There are many ridiculous sayings thrown around these days, such as: “stiff upper lip,” “happiness is a choice,” and “don’t be silly.” None, however, are as ridiculous as “money doesn’t buy you happiness.” Granted, happiness is not something that you can just pop into the shop and buy along with your 10 pence mix-up (if that even exists anymore) but money does create a foundation that happiness can be built upon and more important than happiness, money can create a platform where stability and security is formed. When we consider that one of the fundamental causes of poor mental health and the very thing that is at the very core of anxiety is the feeling of insecurity, then surely if as a society, we address the problem of poverty then we would be taking giant leaps at addressing the mental health crisis. Additionally, mental health is not the only symptom. Addictions, relationship breakdowns, hopelessness and crime, are all the symptoms and consequence of poverty.
Choice
You will have all heard me rattle on about choice and how we all have choice and where we find ourselves is result from the decisions we make. However, we need to acknowledge that choice does not mean freedom. By this I mean that by having options doesn’t necessarily mean that we have real autonomy to reach our full potential.
Not all Choices Are Equal
Yes, we all have choice, but that choice may be between:
- Buying food or paying for gas and electricity
- Taking a dead end zero hours contract or staying on benefits
- Coming to a counselling session or attending a jobcentre review.
These are all choices, but ultimately, they are all different variations of survival that lead you down the same path of poverty and further away from your full potential. It’s quite like having to choose between having your arm broken by a hammer or a cricket bat, ultimately, you’re still ending up in A&E.
Broken System
Having choice is also not always straight forward. Our choices are nearly always shaped by the systems we find ourselves in:
- Housing policies can force people into unsuitable housing, often far from support networks creating isolation and disconnection.
- Benefit systems often punish people for refusing unsuitable jobs or missing appointments.
- High quality private healthcare or counselling is only available if you can afford it while waiting lists on NHS are simply spiralling out of control.
When systems begin to punish and penalise people’s individual choices then their freedom becomes conditional and yet again people are pushed further and further away from their authentic path. Furthermore, to imply that someone chose their crisis, status or addiction acts as a get out of jail free card for the system who can put any failures down as personal fault.
Konstantin Kisin held a good debate with the Oxford Union highlighting these very issues. He argued that families living in poverty will always prioritise today over tomorrow and that families who are in survival mode will never chase the bigger ideal or seek to fulfil their potential. So, when we consider parents taking out high interest loans simply to feed the family or people selling family heirlooms to pay the rent, these aren’t bad decisions but more of unproductive choices in a broken system.
We Can't Thrive When We Are Starving
The Psychology Bit
Everybody in the mental health field will have heard of Abraham Maslow who was an American psychologist who devised the concept of the Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow highlights how human beings can only move towards growth and self-actualisation once their basic safety and physiological needs are met. This means that:
- We can’t process our traumas if we are freezing
- We can’t thrive when we are starving
- We can’t rebuild or form our identity or sense of who we are when bailiffs are chasing us.
We often hear the romantic notion of resilience and grit is forged from struggle or hardship. This is true to a point, but only when we also experience connection, safety and a sense of meaning. If we do not have these caveats, then we are simply in survival mode with no room for reflection or growth. Then once poverty truly grabs hold of us, this survival mode becomes a permanent state where the mind adapts in a way to be protective but not necessarily healthy or sustainable.
How Poverty Presents Within
We will hear across the news how poverty is affecting different areas and how this can lead to crime, addictions and anti-social behaviour, but what about the impact within? Poverty can present itself in many ways within an individual and unfortunately, we see it all too often within our counselling work:
- It creates a sense of helplessness – the demoralising belief that nothing will ever change or improve so why even bother. This presents itself with one of my personal favourite sayings of “what’s the point?”
- Poverty shows within as a feeling of shame – the demon voices inside that tell us that we are worthless and that we are a failure and we’ll never amount to anything.
- It creates a level of disconnect – we isolate ourselves and cut ourselves off from loved ones, people trying to help and our community. We also become disconnected from a belief of a good and positive world ahead. This disconnection, unfortunately, is also the path to temporary comfort which is addictions, such as alcohol, drugs and sex.
These present as huge challenges within the counselling room where counsellors fight to help externalise the structural and systemic inequalities that many of our clients have become to internalise by believing that their poverty is a personal failing rather than a systemic one.
Hope
Poverty is without doubt one of the most significant challenges facing our society and communities, but there is hope. Correct therapy and support for individuals is paramount, which is why, we, at Lighthouse Therapy Group believe in a wrap around holistic support model which incorporates mentoring and an integrative approach to counselling which utilises the Solution Focused Therapy and the Internal Family Systems approach.
By working in a solution focused way, we can help individuals focus on strengths and realistic goals, no matter how small. At the same time we are acknowledging, accepting and validating the human being. We also acknowledge the complex parts of the individual’s world and work with them in understanding which parts are fighting for control. By acknowledging the angry, shameful and defeated parts, we allow them to be heard, understood and integrated into who we are which will create an internal clarity in a chaotic external world.
It appears that too often, poverty is treated as a statistic, as someone else’s problem or even a policy issue. The reality is that poverty is a deeply personal issue which affects 24% of the UK. Poverty is the shame that people carry because society has led them to believe that it’s their personal fault, it’s panic over rejected benefits claims and its grief for an authentic life that has been placed on hold. We must acknowledge poverty for what it actually is and address it rather than just medicating the symptoms.
