By: Jack Monroe / The Guardian


Translated by: Agron Shala / Telegrafi.com

The current cost-of-living crisis, which threatens to plunge millions more people into poverty, will have far more long-term effects than a summer of dissatisfaction, a few months of stomach cramps or measuring what we will spend in the supermarket.

Many well-intentioned guides have been published in recent months, offering tips on "how to succeed" and, although they do offer some practical tips that can help a small margin of people plunge into the abyss of crisis. , the truth is that most of those who have been fighting this for almost a decade have already slipped into the pit of deprivation and poverty.

Twelve years of brutal and deliberate cuts in welfare, social security and health services;

12 years of cuts in mental health services and growing reliance on the volunteer sector trying to catch people from falling into the open holes of the safety net means that those on the sharp edge have very little resource left for support in order to succeed.

And, going out is not the only concern.

Indeed, talking about "survival" in crisis or "getting out of it" is disgusting and common rhetoric in one of the richest economies in the world (UK).

It seems to me that our citizens deserve a little more than grabbing the clutches of the periphery of an existence when they put hot water bottles on their backs and put stickers on window panes, when they carefully remove coupons from free newspapers and when they fill in endless marketing surveys - each for two pennies - when they wrap the casserole with raisins to keep it warm or by "boiling" pasta in a thermos.

Poverty is exhausting.

It takes time, effort, energy, organization, impetus, an internal calculator and steel mental strength that those in the Treasury can only dream of having.

And if in the end this does not kill you, from hunger or from cold or from mental health, do you have to find refuge in the premonition of good days "to succeed"?

I'm sorry to tell you that even though your bank balance may be in the dark, so will your head.

I have written extensively over the years about how often I could not open my front door and my post office as a result of living in poverty, when the only people knocking on the door were bailiffs or debt collectors.

An unexpected visitor left me with a major panic attack.

Years of therapy have eased some of that, sometimes, but my physical and mental health will probably never fully recover.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), arthritis exacerbated by living in a cold home, difficulty breathing due to moisture, complex trauma, a range of mental health issues, an accumulation problem, and slow addiction to the burn last year, caused an almost fatal headache: my story is by no means unique or extraordinary.

Short-term exposure and the experience of poverty - whether it be home-based energy poverty, food poverty, sanitation, or the root cause of it all - insufficient resources to meet your most basic human needs - have effects long-term and disproportionate in the coming years.

Childhood exposure to poverty, deprivation and misery falls under the umbrella of unfavorable childhood experiences, known as ACE.

It is on a par with domestic abuse, childhood sexual assault, the loss of a parent, parental imprisonment, violence, and neglect.

Exposure to ACE later increases the risk of life-threatening trauma, both mentally and physically.

Bessel van der Kolk writes extensively about this phenomenon in her book Debt Consolidation: Brain, Mind, and Body in Healing, which discusses the devastating impact of trauma on those who suffer and witness it in their families and how it can to be passed down through the generations.

Those who experience trauma are often detached from the body and mind in extreme and complex ways, and this is largely misunderstood, both medically and therapeutically.

Later in life, exposure to unwanted experiences increases the risk of trauma, with less favorable health outcomes, with a negative impact on overall well-being, with an increased likelihood of dangerous or criminal behavior, with poor educational and academic performance, and financial difficulties.

Children who experience food insecurity, even short-term ones, are more likely to get sick, have slower rates of recovery, and are more likely to need hospitalization.

Food poverty does not exist in a vacuum and, as one of the basic survival instincts of our species, food is one of the last needs that people will choose to cut in a crisis.

People with disabilities are five times more likely to be at risk of food insecurity, poverty and lack of proper nutrition than people without disabilities.

And, food insecurity at any age is associated with a higher probability of chronic diseases.

The 14.5 million people living in poverty in the UK today are ticking bombs due to increased toxic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, CPTSD, cognitive impairment, depression, gum disease, chronic fatigue, osteoporosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, autoimmune disorders, suicidal ideation, and suicide.

The choice to deny people the most basic human needs today, for the sake of extracting even some money from the bottom of the well, will end up costing us as a society, as a country and as an economy - much more in the months and years in vijim.

If for the sake of sensitivity, good manners and humanity this government cannot repair the pieces of the social security net that they have deliberately destroyed, it must do so for the sake of long-term economic recovery.

And, it should start today.

/ Telegraphy /