How filing bankruptcy in South Florida can improve mental health

For consumers struggling with debt in South Florida, understanding the common emotions surrounding debt can help in taking positive steps moving forward. Filing for bankruptcy is not only a way to improve one’s financial health, but also one’s mental health.

A person’s financial health oftentimes has close ties to their mental health. Money woes can easily translate into emotional and psychological woes, leaving those in debt suffering in ways that they may not even realize. Filing for bankruptcy can bring relief financially and mentally. Those looking for an effective way to dig themselves out of a precarious financial situation should understand the link between finances and mental health.

Connecting the dots

According to Psychology Today, people embroiled in debt are three times as likely to experience such mental health issues as anxiety, depression and psychosis. Unfortunately, debt can also lead to suicide. No matter if the debt is one that only looms for a few months, it can still lead to episodes of depression. Even if an individual in debt does not experience mental illness, he or she could turn to drinking and illicit drug use to cope with the situation.

Realizing the full impact of mental illness on finances

Besides debt leading to mental health problems, the opposite is also true. For instance, if a person has anxiety, that can become tangled up in repaying a loan, ultimately resulting in that individual failing to work out a payment plan altogether. A period of depression could trigger a spending spree to alleviate the symptoms of the mental illness. This can create a dangerous cycle when the spending spree only leads to more debt, which spirals into more depression.

Someone in debt who also has mental health issues may be well-aware of his or her diagnosis, but not have a way to get treatment. A lack of insurance or finances could mean the individual cannot seek therapy or afford helpful medication.

Touching on physical health

If there is a link between mental health and finances, then it makes sense that both can trickle over to physical health. Poor mental health can lead to physical fatigue, trouble sleeping and problems focusing. All three physical health complications can further worsen one’s ability to get out of debt, mainly because a person cannot concentrate on constructing a proper budget or financial health plan because of substandard sleep. Besides being unable to concentrate on creating a financial plan of attack, fatigue and problems focusing could negatively impact job performance. This, in turn, could disqualify a person from raises and promotions, making it more difficult to get out of debt.

Those in South Florida struggling with their mental health as a result of overwhelming debt may find relief by filing for bankruptcy with the help of an experienced Miami bankruptcy attorney. Since 1996 Kingcade Garcia McMaken, P.A. has been helping people from all walks of life build a better tomorrow. Our attorneys’ help thousands of people every year take advantage of their rights under bankruptcy protection to restart, rebuild and recover.