Health anxiety turning into money anxiety

Hello,

Has anyone had anxiety shift patterns? I’ve always suffered with health anxiety but recently my anxiety has really shifted to money anxiety.

My big fear is that I have only had a mortgage for two years. When I took out the mortgage my credit rating was excellent and I had no credit card debt at all. I now have a lot on credit cards and therefore my rating has dropped to average, although I always pay the bills on time.

My health anxiety has disappeared and I am now obsessed that the bank will see this and take my mortgage away. I’ve never missed a payment but I’m terrified they Will see the credit card debt racked up in a short space of time and decide I’m awful with money so pull the mortgage.

Worrying about it has me spiralling back into feeling breathless and all sorts of physical anxiety.

I have signed up to Experian and cut up the credit cards so I can pay each month and not add anything to them. But I can’t shake this obsessive worrying.

I’m spiralling with thoughts of my bank account being closed, having to tell my work I have no bank account anymore, mortgage being taken away and then ending up homeless.

Hopefully I’m catastrophising but my anxiety keeps telling me I have every reason to worry.

Anyone with money triggered anxiety, how do you get it under control?

Many thanks everyone

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DaisyFay

My health anxiety has disappeared and I am now obsessed that the bank will see this and take my mortgage away. I’ve never missed a payment but I’m terrified they Will see the credit card debt racked up in a short space of time and decide I’m awful with money so pull the mortgage.

---

Your HA hasn't disappeared, it's just that your anxiety over money is overriding it at the moment.

The only reason the bank would repossess your house of if you don't pay your mortgage - and even then there is lenience if you speak to them as soon as you know there is a problem - but as far as I can see, this doesn't apply to you.

As far as I know, having credit card debt (who doesn't these days) shouldn't affect your mortgage. Why should it if you make the payments?

If you've never missed a mortgage payment, and you pay your bills on time, you can't possibly be as awful with money as you think...

You need to rationalise this.

You've taken positive steps with the credit card (good) so now you need to focus on bringing the debt down and now you're not spending anything on them, that will be easier. Try and pay more than the minimum payment if you can - and it will eventually come down. Maybe make a direct debit so that this happens automatically and you can stop thinking about it?

Thank you so much for your reply.

Saying that my HA anxiety hasn’t disappeared and it’s just money anxiety overriding it, really hit home.

You are totally right. It’s the same beast but with a different disguise. So I now know to use some of my HA anxiety methods to get this current anxiety under control.

Thank you so much for helping me rationalise it all as well. That is exactly what I need in my spiral. Someone to rationalise it clearly for me, then make a plan of what I’m going to do about the problem and use some of my anxiety methods.

Thank you so much

Banks don't close accounts or 'pull' mortgages because you have spent money on credit cards. You're worrying about something that doesn't happen.

A bank will repossess your house if you don't pay your mortgage, that's it.

The problem here isn't even money anxiety, it's you creating imaginary situations in your mind that simply don't happen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DaisyFay

Hello,

Has anyone had anxiety shift patterns? I’ve always suffered with health anxiety but recently my anxiety has really shifted to money anxiety.

My big fear is that I have only had a mortgage for two years. When I took out the mortgage my credit rating was excellent and I had no credit card debt at all. I now have a lot on credit cards and therefore my rating has dropped to average, although I always pay the bills on time.

My health anxiety has disappeared and I am now obsessed that the bank will see this and take my mortgage away. I’ve never missed a payment but I’m terrified they Will see the credit card debt racked up in a short space of time and decide I’m awful with money so pull the mortgage.

Worrying about it has me spiralling back into feeling breathless and all sorts of physical anxiety.

I have signed up to Experian and cut up the credit cards so I can pay each month and not add anything to them. But I can’t shake this obsessive worrying.

I’m spiralling with thoughts of my bank account being closed, having to tell my work I have no bank account anymore, mortgage being taken away and then ending up homeless.

Hopefully I’m catastrophising but my anxiety keeps telling me I have every reason to worry.

Anyone with money triggered anxiety, how do you get it under control?

Many thanks everyone

---

Hi DaisyFay, sorry to hear you’re struggling at the moment. Just wanted to say i used to work for one of the high street banks in their mortgage department & firstly what ever debt you happen to accrue on credit cards does not affect your mortgage status, & contrary to popular belief no bank ever wants to re possess somebody’s home. You are paying you’re mortgage, thats all a bank needs to see. I think you’re right in saying that you’re catastrophising about the situation which is understandable with the way things are at the moment for everyone. Try not to worry & take care.

Yeah you should absolutely not worry about this. As long as you’re paying your bills, they could care less how much debt you have. No one will pull your mortgage because of excess credit card debt. They would be silly to do that, because your mortgage lender is making money off of you monthly through the interest payment portion of your loan. The bank also won’t close any of your accounts for debt.

I will say you’re smart to focus on paying back some of that debt, and cutting up the cards is a great way to not continue to rack up further debt. It’s so easy to get so deep in debt without even noticing. Speaking from experience here lol.

Hi. I advise you to calm down and often drink soothing tea. Also think that really just close your credit cards whenever possible and the day will come when you will have one mortgage. Turn over debts is not very good:)

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all of your replies. I really appreciate them. Without even realising what I was truly doing, I had swapped googling symptoms, to checking my credit rating constantly and obsessing over it everyday.
I definitely let anxiety slip by without recognising it this time!
I haven’t logged into this site for a while but just when I was about to check my credit rating again tonight, I decided to come on here instead and saw all of your replies. Thank you so much for the rationality and talk down.
Really helped rationalise the fears I’ve been creating lately.
Great to hear from someone who has worked in a bank as well. Someone on the other side of what I fear! Thank you,

I just observed that money anxiety is making people worry a lot, ruminate to a lot of things and really makes people sick. And when it comes to money, people fight too. :huh::weep: