Manic episodes often lead to impulsive spending, drained bank accounts, and financial stress. Learn how to protect your savings with expert tips and real-life strategies.
During the highs of bipolar disorder, money can seem limitless, and the desire to spend it feels urgent and wise.
But when the high ends — and in a crash — regret and reality set in. We’re left with closets and cupboards stuffed with unneeded items or, at worst, emptied savings accounts and enormous credit card bills.
Overspending splurges — whether buying the same sweater in 10 different colors or plane tickets for a round-the-world trip — can harm relationships, diminish quality of life, erase financial security, and upend plans for the future.
But mental health experts, certified financial planners, and people who’ve experienced bipolar-boosted buying say there are many good strategies to get back on your feet and prevent future overspending.
How Bipolar Disorder Creates the ‘Perfect Storm’ for Overspending
It almost goes without saying that the most effective way to avoid out-of-control purchasing is to avoid out-of-control highs. Reckless behavior is a defining symptom of mania, and excessive spending is one of the most common types of recklessness, says psychiatrist William Coryell, MD, professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
“It’s common enough that it’s one of my screening questions,” says Dr. Coryell.
As part of the mood shift, self-confidence and impulsive behavior increase while judgment and insight are compromised.
RELATED: Managing Money Worries With Bipolar Disorder: Strategies for Financial Stability
“It’s kind of like a perfect storm for overspending,” says psychiatrist George Hadjipavlou, MD, with the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “You totally underestimate risk and overestimate your ability to do things, such as earn money and pay it back.”
This altered thinking is quite obvious to Judy of Chicago.
“I’m a very good money manager when I am ‘okay,’” she says. Yet for many years, she often wasn’t “okay,” because she didn’t adhere to bipolar treatment.
During one manic binge, she bought three condos in a single day. Another time, she rented a hotel suite, invited homeless people to shower and clean up there, and gave them new clothes. That episode racked up $6,000 on her credit card.
“It just seemed doable,” she says of her mindset during those times.
Such behavior isn’t limited to full mania. One study found that risk-taking behavior, such as significant spending, is common during hypomania and often linked with serious consequences, including conflict with family members and financial hardship.
The study found that most of the 93 participants said they had spent a large amount of money when hypomanic, ranging from $100 to $750,000, on items such as clothing, gifts, plane tickets, vehicles, and real estate.
Bipolar Disorder and the Compulsion to Overspend
When emotions overtake Tia R. (not her real name) of Calgary, Alberta, it feels almost impossible to stop shopping. “It seems like any money I have, I just have to get rid of it,” says Tia. “The compulsion to spend is so overwhelming that it’s difficult to control.”
Her excessive consumption began — along with depressive and euphoric episodes — in her teens, although she wasn’t diagnosed with bipolar until years later. She first recognized her spending problem in her late twenties, such as excessive purchases of sporting equipment and household linens.
“I can’t tell you how many duvets I got,” she says, adding, “I could spend a thousand dollars on napkins and candles.”
She also spent lavishly on services that made her feel better, such as hair and nail care and restaurant meals, especially while her husband was overseas in the military.
“I’d been through a lot of emotional ups and downs in life,” reflects Tia, who endured an abusive childhood. “I think the spending was how I coped with not coping.”
Mania, meanwhile, brings on “massive compulsive overspending.” Over a two-year period, while she and her doctor were adjusting Tia’s medications, she had episodes when she racked up tens of thousands of dollars in purchases. As a result, her savings became depleted. To help them recover financially, she and her husband had to sell their home and move in with a relative.
An Accountability Plan Can Help Prevent Impulsive Shopping
Tia wrote a contract promising her family that she would follow a wellness plan, attend Debtors Anonymous support group meetings, track her spending (she uses a free app for managing expenses), follow a monthly budget, and allow family members to ask her about her finances — and any symptoms they notice — without her getting defensive.
She has discovered that taking a photo of something she wants stops her from obsessing about buying the item. When she buys something, she only uses cash. She placed a hold on her accounts so that she would have to go to the bank to withdraw money. That measure alone helped her accumulate enough savings to buy a car.
Tia says it was hard to turn to family and close friends because she thought she could manage on her own.
“I had to recognize that I was not in control of my spending and able to make sound decisions relating to my finances — and needed to ask for help,” she says. “Getting to that point was huge. I think we all want to be independent. I am grateful to have a supportive family and friends who are willing to help me.”
Rebuilding Trust With Others After Manic Money Behavior
During two manic episodes marked by hypersexuality, Tom, of Pennsylvania, opened credit card accounts and blew tens of thousands of dollars. Some money went to hotel rooms, some to furnishing an apartment he rented.
Now reconciled with his wife, Mona, he leaves all money decisions to her. It’s one way to rebuild the trust that was tested by his manic behavior.
