What’s Behind The Great Obsession With Hoarding Money?

Surely all of you will have in mind very rich people who, due to their excessive attachment to money, have come to an unpleasant end. Betrayals, corruption, prison stories, doubts… These are some of the consequences that obsession with money can lead to.

Some people are obsessed with the idea of ​​accumulating wealth and possessions. Any interest in them is subordinated to the desire to earn more every day. Even family, friends, partner, and their own person stop being important to them when they see a chance to increase income or possessions.

Money in the right amount helps us to live better in a world dominated by capitalism, but let’s not forget that it is nothing but pieces of paper that have been given commercial value. Having enough money to live in dignity is necessary: ​​we must feed ourselves, shelter under a roof and get dressed.

The problem arises when we feel so empty inside or so in need of something indefinite that we use the money to plug these emotional holes.

Is it all about money?

For many people, money is a short-term reinforcement. Such reinforcement fuels the obsessive ideas of accumulating more and more. People with this condition constantly need positive reinforcement so that they feel that it is never enough.

But having a lot of money does not just mean seeing your bank account increase conspicuously: in our society, having a lot of money is closely linked to success and, consequently, to being people who are worth more or less.

The need for approval of these people leads them to make great efforts, to commit crimes or to get into debt with the sole aim of showing that they are successful people, worthy of being admired by others.

If we dig deeper, we will see that beyond the reinforcement offered by money and the need for social recognition, there is more. Even the adrenaline that one feels when committing prohibited acts or crimes turns into a great reinforcement. Acting recklessly can be a powerful drug for these people, a drug that distorts their way of perceiving reality, leading them to think that, in this way, they are more interesting and attractive.

And what do they get in the end? As in any other case of hedonism in which protagonism wins in the short term, these people end up losing their deepest values ​​and principles. For them, there is no longer anything of value and no possessions, successes or quantities are more sufficient.

In the long run, too, they lose their friends, they can destroy their families, get into trouble and suffer the most terrible of loneliness.

This obsessive need to be accepted by others (considering that they cannot even be accepted by themselves) leads them to the very situation they fear most. Due to their self-fulfilling prophecy, they remain alone, without the approval of others for which they have sacrificed everything.

The mental need they experience is never fully satisfied. This clearly shows us that the solution to their inner emptiness cannot be something as superficial as having more or less money, property or assets.

The solution comes through reviewing their own scale of values ​​and understanding that, in fact, everything they need is already in their hands.

Examples like The Wolf of Wall Street  or cases of political corruption make the underlying message of this article real. It is clear that there are people who are so empty inside that they need an external element to fill their shortcomings. What drives these individuals to ask for even more than what they already have? What kind of life do they want to lead?

These questions lead us to reflect on the fact that, more than money, it is the image given by money that interests these people. They feel a need for recognition, to show themselves valid and powerful to others and to experience the excitement derived from a clandestine or prohibited act.

The need for approval

The need for approval has motivated so many behaviors throughout history. In prehistoric times, anyone who was not accepted by the group remained outside the cave, with all the dangers that this entailed. Death was much more imminent if one was not admitted by the community.

Everything comes from that moment. It seems that this need somehow continues to haunt us, although today we are aware that we will survive even without the approval of others.

Eliminating this absurd psychological need means finding the cure for this pathology. In this way, these subjects can realize that money is just an illusion: it serves no other purpose than to satisfy a material need that, in reality, has already been satisfied.

In this world, the human being needs very few objects to feel complete. When we buy something, this object has value for a while, for a very short interval of time, after which it loses all value, when we start thinking about a more modern version of that same item . And international companies know this very well, which is why they always launch a new model after a while.

At this point the need we were talking about before arises: if we show the purchased object to our environment, we will get praise and we will feel happy. But let’s not forget that it is an ephemeral and inflated happiness.

Don’t be fooled: what really gives happiness is feeling full with the little things in life and, above all, with love for ourselves and accepting ourselves as we are.