The financial disorder syndrome

Fact Checked

Under review

Financial disorder syndrome comprises a set of behaviors that have in common the desperate desire to spend all the money we have, most of the time on buying things we don’t need. It is due to an internal dissatisfaction that has not been addressed.

We speak of financial disorder syndrome when a person spends his money compulsively, without taking into account the negative consequences that your attitude can generate in the future. It corresponds to that behavior in which the person is very weak or vulnerable to the impulse to buy.

Spending excessively is a dangerous attitude not only because compromises the person’s resources, but also because it increases dependency, reducing the potency of other reinforcers. It is likely to become a mania that has undesirable consequences for both finances and overall quality of life.

The syndrome of financial disorder corresponds to self-destructive behavior and, in many cases, also unconscious. The affected person does not have the conscious intention of squandering his money and remaining without resources. However, in practice, that is precisely what he does.

“In addition to being an economy of excess and waste, consumerism is also, and precisely for that reason, an economy of deception. It bets on the irrationality of consumers, and not on their well-informed decisions made cold; bets on awakening consumerist emotion, and not on cultivating reason”.

-Zygmunt Bauman-

Consumption and consumerism

Financial disorder syndrome is a disorder that arose associated with consumerism. This trend began to gain strength at the beginning of the 20th century and was consolidated in the first years of the 21st century. The factor that has most influenced this boom is advertising.

Read Also: When the demand demands too much of us

Before the last century, excessive consumption was frowned upon. Saving habits were held in high esteem by individuals and societies and, in general, there was a purpose of accumulation of resources rather than squandering them. These were also times when available goods were limited.

As industrial production made goods cheaper, more and more people had access to more goods. This corresponds to a new type of economy in which mass consumption is needed to generate high volume profits. For this reason, different credit systems were also invented, so that consumption was increasingly extensive.

Advertising made the middle and lower classes identify well-being and freedom with the ability to buy. In practice, the opposite happens: the more you buy, the greater the dependence on the market and the more severe the commitments made to pay. Even so, the possibility of buying gives a certain feeling of power, in addition to the conviction that it increases social status.

The financial disorder syndrome

What characterizes consumerism, and those who suffer from financial disorder syndrome, is the fact that most of what is purchased is actually unnecessary.

The enjoyment is no longer in acquiring something to satisfy some need, but in the very fact of buying.. The purchases induced by the consumerist attitude are, as a general rule, superfluous and unnecessary.

Advertising is not only made up of commercials that invite us to purchase a certain product. More decisive are the messages that circulate through what we call “the culture of entertainment” and, currently, social networks and their “influencers.”.

“Famous people” and “celebrities” become models of success, when one aspect that stands out about them is their ability to consume.

Emphasis is usually placed on the dresses they wear, the cars they drive, the trips they take, the furniture they buy, etc. They set by example a desirable lifestyle, which has the appearance of ideal. Leading an analogous life is what motivates many people with financial disorder syndrome.

Beyond appearances

In the syndrome of financial disorder, consumerism is just a smokescreen. What lies behind this is confusion, deep dissatisfaction and, often, ignorance.. People who have a lot of money usually do not tend to make impulsive expenses. Those with the greatest economic power in the world do not seek to spend as much as to accumulate.

Read Also: Schadenfreude: joy at the evil of others

Dissatisfaction with oneself, with circumstances or the perception of low control over the environment is what usually causes a person to increase their expenses. In one way or another, there is awareness that it is an illusion, but it stimulates so much that one prefers to live it, even if it is temporarily and at the cost of serious consequences. That bottomless barrel, which no purchase completely fills, is built on frustrations that we have not faced.

Smart management of our finances enriches our mental health. On the contrary, That dissatisfaction that leads us to spend without control can be addressed in psychological termsthus treating the origin of the real problem.

We can achieve understanding of what happens to us, pacify that self-destructive desire and live more satisfied with much less.