The Mental Illness Tax: What It Is and How To Avoid It
Having a mental illness can be expensive. Here’s how to mitigate some of that.
I want to open this piece by clarifying that there is no literal government tax on mental illness. At least not that I’m aware of.
No, what we are talking about today is the hidden costs of having a mental illness that causes you to be distractible, run low on energy very quickly, or go through mood swings. It is commonly known as the ADHD tax among the mental illness community, but I’ve found that it applies to many people with other illnesses, so I’m just using the term “mental illness tax” to keep it broad.
The mental illness tax is when you encounter a sudden cost that is the direct result of your illness. It’s when you forget that you bought a crown of broccoli two weeks ago and now it’s bad. It’s the late fees on the bill you meant to pay the other day and now you owe an extra $20. It’s that weight set you bought yourself to be healthier and used once.
There are many reasons for this tax. You may simply forget that you bought something because your illness causes you to have scattered thought processes. You may buy something when you’re motivated due to mania and then lose interest when your mood shifts. You may buy something in bulk intending to freeze it, but then never do because you don’t have the energy and it goes bad.
I’ve done all of these things. At one point, I spent $75 to buy a piece of exercise equipment from a friend who was cleaning out her house. It sat in my garage for months before I disassembled it and moved it to my basement, where I used it exactly twice. It now takes up space down there and collects dust.
I’ve had entire family-sized packages of meat go bad because I intended to bag and freeze it, but never did because I was in a depression and didn’t have the energy. Countless bags of brussel sprouts have rotted in my produce drawer because I intended to cook them for dinner, but didn’t feel like cooking for two weeks and just had oven pizzas and takeout instead.
The problem is that these costs can pile up quickly. Eating healthier and taking care of yourself is great, but it becomes expensive if the things you buy to do so either sit unused or rot in your fridge.
So, how do you get around this? There are several ways. Counterintuitively, one of them is by spending more money.
Do you want to take a multivitamin but can’t remember to take it every day? Get a gummy vitamin. They’re a bit more expensive than regular pills, but I’ve found that I actually enjoy eating a little sweet gummy thing before bed every night, so I actually take them instead of just having them sit unused.
Want to eat more veggies but hate preparing them? Buy pre-washed and cut veggies instead. Yeah, they’re a bit more expensive, but if you’re more likely to use them, then you’re not wasting the cost of whole veggies that go bad. Salad kits are great for this, as they have everything you need to make a salad with no prep work.
Do you like cooking but hate prep work? Buy whole meal kits. Yes, they are more expensive than parting everything out yourself, but it also saves 30 minutes of prep that you can use on other things. When you’ve got a limited amount of energy in a day to do productive things, saving 30 minutes can be a godsend. And again, it beats the heck out of spending a bunch of money on ingredients that will go bad.
This works for multiple food products. Like soup but hate preparing it? Buy them in the pre-packaged cups that go in the microwave. Fewer dishes and less prep means less waste and less sunk energy costs. Got freezer space? Buy veggies that you microwave in the bag so you don’t have to use a pan to cook them on the stove.
I keep several bags of frozen veggies in our freezer that I add to various dishes I prepare. Not having to prep them means they just get dumped into whatever I’m cooking with no fuss. I also tend to keep several quick-prep frozen options on hand, like frozen salmon fillets, frozen fish sticks, and other frozen meals that go in the microwave or oven.
I also keep lots of canned fruit on hand. Sometimes I feel like something sweet but know that I should be healthier than eating a bunch of cookies, so I’ll go grab a can of mandarin oranges or fruit cocktail and eat that directly from the can. It helps me get some nutrition into my body, costs a dollar or less per can, and keeps for a long time. Plus, I don’t have to process fruit that may just sit and go bad on my counter.
Another tip is to plan ahead to mitigate costs. Do you forget to pay bills? Set up an auto-payment so your bills get paid. Overdraft a lot? Keep an extra $500 in your checking account and replenish it when you can. Do things electronically as much as possible. I find it’s easier to manage my finances from my phone or computer, which helps keep me from paying late fees and interest. Motivating yourself to do anything by snail mail these days is hard when I can just spend two minutes paying bills online.
This goes for purchases too. Feel like starting an exercise program? Before you invest in a bunch of equipment or a gym membership, try some free stuff on YouTube. If you really want to buy equipment, start cheap. If you find out that you like it, you can invest in better stuff later. If you stop using it after a week, you haven’t spent way more money than you should on equipment that will gather dust.
Want to start a hobby? Start cheap. I wanted to pick up the ukulele a few years ago, but I bought an inexpensive starter model. I played it for about a year before I lost the motivation to practice, and I honestly feel like I got my money’s worth out of that cheap instrument as opposed to buying an expensive one that would feel like a waste.
Planning helps with food prep as well. As I said, I’ve had packages of meat go bad because I forgot to process them. I find that if I bag and freeze them as soon as I get home from the store, they don’t go bad. It can be hard — there are times where I get back from the store, spend an hour processing and putting things away, and then wind up being useless for the rest of the day. However, by sinking a little more energy when I’m already moving, I don’t pay the money tax.
It helps to think of money, willpower, and energy as equivalent but limited resources. If you have willpower and energy, you can save money by buying food in bulk and processing it quickly. If you’re low on willpower and/or energy, you can supplement by spending a bit of extra money on pre-prepared or frozen stuff to save more in the long run by making it easier on yourself.
It also helps to understand that because willpower and energy are limited resources, time saved by spending money can be applied elsewhere. Buying a meal prep kit and saving 30 minutes of energy can be applied to getting the dishes done, or taking out the trash, or tidying the house. By applying spoon theory to energy consumption, saving a spoon by not doing prep work means that spoon can be used somewhere else.
There are countless options for avoiding the mental illness tax. If you’re interested, you can go to this thread on Reddit, which inspired a lot of this article. There are quite a few comments with suggestions for other things to do to avoid paying the tax.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can look for the term “ADHD tax,” which is the common term for it. I don’t have ADHD, but as someone with bipolar that exhibits many similar symptoms, I relate strongly to it, which is why I called it the “mental illness tax” in this article. I know lots of other people with a range of chronic illnesses that also relate, so it can be applied even more broadly than just mental illness.
I know that having food go bad feels like a waste and tends to make me feel bad about myself. So for me, paying a little extra for pre-prepared stuff helps my mental health as well as saving the cost of rotten veggies. Yeah, it’s more expensive up front, but saving money in the long run, helps me feel better about myself.
Remember, there is no shame in having a mental illness, and there is no shame in taking care of yourself. Self-care can be many things to many people, and for some of us, it means not feeling like a bad person because you let food go bad or spent a bunch of money on stuff you don’t use. If buying frozen veggies and inexpensive hobby equipment helps me feel better about myself and saves me money in the long run, you bet I’m doing it.
Also, remember that there is no shame in falling down on this. We can all be impulsive sometimes, and sometimes that means you pay the tax. Try not to beat yourself up over it. Take a breath and try to do better next time. Sometimes, all we can do is learn a lesson from the experience, but that is a valuable thing.
As always, practice self-care and don’t stress too much. Taxes may be one of life’s certainties, but you can do your best to avoid paying more than your share.
