Dr. Galen Buckwalter discusses why the financial stress you feel isn’t all your fault and instead mostly caused by financial institutions and millions of years of evolution.
If you’re like most of America, you’ve probably had money take over your thoughts before. It’s really common. But why is it so common and why can it cause so much stress? To answer that, you need to know how your mind actually thinks about money.
That’s where our resident psychology, psychometrics expert, Chief Science Officer Dr. Galen Buckwalter, comes in to help.
Dr. Buckwalter says, “Financial stress is leading nearly a quarter of Americans to experience disordered thoughts, behaviors and emotions at clinically dangerous levels, and we need to begin a conversation about how to fix these epidemic problems.”
Why can’t we seem to handle our financial stress? Dr. Buckwalter says that it’s evolution that’s let us down. The world has changed so much that our brains haven’t had time to catch up.
“… Humans have been evolving for countless millennia, developing unique personalities to match the capabilities of our brains and bodies,” he explains. “Based on what we’ve see in terms of how damaging to the mind, body and well-being debt can be, we’re seeing an epidemic of stress as a direct result of the levels of debt carried by Americans of all kinds. In no time at all, we’ve gone from having this new tool, credit, to seeing it destroy lives.”
To make a real difference, Dr. Buckwalter says we need to demand more from our banks, credit card companies, investment firms, etc. He’s calling for change because without it the problems will only get worse.
“A re-invention of our collective relationship with money is now a requirement because, without it, we’re only going to incur more debt and suffer the ever increasing health consequences of this problem.”
Learn more about why money and your brain weren’t built to mix and what you can do about it by reading Dr. Buckwalter’s post “Financial Stress and Well-being: A Psychologist’s Perspective” over on Medium.
