Giving Compass' Take:

• Dyvonne Body explores the consequences of consumer debt including the 16% of suicides motivated by financial stress. 

• How can funders work to minimize the impacts of consumer debt on individuals? 

• Learn how to help American workers achieve financial stability. 

On March 8, 2016, Jerome Rogers was found dead near his childhood home in South London. Jerome, a 20-year-old courier, committed suicide in response to the pressure of his mounting debt. In less than four months, two unpaid traffic fines spiraled from £65 to over £1,000 — an amount well above his means to pay. After debt collectors began to threaten Jerome with seizure of assets and additional charges, he tragically chose to take his own life.

Although Jerome’s story is rare, the burden of debt on mental health is not. In the US alone, individuals who struggle to pay off their debts and loans are more than twice as likely to experience mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. Today’s unprecedented levels of consumer debt prompt further exploration of its effect on mental and physical well-being.

While suicide is not a common response to unmanageable debt, it remains a leading cause of death in the US. The potential of suicide increases among financially distressed individuals as debt levels become harder to manage. Suicide rates have increased by more than 30 percent since 1999 according to a recent report by the Center for Disease Control. Like Jerome, more than half of people who die by suicide do not have a history of depression or mental illness. Almost 30 percent of suicides occur in response to a crisis within the past two weeks and 16 percent occur in response to a financial problem.

Among individuals with consumer debt, those in financial distress, or those who struggle to repay debts, are more likely to report lower life satisfaction and higher anxiety. Similarly, research published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that high debt-to-asset ratios are also associated with higher perceived stress and depression. When looking at young adults with student debt, those with high levels of debt stress reported feeling more tense and anxious, troubled by physical problems, and having greater difficulty getting to sleep than students with low levels of debt stress. Looking across multiple studies, a strong consensus emerges among researchers correlating debt and mental health. A 2010 meta-analysis of over 60 diverse papers confirmed a significant relationship, with further links between debt and suicide completion, drug and alcohol abuse, and health outcomes such as obesity.

Read the full article about consumer debt and health by Dyvonne Body at Aspen EPIC.