Defining the connection between poverty and mental illness is a chicken-and-egg scenario: does mental illness create an inability to overcome a state of poverty, or does poverty increase or perpetuate the occurrence of mental illness?
How Struggling on the Economic Margins Affects Mental Health
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly one in five adults in the United States experiences a mental health condition each year. For families living below the federal poverty line, mental illness is even more prevalent and pernicious.