As part of Minority Mental Health Month, this episode will show you that anyone can suffer from mental health issues of any kind at any time. Especially for people who you don’t think will have issues or seem to “have it all together”.
One such person is Natalie Torres-Haddad also known as Financially Savvy Latina. Natalie is a two time TEDx Speaker, an international Award Winning Author, a bilingual podcast host, international keynote speaker and educator.
She was born in El Salvador and was raised in Inglewood, California. Natalie focuses on helping those in debt to keep working towards financial independence and advocates for mental and financial health.
In this episode, Natalie shares the story of how she experienced the mental breakdown that changed her life. She recalls the incident leading to it and how her family helped her get through it.
She describes what she went through as she spent 36 hours in an acute psychiatric hospital and what she did to recover and rebuild her life after.
Natalie also shares that she had experienced PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the LA riots of ‘92, but she learned a great lesson from it.
For a person who experienced those mental health issues, how is she managing/coping with the stress of what’s going on today?
Listen to find out.
What You Will Learn From This Episode
- What is a mental breakdown and what are the symptoms/triggers that you should be aware of
- Actual process/routine you can do to recover when you’re drowning in debt, lose your job and/or, having mental issues
- How to avoid the anxiety and stress associated when paying bills
- The importance of recognizing your trigger points and how you can deal with it to avoid relapse of your mental health illness
- Mental health barriers for the Latinx community and where to get some mental health and financial resources
“If you don’t have the money you can’t really make the changes that you want to see within our communities” – Natalie Torres-Haddad
“I don’t want to see anyone ever go through that mental breakdown that I went through. I don’t want them to find themselves with no money.” – Natalie Torres-Haddad
“There are three things that can put you in financial ruin – death, debt or disease. And for me it was a mental illness that happened to me that really made me think, I need to change some things to make sure I don’t ever find myself not with enough money.” – Natalie Torres-Haddad
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Timestamps
2:25 – Natalie’s background and when and why she became fascinated with money
4:10 – How she got PTSD and how the recent events on racial injustice affected her mental health
8:45 – Natalie’s mental breakdown, including her symptoms and how it happened
17:06 – Her experience when she was admitted in an acute psychiatric hospital
20:27 – What she did to recover her mental health state, how she dealt with the shame and how she took care of her financial affairs
23:10 – The time she publicly talked about her mental breakdown 8 years later and her first TEDx appearance
28:27 – Natalie’s actual process/routine that helped her heal and rebuild her life
35:40 – What are the stigmas and barriers that she faced as a Latina and an immigrant suffering from a mental illness
36:50 – Breaking the awkward conversations about money especially during recessions and how she became people’s money therapist
37:55 – Thinking of mental illness not as a one-time period and what are the good things that happened because of talking openly about these issues
40:54 – The trust issue that black and brown people have with therapists
44:57 – Natalie’s advice for new immigrants on how to deal with mental health and financial issues
Resources
- Financially Savvy In 20 Minutes by Natalie Torres-Haddad
- Financially Savvy In 20 Minutes (Spanish Edition) by Natalie Torres-Haddad
- Financially Savvy In 20 Minutes Podcast
- Latinx Therapy
- Therapy for Latinx
Connect with Natalie
Connect with Melanie
- mentalhealthandwealth.com
- melanielockert.com
- Contact: mentalhealthandwealthshow@gmail.com
