Interestingly enough, in regard to
Chaos Monkey's observation, there is actually a
sociological and
psychological explanation for this happening.
Sociologically (hey, it's what I know), this feeling is call
social anome and is explained fairly simply. People become accustomed to certain
standards in their lives, whether these are standards of
success, or standards of what is
acceptable and what is not. These standards begin to feel
normative, or feel as if everybody follows these
guidelines. When people have a sudden change of life circumstances, particularily monetarily, they experience
social anome. Basically, they feel that the floor of their
value systems has fallen out from underneath them. Suddenly, the old measures of
right and wrong,
success, and
acceptability have changed both on the part of society and on the part of the individual.
Most people don't think that they would ever experience this anome (especially the depression associated with this feeling of being thrown suddenly from the familiar). However, almost all people who experience a sudden change of finanical or other circumstances experience it at least to some degree.