As many student debt borrowers can attest to from personal experience, student loans can dampen your mood. Indeed, student debt is like a shackle for many student loan borrowers that keeps them from achieving their goals, and may keep some individuals from reaching happiness in their lives. Nevertheless, there are some things you can keep in mind when dealing with depression from student loans.
Let me first say at the onset, that I do not use the term “depression” in the clinical sense. I am not a psychologist, and I do not mean to imply that the negative sentiments most people have toward student loans is anything like the clinical depression suffered by millions of Americans. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that student loans can affect your happiness, and this is what I mean when I discuss dealing with depression from student loans.
As discussed in several prior articles, student debt substantially impacted my mental health. I felt that my student loans were a damper on everything I did, and that paying off my student loans would allow me to pursue happiness in a way not possible while shackled by student debt. I thought about my student loans every day, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I spent most of my waking hours thinking about my student debt.
I employed a few different strategies when dealing with depression from student loans. One of the tactics I employed was to calculate the progress I was making toward debt repayment. Every time I made a student loan payment, I assessed how much principal of my debt I had repaid, and how the interest that accrued on my debt each day was going down.
This strategy for dealing with depression from student loans offers a number of benefits. For one, thinking about paying off debt can take attention away from the outstanding balance of debt and how long it may take to pay off student loans. Also, focusing on repaying loans can make borrowers feel better, since they see how they are taking solid steps toward freeing themselves of their student loans.
Another strategy that I used when dealing with depression from student loans was to remind myself that many other people had student loans, and some had more debt than me. I sometimes felt during my student debt repayment saga that my burden was unique to myself, and I had difficulty seeing the forest for the trees of the student debt crisis.
However, it always helped me to meet other people with student loans, and to know that I did not do anything wrong that resulted in my student debt burden. Even though I had an unbelievable amount of student loans, there were people with even more debt than I, and this showed me that my burden was not as bad as others. If you keep in mind that many people are struggling with student loans, and some people have more debt than yourself, you may have a more positive outlook about your student debt situation.
An important thing you can keep in mind when dealing with depression from student loans is debt fatigue. As mentioned in prior articles, debt fatigue is when you save so much, and cut expenses to a bare minimum, that it affects your mindset and makes it more difficult to save money for additional periods of time. During my own student debt repayment saga, I was able to go years without spending too much money on luxuries, but at a certain point, I had taken a less drastic saving strategy since I had burnt out.
As a result, everyone should reward themselves while paying off student loans and not be too drastic with their saving strategies. For instance, many money-saving websites discourage people from buying coffee out, since you can make much cheaper coffee at home. Nevertheless, it can be a hassle to carry coffee around with you from home, and the coffee at coffee shops is usually far superior to anything you can brew at home. As a result, if that coffee at Dunkin’ or Starbucks will boost your morale, it is fine to shell out money for this small expense, since this can help you avoid debt fatigue.
Another way that you can avoid feeling down when dealing with depression from student loans is to think what life will be like after you have completely paid of your student debt. During my student debt repayment saga, I thought about my life after student loans on an almost daily basis. I dreamed about all of the traveling I would do with the money I would free up by being debt free and all of the financial goals I could work toward without the burdens of student debt. I also thought about the sense of accomplishment that would be mine when I finally accomplished my longtime goal of paying off my student debt. Never doubt the power of positive thinking, and if you keep your mind on what it will be like to pay off your student debt, this might help you contend with stress while paying off student loans.
In the end, there are a number of strategies that you can employ when dealing with depression from student loans. Sometimes it pays to splurge on a few luxuries so that you can boost your morale and avoid debt fatigue. In addition, it often pays to think positively and imagine what life will be like without student debt.