Does anybody ever have panic attacks about money? I tend to do this. Logically, I know we are fine, but emotionally, I worry. I start fearing the unknown and have a minor panic attack. Usually it is in the middle of the night and I am up for awhile. I have tried just offering it up in prayer, writing down our assets so I can see it on paper, going over the budget, reading, warm milk everything.

Am I the only one that has this problem?

Not kidding here:

I was hospitalized for an anxiety attack (my first one) when we were house hunting for our first home. I was so worried about mortgage interest rates, paying monthly bills, taxes, etc. As a military family member, we are always protected by military housing and not having to pay for "extra" monthly costs, so to jump into the civilian world and to own a home, was completely foreign to me. We too were fine and completely covered, but out of the two of us, I stress more about money than dh!

I do- about once a month I will suddenly wake up and worry about this or that bill. Even if things are going "fine" the same thing happens to me! I have seen a few people be fine and then all the sudden they start losing everthing and I think that is one of my major concerns! My DH worries in his own way- he is constantly working (he works a FT job building houses and does side jobs- you name it he does it- except for electrical work- well he does not do wiring or anything like that!). His way of dealing with money is constant work but I am the one who handles all the bill paying and so on!

Me right now. Working on paying our debts and figuring out how to get a good credit. Just thinking about money gives me a headache and believe it or not I can't even sleep at night. What's worse I'm pregnant. Our goal is to be debt free by early next year. We already got all figure out but getting there and waiting for the next pay is the hardest part. Never been hospitalized though but I might soon.

BlueSky, it got much worse for me WHEN I was pregnant! I feel for you!

I know sucks doesn't it? I don't know I'm going crazy I guess I'm just laughing at our problems right now. What else I can do? Like my mom said I'm too young to be stress out and by the time I'm 25 I will look older than her and she's turning 60 next year. Yikes.

Yes, i get alot of anxiety over money. I hate making payments on anything and i always fear i won't be able to make the payments each month on time.

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Oh Claire, I do the same thing. Financially, I know we are fine (we're probably in better shape than most people), but then I start thinking about the things the we'll have to spend money on in the future (things for the house (like a new roof), eventually a newer vehicle for dh) and I start thinking about the "what if's". What if we pay all that money to put a new roof on the house and the house burns down? Won't that be a waste of money? What if one of our cars is totaled and we are forced to replace it? What if terrorists figure out a way to crash our nation's banking system? What if the country goes into another depression and we lose all the money we've worked so hard for? What if one of us gets seriously ill and it costs a king's ransom (with insurance) to get better? What if, what if, what if...this is how my mind works.

I feel your pain, Claire. I wonder why some of us worry so much about money while others float along without financial care in the world.

My husband and I were missionaries in South Africa for almost a decade. After two years, the Assemblies of God South Africa (my husband is an Assemblies of God minister) asked my husband to stop being a missionary and to work for them in their missions dept. My husband has an M.A. and and M.Div. That is why they wanted him. However, wages are very low in South Africa.

He worked for them for two years doing conferences, conventions, and teaching inter-cultural communication. Then, a large Assemblies of God church asked him to start two new academic programs in conjunction with the largest (non-denominational Protestant) Bible college in the Cape Town area of three million people. He ended up being: an associate pastor, a full-time instructor and a dept. head at the Bible college. He worked about 80-90 hours a week. I could not get a job, I did not have a work permit. So, that was not an option to help in this case.

The last four years we were in South Africa (of 8 1/2 years), my husband did not make enough to pay basic bills and have any breathing room. We lived with double-digit inflation (ave. about 12%) WITHOUT raises. The last two years we were there, I had to put food on a credit card to survive, perpetually more and more of each month. This finally drove us out of SA and back to the States. I won't even go into the crime, men raping little girls to "cure" themselves of HIV, the stresses of just living behind bars and with security systems, etc. are bad enough without financial problems.

I stopped sleeping without medication for seven years and just started being able to sleep in the last three months. (We left South Africa 3 years and 3 months ago.) I told my GP, (I got a new one about six months ago) and he told me that he wouldn't want to live like that. He also told me that everyone has his/her breaking point.

I was smart enough to figure out that I had hit mine. The problem was that I had just stayed stuck in my breaking point. There are so many other ways in which I couldn't cope besides the sleeping. I had started having panic attacks (head between the knees stuff) and chest pains, etc. now that we were back in the States. My husband has an income that more than meets basic bills with some breathing room here. I still couldn't break out of this even perpetual panic mode even though our financial situation had changed.

I began to wonder if I could come back from my breaking point. I am a Christian and I believe in healing. I examined what I believe about God and realized that I believe in God as the restorer. I began to pray and read my Bible much more than normal, asking God to restore me. After about a week, once while praying, I felt a calm presence outside of myself come over me. I felt like the wheels in a clock inside me were turning, but were out of sync and not matched up to turn together. It felt like the wheels came together and began turning together. I have been different and calmer ever since. I can sleep again. No more panic attacks. I have come to realize that while I must use money wisely, it is just a thing. Money no longer owns me, I own it.

I was set off by extreme financial trouble coupled with living in a serious inner-city like environment. That was my "trigger." I knew what my trigger was, I just couldn't get past it until my GP made that comment from me. I decided with God's help to come back from my own personal breaking point to begin to enjoy life again. BTW, my husband does nothing with the finances, I make all the decisions, pay all the bills, and have all the responsibility (this is his choice, he wants nothing to do with it). That hasn't changed, but I have changed. It is possible to come back from your breaking point. God is truly my restorer.

I literally get the shakes and nausea every time I check my bank account, which I do each morning. Even if all should be fine, I still worry that an error will happen (Qwest debited two payments of $192 each once and tried to tell me they would just apply it toward future bills - thank God for the dispute department at the bank) or something would clear that I forgot about.

I'm a bear on days I pay bills.

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