Tom doesn’t spend a dollar, even on gas, without checking in. His one credit card typically lives in a block of ice in the freezer, a built-in time delay so he can reconsider before using it. Mona also goes online daily to monitor their bank account transactions.
Tom’s second manic spree was followed by a depressive crash that kept him out of work for a month. As a kind of silver lining, he received an accurate diagnosis of bipolar and hasn’t slipped into full mania since then.
Yet the debts he ran up, compounded by loss of income and pre-existing financial complications, left the family in a precarious situation. They used credit cards and refinanced their house to get by. Ultimately, they owed $175,000 and declared bankruptcy a few years later.
Tom began working 60 to 80 hours weekly as a paramedic to keep up with bills and college loan payments. Mona also found a part-time job as a school librarian, which allowed her to be home when their two kids were. She recommends that partners of those with bipolar have a plan to support themselves, if necessary.
“Plan for the worst, expect the best,” says Mona. “That is how I sleep at night, knowing I could do it all myself if I had to.”
Finding Financial Security After Bipolar Spending Sprees
To keep down expenses, the family cut back on extras, such as premium cable and pricier cell phone plans. They also fund their children’s athletic activities, which require some travel to competitions, but very little goes to just-for-fun pursuits.
“We rarely go out to dinner,” Mona says. “I don’t think we’ve ever been on a family vacation.”
She accepts the reality as part of her marriage, saying, “I really do believe, ‘in sickness and in health.’ I think too many people go into marriage expecting it to be rainbows, unicorns, and roses. Tom and I really have a good relationship when he’s not manic.”
Tom adds, “If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be out on the street or dead by now. Obviously, I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Strategies to Prevent Bipolar Overspending
Once a person is in the throes of a full-blown manic episode, sometimes the only way to prevent serious financial damage is hospitalization. However, there are money management strategies — like Tia’s hold on her bank accounts — that limit the opportunity to overspend.
RELATED: 7 Tips From Financial Planners to Protect Your Money From Mania
Sarah knows how important such protections can be. Two decades ago, unrecognized bipolar turned her affluent life upside down and drained her savings.
“I went through over $100,000 in under a year,” says Sarah. “At the time, it seemed reasonable.”
In addition to compulsive shopping and grandiose spending, Sarah impulsively left her husband and legal career in Australia, moved to the United States, and began an expensive degree program in an unrelated field. Getting her diagnosis helped Sarah come to terms with the irrational decisions that splintered her comfortable existence.
“I had been so full of shame and regret — it was easier now to understand my behavior, and I actually preferred the idea that I was ‘mad’ and not ‘bad!’” she writes on the website Bipolar Lives.
Sarah mastered the tools to stay in balance and was able to reestablish herself in a well-paying job in Florida. Committed to her treatment plan, she hasn’t had a serious mood episode in the eight years since she was diagnosed.
Even so, she has a written contract promising she’ll turn over her financial affairs to her fiancé, complete with power of attorney, if she experiences a serious mood shift. The couple also tracks their spending and savings through a money management website that pulls in and analyzes their bank and credit card transactions.
“Removing that opportunity for secrecy is a critical piece,” says Sarah.
Changing Manic Overspending Patterns for Good
Judy, the Chicago woman who almost owned three condos, was generally able to ride out the aftermath of her manic money blowouts. The toll on her most precious relationship — with her daughter, Marina — was harder to ignore.
Judy would pay down her debts when she was well, even while on disability for more than a year. She was released from those condo contracts because the developer’s wife had bipolar disorder, too, and he understood Judy’s situation. And Marina often stepped in to try to fix things.
When the younger woman spotted evidence of a spree, such as shopping bags of expensive clothes in her usually frugal mother’s home or car, she’d return the purchases. At times, she also covered some of Judy’s bills, knowing her mother would recompensate her later. And, on occasion, “to stop the bleeding, I’d cancel her credit cards,” Marina recalls.
Over time, however, the cycle of out-of-control behavior pushed their relationship to the breaking point. Marina told her mother the stress was getting to be too much and she would break their close tie if something didn’t change.
During a hospitalization, Judy made a commitment to herself — and her daughter — to avoid a return of problematic symptoms. She worked closely with her doctor to find medication she would stick with and benefited greatly from support groups. Ever since, her finances have been stable, and she and Marina have a good relationship.
“For me personally, it was important to finally accept the diagnosis, accept the treatment, and accept the responsibility that recovery was in my hands,” says Judy, who was once president of Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance – Greater Chicago. “If you don’t accept responsibility, then you have no motivation to make changes.”
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
Fletcher K, Parker G, Paterson A, Synnott H. High-Risk Behaviour in Hypomanic States. Journal of Affective Disorders. March 2013.
UPDATED: Originally printed as “Bipolar & Overspending: Don’t break the bank,” Fall 2013