Recently, as I was surfing around the web, I found yet another website offering misguided, uninformed and irrelevant advice to people who are stressed, depressed or anxious. The site had the following advice for sufferers:

Most people who become stressed, anxious or depressed do so because they are experiencing financial difficulties. Debt is a big problem for a lot of people, and many struggle to service debts because they are on a low income. Other factors include poverty, unemployment, and a feeling of worthlessness because financial aspirations havent been met. Money is one of the biggest causes of stress and depression in the Western world.

It is a statement I have seen and heard from many people, from medical professionals to sufferers and of course, in many publications and websites. Im sure you too will have either been told money is the root cause of your problems or heard it from various sources.

Identifying money as the root cause of stress, depression and anxiety is wholly inaccurate and completely wrong. Financial circumstances, no matter what they are, CANNOT cause you to become stressed, depressed and anxious. In fact, they have NOTHING to do with the root cause of these problems WHATSOEVER.

It is so easily proved its amazing that some people believe otherwise.

If financial hardships and poverty cause people to enter into an episode of mental trauma, then everyone who is poor, is in debt, or earns a low income must, by definition, be stressed, depressed or anxious. You are saying that if you are poor you must be stressed, depressed or anxious. Agreed?

Following on from this, logic would then dictate:

If you are wealthy, without debt and earning a high income, you cannot be depressed, stressed or anxious because the root cause doesnt exist in your life.

To simplify: Poverty causes stress, depression and anxiety. Wealth does not.

Clearly, reality is greatly at odds with this.

Not everybody who has debts, earns a minimum wage, is poor and endures financial hardship is stressed, depressed or anxious. Indeed, many people throughout the world live in extreme poverty and yet theyre happy. Like me, Im sure you know people who have very little but are perfectly happy with their lives.

And lets not forget that many famous, wealthy people also suffer from stress, depression and anxiety. Abraham Lincoln, Rod Steiger, Winston Churchill, Robbie Williams are names that spring immediately to mind. In my own case, I reached my lowest point having paid off all of my debts including the mortgage and having more assets than ever before in my life.

None of it mattered to me at all.

The last line also gives an insight into how self-worth doesnt derive from financial success. I drove a $25,000 sports car, owned two houses outright and had many investments and yet I felt life had nothing for me, that having lost everyone and everything I ever loved Id completely ruined my life beyond repair and I just couldnt take anymore.

So you can see, financial hardship does not and cannot cause you to become stressed, depressed or anxious. And financial success doesnt mean that youll be free from mental trauma. Thats because the root cause as to why anyone enters into an episode of stress, depression and anxiety is because they perform flawed, harmful modes of thinking to make sense out of the circumstances they are faced with.

Address the modes of thinking at the root of these problems and youll take a giant stride towards conquering stress, depression and anxiety whether youre as poor as a church mouse or as wealthy as a King.

Copyright 2006 Christopher Green