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A Bad Case of Affluenza

    Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

So goes the definition of this modern pandemic. From the excellent PBS documentaries "Affluenza" and "Escape from Affluenza" to the work of renowned affluence psychologist Jessie O’Neill and to books like "Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic" and "The Overspent American: Why we want what we don't need", it is a genuine problem of the must-have-now mentality.

Whilst the limited knowledge of Affluenza in this country is focused on the very well-off or the suddenly rich and their inability to ‘cope’ with their wealth, Affluenza in reality afflicts millions of Britons and is slowly helping them towards bankruptcy.

 

The Symptoms

Whatever the level of income, it is the same symptoms which are always displayed:

  • Inability to delay gratification and tolerate frustration;

  • A false sense of entitlement;

  • Loss of future motivation;

  • Low self-worth;

  • A dysfunctional relationship with wealth or money

And these symptoms result in an ever burgeoning debt problem for those who exhibit them. From the boasting of maxing out your latest credit card to the practice of serial consolidation, the end result is the same ... borrow more money to buy more things.

Affluenza is not about shopping addictions or compulsive behaviour. If anything it is about getting your priorities wrong. About getting into the habit of buying ‘stuff’. Of constantly buying stuff, more stuff and even more stuff.

 

The Cure

The cure doesn't need to be found in the teachings of ‘lifestyle coaches’. In diatribes of how you should adopt a simpler less possession-driven lifestyle. After all, there are actually possessions out there that would give us pleasure and make our lives easier and even better. We like having things.

In fact, the cure can be found by becoming aware of the fact that you are not entitled to everything right now. That in fact if you want something, the purpose of which isn’t critical to you staying alive, then you may actually have to wait until you can afford it. Until you can purchase it, without locking yourself in to making repayments for the next 5 years.

Aspirations are excellent. You want to travel. You want to experience. You want to live. There may even be possessions that you want to, well, possess. But the problem with Affluenza is that the possession is all that it is about. The actual spending, the actual racking up of ever greater debts is of no significance to the Affluenza sufferer.

But the constant purchasing, the non-stop possessing only leads to more borrowing and more debt. Which only leads to the need to purchase more, to possess more. And so the cycle continues.

That is why it is important to sort your priorities out. To realise what you actually want from life. And what you need to live it. Is your goal for life to spend the rest of it in debt? To buy things on credit now so that, in a few years when they are worn or out-dated, you are still making the repayments on them? Or do you want more form life than just slavery to your debts?

 

Are you an Affluenza sufferer?

Only you can answer that. There are seven tell-tale signs. Seven symptoms common to most sufferers. The more symptoms you exhibit, the worse you are.

Affluenza sufferers answer yes to these questions. Will you?

  1. Do you have no life outside work? Are you working longer hours to get more things that you don’t have the time to enjoy?

  2. Do you have a false sense that you are entitled to things?

  3. Do you feel depressed? Are you left wondering why you have so many things and yet still feel empty?

  4. Are your relationships deteriorating under the pressure of ‘life’?

  5. Do you suffer from crushing debt? And does that debt never seem to get smaller?

  6. Do you suffer from low self-esteem? Do you buy things because you think they will make your life better than it is?

  7. Are you pre-occupied with external appearances? Do you worry about keeping up with the Joneses or how affluent people think you are?

Did you answer yes? How many times?

 

 

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