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0 pointsmadddiagnosis6y ago0 comments

Having debt may not be a mental health illness, but mental health illnesses are significantly exacerbated by debt.

I was discharged from a mental health ward 3 weeks ago after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. My brother was murdered a year ago and I've been struggling with depression since.

I lose my job a few months ago and money has been tight in my household, to the point where I began to see myself as nothing buta financial anchor weighing down my partner.

Freeing her from having to manage my debts was the primary justification for my suicide attempt. My mental health illness (mixed anxiety and Depressive disorder) is not caused by debt, but the affective symptoms (in this case suicidal ideation) were.

Or to put it another way: the easy way out of debt allows people to rationalize an an otherwise irrational decision. (°)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/201...

    NatCen analysed detailed NHS data about adults’ mental health undertaken for the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. It found that 13% of people in problem debt – about 420,000 a year – think about suicide and 4% of them – more than 100,000 people – try to end their life.

Suicide attempts in people with debt are around 400x more likely than those without debts (it's around .01% in the UK yearly), which surely counteracts the idea that nobody is claiming that people in debt are more likely to be suicidal?

Having debt certainly isn't a mental illness, but we can't ignore the effect having debt has on people with mental illnesses.

Edit: sorry for any typos or grammatical errors, my medication causes difficulties typing and recognising errors

(°) Of course, it may actually be rational, since her financial security would be significantly improved by the removal of debt and the extra mouth to feed - but rationality does not necessarily imply correctness.

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austincheney6y ago

Did you know that army medics are 3x more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than army infantrymen encountering combat? Likewise being a combat medic/doctor isn’t an illness. There is no discussion of eliminating those jobs to save people from mental health illnesses. Even if those jobs and/or debt were eliminated there is no reason to suggest the persons at potential risk of such illnesses would cured from the risk of such.

Teenage homosexuality is another high suicide pattern. Nobody is suggesting treating juvenile sexual orientation.

Since suicide is the result of mental health illness and mental health illnesses are a medical problem would you agree that it’s safe to say it is something that demands medical attention? Medical doctors treating that condition don’t throw the patient into a finance class to hear about managing debt or give the patient money to relieve the financial distress. The subject of financial crisis isn’t treated at all.

Many things can have an effect on persons with illnesses. The goal of a doctor is to treat the illness and lower the pain. They do this through a combination of observation, medication, and counseling.

Ignoring the medicine and medical aspect of suicide to focus purely on financial management, as so many in this thread suggest, will likely result in a sharp increase in suicidal completion.

If advocating against such harm and ignorance costs me all my HN karma I am ok with that. I am not afraid of being stuck in an echo chamber.

madddiagnosisOP6y ago

I'm not advocating the removal of treatment for people in debt, I'm just saying that mental health illnesses are exacerbated by stress and money problems can be a huge source of stress.

You have to treat the entire patient, it's the difference between the nightingale and peplau schools of nursing: the patient is not just their symptoms, they are a complete human who has to be treated to prevent recidivism in to a dangerous mental state.

Without the stresses of financial debt I'm not suicidal, I'm depressed and have anxieties and impulses, but one of those impulses isn't suicidal ideation.

In this instance, the diagnosis is an anxiety disorder, not suicidal ideation, but the addition of a second aspect - the debt - can severely increase the chances of the symptom of suicidal ideation occuring.

Again: people with mental health illnesses should be treated for those illnesses, but we also can't ignore the family practicioner and governments role in ensuring that people in financial hardship have the support that they need.

As they say, a small amount of prevention is worth a lot of cure: I imagine the cost on the government to help with the debt is lower than the cost on the government to deal with the mental health issues exacerbated by the debt.

    There is no discussion of eliminating those jobs to save people from mental health illnesses.

In the UK, ex combat medics receive government funded psychotherapy with specially trained mental health practitioners who deal specifically with people who have worked as medical professionals on deployment. So there are some countries pioneering the treatment of patients with a higher risk profile for mental health illnesses. I was for 5 years a combat medical technician with the royal logistics corps and I've had this treatment first hand.

Edit: again, sorry if I don't make sense in some areas, I'm trying very hard :)

DanBC6y ago

> Ignoring the medicine and medical aspect of suicide to focus purely on financial management, as so many in this thread suggest, will likely result in a sharp increase in suicidal completion.

This is not supported by anyone working within suicide prevention. Indeed, focussing on the medical model is rejected by any organisation working in suicide prevention, and they talk about the full range of bio-psycho-social factors involved in suicide.

It is simply incorrect to say that suicide is caused only by mental illness.

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