Recovering Emotionally After Bankruptcy

Money tends to bring about negative emotions like shame and sadness. Those are just a couple of the emotions people often feel when they make the decision to file for bankruptcy, but if you want to achieve financial stability, you will need to deal with the bad feelings and learn how to overcome them.
Emotional Effects of Bankruptcy

The consequences of bankruptcy may seem disheartening or feel overwhelming. Bankruptcy can cause much stress and can sometimes be traumatic.

Focusing on the steps it takes to file bankruptcy is usually first in your mind. However, neglecting the emotional side can leave you with lingering affects long after the process is complete. When you have finally turned to bankruptcy, you have probably been juggling your finances and debt for so long that you are already mentally exhausted. A person’s self-esteem often takes a hit that’s bigger than the hit on their financial situation.

Financial therapists say that many of the ways that bankruptcy is perceived is not actually true. These are the people that usually need counseling and emotional support during a money crisis. Several psychologists have offered this kind of therapy for years, but it is a relatively new field that is quickly growing.

More and more people are coping with the effects of today’s fragile economy. They are afraid they have piled up too much debt and that bankruptcy will not offer relief for their situation. They worry about how it will affect their family and they are scared to death that their credit score will be ruined. These beliefs are severely misguided and tend to build fear and anxiety to a nearly unmanageable level. The fear and anxiety you feel makes the process of filing for bankruptcy even more difficult to handle.
Emotional Support from your Bankruptcy Attorney

Bankruptcy is not likely to be something you want to deal with; however, it can give you the space you need to take a minute to catch your breath and begin with a fresh start. Some people feel as if they are the only person on the planet who had to file for bankruptcy, but an experienced bankruptcy attorney can ease your concerns by showing you that you are not the only one who is in this particular situation.

People also think that all an attorney will do is provide legal support and that they don’t care about their emotional state. This just isn’t true. The relationship between good attorney and his client is much like the relationship between a patient and doctor. You look to your doctor for emotional support when you are ill. Your attorney should provide you with empathy and a sense of hope to help you feel better.

Sometimes the bankruptcy process is too much for a person to handle and they break down in tears in their lawyer’s office, or even in the courtroom. This can be avoided if your lawyer validates your feelings during the process and helps you feel like you can rise above this financial turmoil and control your feelings.

Bankruptcy is not a shameful thing. Look at it as being on the road to a fresh start.