by Dawn Hawkins

Created on: June 18, 2009

Most adults can say they have some amount of debt. When debt gets out of hand, it can create horrible effects on emotional well being. Even when a person has the ability to manage his/her finances well, things can happen to change that. Jobs can be lost or accidents can happen. There are many reasons for people getting into a higher amount of debt that suddenly becomes unmanageable.

When this happens, your debt can have the following effects on your emotional health:

Restlessness

As your debts slowly become overwhelming, one of the first affects is your sleeping habits. You will be unable to fall asleep because you are thinking about the debt that keeps piling up. You can find no way out of the situation and stay up at all hours of the night thinking of ways to make it just go away. This leads to other issues regarding your emotional well being.

Not being able to sleep keeps us from getting enough rest to function properly. The brain does not work as quickly or with accuracy when it has not gotten the rest it needs. This eventually leads to not being able to properly function in your job or other aspects of your life. Debt can be an all consuming threat to your physical and mental well being as time passes.

Fear

Being too far in debt can cause fear at every turn. The phone rings and you don't want to answer in fear that it may be a credit collection company. You don't want to get the mail because there may be a notice about having to pay a bill. You fear that you will never be able to get yourself out of the situation that you suddenly have found yourself in. This fear eventually turns into paranoia which in turns affects your daily life.

Anger

Too much debt can cause anger in the person who finds him/herself frustrated at the fact that the money is owed. This is when common sense goes out the window and you try to reason with yourself that it isn't your fault and you don't owe the money. You get angry and irate at the collection agencies when they call. Of course, that is the reaction they want from you. If it wasn't the reaction they wanted, they would be reasonable when they called rather than treating you like so much dirt. That doesn't mean that you don't owe the money though. The anger can become as unmanageable as the debt itself. It spills over into your personal life. Debt can cause homes to split up.

Depression

When the feelings have built up for a long time over the debt issues, you

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>