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Help me doctor, Im in debt and it hurts
UK debt is spiralling out of control. Not only are we hurting our bank balances, but we are hurting ourselves.
The credit card is an amazing invention. A Godsend in a shopaholic’s eyes. A life saver to the financially challenged family. No longer do we need to contain bundles of cash clogging up their purses, and create a feeling of paranoia that we are going to lose it through carelessness, or theft. All you need is a little card, called a credit card to hand over when paying for that item, you really, or thought you really wanted. And just like that, the item is yours. But no money was exchanged for it, as if it was free money. When I was a child, my friends and I were aching to reach our eighteenth birthdays so we too could own this ‘credit card’ that was producing lots of free money to buy anything our hearts desired, and more! If only we knew what was going on inside our parents’ minds when they handed over that ‘free’ money to pay for our clothes, school uniforms, shoes, food, etc. If only we realised that mummy and daddy could not afford to pay for our new school uniform right away, but as we really needed it, they ‘put it on the Visa’.
The credit card, like the bank loan, the store card, or the overdraft, is never free money. It is merely the privilege of delayed payment; a privilege one has to pay for in the form of interest at the end of the month. Now we live in a society where we are surrounded by more and more things we want and need, but cannot afford. So we turn to the credit card, to the bank, and to the loan companies to help us purchase that thing we need/want. They are so kind to us. If we lose our cards, the nice credit card company will send us a new one in no time. In fact, other companies will offer us more cards, with bigger spending limits.
The bank offers to increase our overdrafts in less than five minutes, and loan companies offer loans everyday to anyone and everyone, and applying for one is easier these days as signing your name. So we take, we spend, we enjoy, and we relax, and then we see what we owe to these once kind companies at the end of the month…along with a high interest rate on top of that figure. And these companies want that money back, and soon. However, a high percentage of us have low incomes that do not allow such a large amount of money to disappear towards such a bill. So we worry, we cry, we lose sleep, and some people get ill.
We are a nation in ever growing debt. Data monitor figures have shown that the UK is the only country in Europe whose inhabitants own more credit cards than its European neighbours, and whose debts alone total more that £56 billion. They predict that by next year, credit card debts will have risen to around £154 billion. It is a scary figure, but what makes it scarier is that it shows no signs of decreasing. Failure to face up to debt will not make the problem disappear unless you happen to win the jackpot. It is not going to go away. In fact, it is going to get worse. It is estimated that over the next ten years, our debt will reach £1.6 trillion. Did I mention this is in the UK alone!v
Debt is an epidemic that is spiralling out of control. Even the Citizens Advice charity has been awarded a total of £33 million over the next two years to provide more face-to-face debt advice, but already had dealt with over 1.25 million new debt problems in 2004 and 2005, and the number of consumer debt problems reported has almost doubled since 1997. For those affected, the impact on people’s health and ability to work is evident. We as human beings have the ability to deal with the daily stresses we may face. However, when that stress increases over a period of time, it can be difficult to handle. Prolonged periods of stress can result in ill health, lack of energy and enthusiasm, poor productivity, and increased anxiety and worry, resulting in a stress spiral; the more you worry, the more you feel stressed and the more you feel stressed, the more you worry... and so on until you start to feel sick. Does this sound familiar? Feel reassured that you are not alone.
The IMS Money and Mental Health Survey uncovered that money worries were the most recurrently mentioned cause of depression, and the anxiety that was caused by "making ends meet" on a low income bought about a further attack of stress. General Practitioners have spent a total of nine million working hours dealing with the problem of depression in UK surgeries in 2004, an increase of 5 million hours since ten year previously.
However, stress, anxiety and depression are not the only causes of perpetual money concerns. There is also the risk of sleep deprivation. Many factors in life cause this, but the most common that is keeping us awake is stress. What are we stressing about at four in the morning the most? Money. Doctor Charles Aryiku explained to me that he has had an increase in patients complaining of what is now referred to as ‘sleep debt’. ‘The only thing you
