The Damaging Effects of Financial Stress on Mental and Physical Health

However, it seems that the numbers continue to cost us, and a lot. We close our eyes to expenses and debts, completely forgetting to prepare a financial plan and follow it to the letter, regardless of the individual economic situation, or the historical moment we are living. This has been observed by Inés Valderrábano, a health psychologist at the Claritas Psychological Institutespecializing in trauma and EMDR: “While for many people making ends meet is nothing (no matter how hard it takes), for others it is a source of stress and tension. They constantly look at the bank application on their mobile to see when their payroll is received, when they charge their rent, and they do it with the hope that when they look at it one more time, the number will change.”

He adds that for certain people, the process of making ends meet is an obstacle coursefull of ups and downs, always hoping that no unforeseen event will arise –a flat tire in the car, a cavity or a breakdown at home–, and this constant state of alert is, after all, a stress maintained over time, which ends up having an impact on physical and mental health.

Valderrábano emphasizes that stress alters sleep, the way we eat, can cause anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, activation of the sympathetic nervous system -which turns on the alertness in the brain, irrigating the muscles or the heart with blood and ceasing to irrigate systems that are not needed in a moment of “survival”, such as the digestive system–, social isolation, and a long etcetera. “Living with the uncertainty of money, with financial stress, can lead us to despair and to be distracted in the day to day. This is where we can see that it affects the job level the most.”