Helping With Your Financial Future

Dealing with the emotions of filing for bankruptcy

On Behalf of | Jun 27, 2025 | Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Declaring bankruptcy can affect you emotionally. You may experience guilt, shame, anxiety, stress and loss of self-esteem. These emotions can impact different aspects of your life, including your ability to bounce back. Thus, it’s crucial to understand how to manage them.

Here are three tips to help you:

1. Acknowledge your feelings

It’s vital to accept your feelings. Acknowledge that it’s normal for someone filing for bankruptcy to experience the feelings you might have. When you allow yourself to feel, you can be in a better position to understand your emotions and determine the best ways to manage them. Suppressing your feelings can increase emotional stress.

2. Change how you view bankruptcy

Many people associate financial success with their self-worth and security. Thus, when their financial circumstances change to the extent that bankruptcy is inevitable, how they perceive themselves can be affected. This can lead to the aforementioned emotions.

Changing how you view bankruptcy can help you manage your emotions. Instead of seeing it as an outcome of debt, view it as a fresh start. Declaring bankruptcy allows you to rebuild your finances.

3. Have new goals

Setting new goals can help you focus on your new life instead of stressing about how you declared bankruptcy. You need to start planning for the future. Get more information on what you could have done differently, how to structure your new life and so on.

You should also create a new budget for your household. If you have a spouse, involve them in the process to ensure you are on the same page.

Filing for bankruptcy, whether as an individual or business owner, can be emotional. The above-discussed tips can help you manage your emotions healthily. You also need to learn more to make informed decisions.