Internet backs ‘depressed and anxious’ employee torn by six-figure salary

Members of a popular Internet forum offered advice to a startup employee who recently received a substantial and overwhelming pay raise.

in a viral Reddit post posted on r/antiwork, Redditor u/fluffers95 (aka the original poster or OP) said they got a bit of good luck after struggling for years and immediately outgrew themselves after realizing how much can change when money is it is no longer a source of anxiety.

Entitled, “My salary increased by 4x in about a year and I feel intense dysphoria and depression from dystopian nightmare,” the mail It has received more than 15,000 upvotes and almost 1,000 comments in the last day.

Writing that they previously felt “anxious all the time” about bills and making ends meet, the original poster said they and their wife were living paycheck to paycheck and “crippling” in debt when the pandemic began in 2020.

But after months of applying for new jobs, the original poster said they landed a position at a new company and were quickly exposed to the realities of the highest tax brackets.

“The $40KI started [at] has become $160,000 as a manager,” OP wrote. “We have managed to wipe out our debts and save almost $70,000 because we haven’t changed a thing about our habits.”

“Although my wife is happy and feels like her anxiety is gone, I feel very depressed and anxious,” OP continued. “I am lost, all the years of fighting mean nothing.

“You shouldn’t be earning that much while the minimum wage is literally stagnant and doesn’t allow people to meet basic needs,” added OP.

With the US consumer price index topping 9 percent for the first time since the 1980s, skyrocketing inflation rates in every industry they have robbed average Americans of every extra penny in the last year.

And even for those financially secure enough to weather the seemingly constant stream of universal price increases, making more money can lead to diminishing returns.

In 2010, a study by Princeton researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton revealed that people feel happier with higher salaries up to $75,000, at which point emotional well-being it levels off

Eight years later, however, another study by researchers at Purdue University indicated that the emotional well-being plateau actually starts around $60,000 per year.

And when people earn more than $105,000 per year, CNBC reports that happiness levels drop completely, leaving high earners pondering the same problems they had earlier in their careers.

“At the end of the day, we are human and we struggle with existential issues like what is the meaning of life and who am I.” Brad Klontz, a financial therapist and psychology professor at Creighton University, told CNBC.

“Those kinds of questions don’t go away when you get a lot of money,” Klontz added.

Throughout the comments section of the viral Reddit post, Reddit users echoed this sentiment, reaching out to the original author with encouraging messages and advice on navigating life they didn’t think was possible.

“You are experiencing survivor’s guilt,” Redditor u/judyblue_ wrote in the top comment of the post, which received over 10,000 upvotes. “It’s okay not to be fighting as much anymore. It’s okay to be paid significantly more now.”

“No one person can fix the entire system, but you are in a position to help make it better for the people in your orbit,” they continued. “Still living below your means, but don’t deny yourself all the comforts just because you couldn’t afford them before.”

Redditor u/Annual_Direction_519, whose comment received nearly 4,000 upvotes, offered a similar response.

“Hold on to your experience, use your new privilege to build a better life for those who still live like you,” they wrote. “Take pride in making changes.”

In a separate comment, which received over 1,200 upvotes, Reddit user u/Ok_Yogurt_9279 empathized with the original author and recounted his own experience with a similar sudden pay raise.

“I know exactly how you feel, I’ve gone from around 14k to 64k to 77k in the last 2 years,” they wrote. “One of the worst mental health episodes I’ve ever had was anxiety about change.

“I could absolutely do the job, but I couldn’t imagine making a living wage,” they continued. “I felt that everything was going to collapse at any moment.”

news week contacted au/fluffers95 for comment.