Key Insight Three:
The Impact of Financial Stressors on Mental Health
Trigger Warning: Anxiety and Job Loss
When I was in third grade, my father lost his job during the housing market crash associated with the Great Recession in 2007 and 2008. He was without a job for nearly 18 months. Though I was just seven years old, I vividly remember my father’s last day working at the job he was laid off. After finishing my homework one evening in my bedroom, I walked into the kitchen to find out what was for dinner. Instead of dinner, I found my mom sitting on the kitchen floor talking on the phone, in tears, my family dog lying beside her. I stood there quietly for a short time, confused, before my mom motioned for me to go back to my room. I listened. She just received a call from my father as he packed up his desk and was calling her parents to tell them what happened. I do not remember much else of that night when my parents officially broke the news to me and my sister, but my parents say my sister and I took the news well, especially since we were so young. However, I do remember many of the hardships that followed. 13 years later, my family has recovered. But these experiences have lived inside me ever since. Obviously, these experiences drove some of my interest in finance, but they also planted a seed in me that caused me to care about mental health, as I saw the mental tolls my parents faced during this time.
At the beginning of my junior year in college, I became a Mental Health Ambassador (MHA), through a grant-funded program called the Together We Can initiatives within the University of South Carolina’s University Health Services. As an ambassador, I helped promote positive mental health practices and helped reduce stigmas around mental health struggles and illnesses by sharing my experiences with mental health and offering resources that are available to students on campus. Throughout my junior year, I shared my experiences and stories surrounding mental health with multiple programs and organizations on campus. Depending on how I felt that day mentally, the depth of my story changed, and I may have removed some specific details that I did not feel like reliving that day. However, when using Artifact One, my personal story always starts in 2007, when my family began struggling financially, and the struggles my family and I went through afterward always followed.
Artifact One:
Mental Health Ambassadors Presentation
Mental Health Ambassadors is the only program or organization that I joined since becoming a student at the University of South Carolina. I enjoyed it so much that I became the Chair for the organization at the end of my junior year, taking over for the previous Chair that graduated. As the Chair, I do a lot more than just share my story. I also help lead others to share their story and help them help others with their mental health journeys and stories. When helping others prepare their stories, I hear about a lot of difficult situations. Though specific and different to everyone, these stories that the ambassadors share are surprisingly similar. Often, individuals discuss their struggles with anxiety as a result of financial hardships. I was surprised to hear that I was not alone, and after my senior year started, I started hearing other people’s stories more. About two weeks into the semester, I talked to my partner, Emily, the previous Chair of Mental Health Ambassadors, about how it was going one night after I got home from a meeting. She often offers valuable insight since she is a current student at the University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine in the Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Program. In this instance, she reminded me of something I learned in a couple different classes a few semesters before I joined her and the others in Mental Health Ambassadors.
Early in my collegiate career, I took one of my all-time favorite classes at the University of South Carolina, Management 371: Principles of Management. This same semester sophomore year, I also took Psychology 101: Introduction to Psychology. In both classes, about a week apart, I learned about one of the most well-known psychological theories: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Simply put, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that for individuals to achieve complete development and self-actualization, the lower levels of the hierarchical chart must be satisfied before moving onto the next hierarchical level of satisfaction. In Artifact Two, you can see the notes I took in both of my classes about the hierarchy, and the hierarchy is also pictured.
The most important piece of this chart are the physiological needs. Without achieving full satisfaction on this hierarchical level, one cannot move forward. I noticed, however, that without money today, the only feasible thing one can morally obtain is air. Without money, one cannot get food consistently, one cannot find shelter consistently, and one cannot find clothing consistently. Though true that money cannot buy happiness, I believe that it can buy security, and in this case, physiological needs. Emily reminded me of this psychological theory, putting to rest my feeling of loneliness in struggling with mental health and finances, and reminding me the importance of financial security in maintaining positive mental health.
Artifact Two:
Management 371 and Psychology 101 Notes
Most of the physiological needs that are listed in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are morally obtained with finances. As a result, many people, like myself, that often struggle with their mental health and finances, often neglect their sleep because their stress keeps them up, or their phone is the only thing bringing them happiness and they are scared to put it down. Others often develop a poor relationship with food, either because they do not have any, or they can only eat at certain times, so they binge eat, or don’t eat. Further, most of them might experience hardships finding clothing, especially business-professional clothing, an almost necessity for some majors, like business. These individuals were experiencing hardships with their mental health because they did not have the funds to get these needs. Without the money needed to obtain these things, these people were not able to move forward, attempting to become the best they can be. This might seem obvious, but for me, becoming the Chair of MHA helped me remember the importance of finances in an individual's mental health. Becoming aware of the struggle that was not just associated with me and my family, I knew that I wanted to help others get through and prepare for these tough times, so that their Physiological Needs are met, and their mental health does not suffer, allowing them to become the best they can become. Since becoming an ambassador, I have learned that finances are important in maintaining consistent, positive, and strong mental health. This idea has only increased my desire to work in the Financial Services and Risk Management industries where I can help others manage their finances, their mental health, and hierarchy of needs more effectively.