Psychology of Foreclosure Victims - Irrational Fears

Homeowners who have fallen behind on their bills are often in a state of stress and high anxiety, with worries of foreclosure, bankruptcy, and repossession creating a sense of paralysis. This can often lead them to postpone taking any useful step towards saving their homes until it is too late and the possibility of recovering financially is almost nonexistent. The inability to move towards a goal of stopping foreclosure, though, is often caused by any number of irrational fears, all of which may be overcome.

One of the most common fears affecting everyone, but heightened in foreclosure victims, is the fear of rejection. This fear has to do with humans' affiliation needs, such as the need to feel appreciated, loved, or accepted. Homeowners may often be afraid to pick up the phone and contact their mortgage company because they worry about the possibility of being told there is no help for them. Instead of calling the mortgage company, people suffering from this fear often accept the foreclosure as inevitable and resign themselves to the possibility that they will have to lower their standard of living after losing their home.

Closely connected to the fear of rejection is the fear of looking foolish or making a mistake. In this case, homeowners may fear calling their bank to discuss plans to avoid foreclosure because they feel they do not know enough about how foreclosure works in order to speak intelligently about options to stop the process. They may feel their negotiating skills are not strong enough and that the bank's representatives will take advantage of them and laugh at their misunderstanding of foreclosure, or that they will mistakenly agree to a program that is not in their best financial interests.

Another very common fear is that of people; it is actually very possible for homeowners working in large cities and living in modern suburbs to feel very anxious when speaking with people they do not know. Combined with a fear of looking foolish or being rejected, being irrationally afraid of people can cause homeowners in foreclosure just to avoid dealing with their financial troubles at all. Even in such specialized situations as calling a mortgage company for help to stop foreclosure, many homeowners may feel uncontrollably anxious and have a problem initiating contact.

Several other fears, including those of failure and success, can have lasting impacts on homeowners attempting to save their homes. The end result of any of these fears, or a combination of them, is often that foreclosure victims procrastinate until the justified, rational fear of losing their home and being evicted is so immediate that it overcomes any of the irrational fears. Irrational fears, though, create psychological problems because there is no actual danger present. After all, the possibility of the bank turning down a repayment plan is nothing compared to the eventual pain of being evicted from a home.

Unfortunately, irrational fears often feel very real, even though they are not grounded in any concrete danger, and most often lead to avoidance behaviors instead of positive change. For example, homeowners who wait until the last minute to seek help can avoid the possibility of being rejected or failing, while homeowners who project blame for their financial hardship into a spouse, boss, or other person do not have to take responsibility for fixing the mortgage and become victims of the outside world.

The more homeowners engage in avoidance behaviors to hide from their irrational fears, the more adept at avoiding pain they will become. And the higher their sense of fear and the more fears they have, the more they will justify their avoidance behaviors as actually being productive. In effect, people create problems for themselves which are only symptoms of the real anxiety-producing fears, but they work on solving these symptoms instead of getting over their fears. This helps create neurotic spirals and reinforces the irrational fears and avoidance behaviors while giving homeowners an excuse to avoid taking any meaningful step to stop foreclosure on their properties.

Confronting and getting over these irrational fears as quickly as possible is one of the most important actions homeowners can take to ensure they have the best chance to save their homes. While a fear of losing a home is entirely justified if the owners have not paid their mortgage for a few months, fearing just picking up the phone and talking to the lender to discuss possible mortgage modification options is irrational. Controlling anxiety is such situations is most vital and the first step is simply recognizing these fears when they begin to manifest themselves in avoidance behaviors and high anxiety symptoms.