all this mental illness your article addresses.
Social Security and SSI do offer the ticket to work program, but it is optional, you are not required to use it. I think the point I take from the article is that while no one chooses to have mental issues, staying on disability should not be an option for the long term. I work for Social Security and I see it everyday. We put people on disability but don’t require them to seek help for the illness that prevents them from working. The system is broken. Allowing people to just waste away on disability isn’t the answer. They should be required to seek help while they are on benefits in the hope that one day they will return to work.
The strange thing about disability is that you think you’ll be okay when your medicare kicks in but when it comes to mental health (at least in this area) nobody takes medicare. Nobody tells you, you have to apply for medicade. You don’t get enough money on disability to pay for your meds and doctors while you’re waiting.
When it’s mental health, it’s a medical expense on top of regular doctor visits. Some mental health medications can be real expensive. If you finally do get back to work, you almost have to make extra just for extra medical expenses, additional co-pays, deductibles and stuff employer insurance doesn’t completely cover. So not just any old job will be good enough. It’s an extra pressure to go after higher paying jobs, when you may feel you’re just not up to the stress. Stress doesn’t mix well with any mental illness.
Well, I have been depressed most of my life. I went at the age of 16 on my own to get help. I have taken some sort of meds ever since then. Have been in therapy many, many years, I worked, lived on my own paid all of my bills, my life was good. Then in the late 70′s I was horribly harassed at my place of work, and at the same time my boyfriend and I realized I was pregnant. And he just walked out on me, so therefore I had to go on welfare, because I had my baby, then I was laid off from my job, at that time the place I worked went down, so I had no choice. So with a new baby, and still sick from the pregnancy and depression, I started college, and within that first year of nursing, I had a teacher, a nurse that harassed me unbearably once she found out I suffered from a mental illness. So eventually I dropped out from depression, and simply being worn out. I was off a year, a miserable, year trying to get support form my son’s father, which I did. Then I went back to college, and finished my bachelor’s degree and started on my masters degree in clinical psychology, never finished that, was taking care of my dying father, and my young son, and depressed because of money problems, I don’t know how we made it that far. And we had started moving into cheaper apartments, which all were dumps, with slumlords, all we could afford, no one told me about section 8 vouchers. So after being terrified by slumlords, and crazy neighbors, we, moved,and moved, and moved. Finally I could no longer go to school, too sick. So my Dr.’s told me to file for SSDI. I was in my early 40′s by this time, I couldn’t get a job, lived in a slum apt, my son was going in depression from fear, from living in fear from the landlords, over and over again. So I received my SSDI, still lived in slums, still moved, my son was able to get in to college, graduated, and I am still living in slums. He is doing ok, finished college, and making his way. He lives in tiny little, decent apts, I still get slum ones, I am on a section 8 voucher, so no one will rent to you except slum lords or the housing authority, and those are not places you want to go. Right now am being horrible harassed by other people in my senior building for whatever reasons they seem to come up with, cannot get anyone to help me get out of here, need a security deposit, and a tiny small apt, but, no one will rent to me because no one wants to take the section 8 voucher. My rent is always paid, I am a quiet, clean tenant, but, it doesn’t matter. And I am slowly dying day, by day, living in my apt afraid to leave my apt mostly now, because of the stalking, verbal abuse, all I want to do is to move, but ,no one will help me to get a decent little apt, and help me to get in it. All I need is a little apt, and help with the security depostit, and none of the agencies will help me, they all mostly pass the buck or make it too hard to get the help that I need, I will pay them back, monthly until it is done, but, they don’t care. They just tell me things, and then I never hear from them again. I am so sick now, I don’t care about much anymore, actually afraid to be alive anymore, I have been so traumatized and harassed, and all I want to do is move, and no one will help me. So this is where you get when you are mentally ill, and take care of yourself, you lose all of your rights to peace, credibility, and because of that you are looked at as a less than desirable person. Shame on this country, and shame on the people. I am not that kind of person, never was, never will be. Shame on all of you.
I think if someone has a mental illness, it’s harder to
work, and that equals poverty. And on the other hand if
someone is dealing with a low paying job, or a stint of
unemployment for any amount of time this can absolutely
cause mental illness. It’s like a double-edged sword or
a catch-22 however you’d want to put it…
Interesting article. I particularly liked the findings that mental health services helped more than financial assistance. It’s like that old saying about fish & fishing.
I think most people would prefer to be able function independently than be stuck always waiting for a hand-out from somewhere. I just wish we lived in a society that prioritized everyone’s need to better themselves & their situation.
Greetings.Having experienced that “drift” as you call it. It seemed more like being pushed down than drifting down. People want power over other people and there is no better way to do it than to achieve economic control. I have tried to convince people that if you want to get rid of someone you give them wings and watch them fly and celebrate it. It has been my experience particularly with narcissistic peopleor perhaps I have come in contact with psycopathsthat they will do anything psychologically to destroy someone if they want something and you have foolishly gotten in the way. I have several degrees and am now in poverty. I would say though that it is partly due to the old way of thinking that you are working to take care of your family and your husband and you save nothing for yourself and nothing is what ex-husbands intend for you to end up and they are proud of themselves for accomplishing that. I would advise young women and I truly believe this is a female issue to have your own savings your own paycheck your own retirement. To have goals and find someone who has goals as well that will mesh with yours. I wish you all good luck.