Financial dysmorphia: When your bank account doesn’t match how you feel

Julien* has a good job in finance in Luxembourg, lives in a comfortable home and has over 100.000 euros in his savings account alone. However, this 40-year-old panics whenever he has to make financial decisions. "I'm careful all the time. I have a paralysing fear about being poor. I was once overdrawn by 100 euros several years ago, and that traumatised me."

Julien thinks he may be suffering from "financial dysmorphia", a term generally applied to people who have a distorted perception of their personal finances, who earn a good living but believe themselves to be poor.

One of the main symptoms is profound anxiety about finances, which goes beyond the usual concerns such as the cost of living crisis or worries about the threat of recession. This stress is deeper, insidious and obsessive.

Google searches for 'financial dysmorphia' have reached new heights in the past year. A report has revealed that nearly a third of Americans suffer from financial dysmorphia, based on a survey of 1.000 people commissioned by financial company Credit Karma. The proportion is even higher among young people, with 43 per cent of Generation Z and 41 per cent of millennials suffering from financial dysmorphia. Many of those surveyed had more than 10.000 dollars in savings.