Financial stress can take a mental toll on people. Dr. Regine Muradian, clinical psychologist and member of the National Debt Relief Financial Wellness Board, joined Cheddar News to discuss strategies to ease those worries over money.

<div class="block">Financial stress can take a mental toll on people. Dr. Regine Muradian, clinical psychologist and member of the National Debt Relief Financial Wellness Board, joined Cheddar News to discuss strategies to ease those worries over money.</div>

Stretching Your Dollar

Stretching Your Dollar: How to Cope With Financial Stress

Financial stress can take a real toll on your mental health. And so today I'm joined by Doctor Regine Mora and clinical psychologist and member of the National Debt Relief Financial Wellness Board to find out some strategies. Doctor. Welcome. Thanks for having me. It's so great to have you mental health and money oftentimes can go hand in hand. What's the connection between the two? So a lot of people, we don't talk enough about finances and mental health. So I kind of attuned to physical health and also our mental health. So one of the things is finances can have a big impact, especially if you're in debt with your sleep. Actually, national debt relief did a study where two people lost 200 hours of sleep a year based on being in debt and had three debt nightmares a week. Wow. So feeling of loss of control and inadequacy. So it can kind of take a huge toll on your body overall. What are some of the signs other than perhaps lack of sleep? That would indicate that someone is stressed about their finances and maybe should take action. Yes, great question. So a lot of the times people feel like they just have a sense of loss, like they feel like a failure, they don't know how to get the out of the debt or out of the stress. So a lot of the times it's just thinking outside the box on what is it that you can do for yourself to change your mindset to get there. Where would you tell people to start to ask for help? My favorite one is self care, I think and also coming to that place of acceptance like I am in debt and I have to get myself out of debt. I think when you come to that place of acceptance, you're able to move forward and especially companies like national debt relief can really help you get out of the debt by helping you and looking at you as a whole person, not just as someone, you're just dealing in debt and not recovering from a lot of the symptoms. What are some self care tips that you think can help people in their mental health when it comes to money? Yes, one I love is having a self care. Literally, it's like a little pouch, a kit that you can put all your favorite little things in there, but also just journaling or just changing your mind. The first thing you when you wake up in the morning such as saying something positive or what is one thing you can be grateful for on that day. I like that. Affirmation seem to be helpful as well. So in terms of coping strategies, we kind of talked about some but sometimes obviously, anxiety can be a factor as well. Are there certain strategies that you would recommend if anxiety does start to creep up? Yes. Well, anxiety usually starts with the thought, you have the thoughts. So for example, I'm in debt, I'm maybe like 20,000 or $50,000 in debt. And then you start having some people may experience panic attacks or difficulty breathing. And that's when we talked about the loss of sleep. So one of the important things to keep in mind is deep breathing. I think it's all a mindset shift. So when you start thinking, I'm going to be ok, I can get through this, I can cope with this. You're already starting to calm your body down even if you don't believe in it because a lot of times with positive affirmations, people think, oh, that doesn't work, but it really does and just taking three deep breaths and looking for other solutions as your mind clears. It's great advice. Obviously, a lot of people have coupled up due to finances of late with inflation very high and borrowing costs at 22 year highs as well. For couples that are navigating money issues. What would you recommend to them? That's one of the hardest topics to have, right? You're in a relationship and you have to talk about money and how this is going to work out. So conversation and having open communication is at the top of my list that's really important to be able to be open about how are you going to, how are we going to deal with this debt? We have student loan debt, we have other debts and thinking about some strategies together and communicating how we're going to settle this before we get married or even while we're in the relationship. So you don't have to have these difficult conversations later. I'm all about preparation. So this kind of ties into that and not being ashamed or embarrassed about it. I think it's kind of like an iffy topic, but when we can just sit there and talk about, well, what are you in debt? Do you have any student loan debts or other? How can we work this out together as a team? Yeah, I like that approach. When is the right time that someone might need to seek professional help when it comes to navigating debt and their mental health? I think that if one of the strategies that we actually even discussed today, if you feel that, oh, I've tried those things, they're not working if I'm 10,000, 15,000 over in debt and I'm not finding a way to resolve it or I put the credit card away and I'm still spending and spending it kind of becomes like this addiction, then it's a good idea. To seek support, not only mental health support, but support from companies like national debt relief to help you consolidate your loans, but they also work on helping you distress as well. And having that just bundle there together is just so successful and you may be how you can get out of it heading into the weekend can be a good time to kind of transition maybe away from some of the stressors. Certainly you're the expert here. So I would take your advice. But how should people maybe think about that playfulness, less distractions as they head into something like a little bit of a break? Yes, I like that. You know, I feel like doing fun things. Doesn't have to cost money either. Right. So maybe even sitting down as a family or as a couple and kind of like thinking about what are some things that we really want to do today that maybe won't cost us as much so that could be taking a walk. It could be even going for a coffee or something really simple like that. But I go back to pre planning it, having that conversation and just creating a list of things that makes us happy and that we can kind of do without spending a lot and decreasing those stressors. Ok. Good advice. Feeling very Zen heading into this weekend. Thanks to doctor for your expertise. We appreciate it.