14 September 2023
If inflation is impacting your mental health, you are not alone. Financial stress can result in mental stress, anxiety disorders, or other mental conditions when neglected. According to studies, depression risk can increase due to income inequality. Anxiety and depressive disorders raise the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and early mortality.
Considering financial stress’s enormous adverse effects on well-being, maintaining your mental health is very important. For many of us, rising inflation is a common problem. The Covid-19 pandemic and other world events also greatly affected our current economic and psychological situation. Because finances and inflation are frequently outside one’s control, concentrating on what you can manage might be helpful. Below are a few coping techniques for dealing with inflation:
Review your spending patterns
When trying to make your budget inflation-proof, reviewing it could be helpful. With the increase in the price of products and services, many consumer spending behaviours have evolved. To make room for necessities like groceries, transportation, utilities, housing, and other needs, analyse your budget and see what you can temporarily remove from your typical expenditure.
Search for bargains
Keep an eye out for sales, consider buying in bulk, and use less expensive generic brands for necessities rather than more expensive name brands. Numerous retail operators provide loyalty programs where customers accumulate points for future purchases. You could also save extra money by taking advantage of loyalty program discounts on specific items.
Choose your debt wisely
If you must acquire a credit or loan, compare rates based on your credit score and consider credit cards with rewards programs you may use to earn incentives like cash back, travel discounts, or other perks on future purchases. If you have variable-rate loans, you might benefit from refinancing them into fixed-rate loans before interest rates rise. If you have several high-interest credit cards, consider combining them into a personal loan with fixed payments.
Consider a side hustle
In this modern world, multiple jobs have become a norm, as a single source of income has now become a challenge to leading a comfortable lifestyle. Choose a side hustle that complements your daily schedule. Online freelancing jobs have recently become a source of additional income for many professionals.
Below are a few strategies that can help with your mental health during moments of financial strain:
Create coping strategies: Coping techniques can be essential to daily living and beneficial for challenges like inflation and affordability. It could be vital to re-evaluate your work-life balance, stress levels, and self-care routines when developing effective coping mechanisms. For example, it may be beneficial to concentrate your self-care efforts on healthy eating, exercise, check-ups, and getting enough sleep.
Make time for yourself: Hobbies can improve your mental and physical health. Even when they are challenging, schedule time for activities that you enjoy doing. Determine ways to invest more time in your hobbies and other activities that you do only for fun by looking at how much time you have spent on them.
Seek social support: There are many ways to get social support. One way is to join support groups both online and offline. Support groups are frequently free for those with financial difficulties and could offer peer help. Spend as much time as possible with the individuals you value and who make you feel good about yourself.
Ref: www.betterhelp.com www.uasa.org.za