Canadians are increasingly showing symptoms of anxiety, “ecological grief” and even post-traumatic stress related to the effects of climate change, according to a new report. ottawacitizen.com/...
I had an appointment with my doctor today and in passing I mentioned that I’ve been feeling a little depressed lately.
“Did it start with the fires?” she asked.
At first it seemed an odd question; I live in the North Bay of San Francisco, some 2 ½ hours away from the Camp Fire. Sure, our air quality was bad for a week. But enough to get me depressed?
“I’ve been hearing a lot from my patients since last week that they are feeling depressed,” she continued. “I think it’s because they were staying inside more, not getting regular exercise.
The new government report on climate change predicts there will be dire consequences to the environment and the economy if climate change is not dealt with soon. That sort of news — as well as wildfires, drought and hurricanes — is contributing to what researchers say is a growing problem: climate anxiety www.wbur.org/...
That’s all true, but as I thought about it driving home I realized there was a correlation between the fires earlier this month and my mental state. That there was a sense of hopelessness, which piggybacked onto the despair I have experienced following all the extreme weather events over the past few years. A recent Wired article called the condition “ecological grief,” a “psychological devastation that comes with the disruption of the natural world.”
Living in such close proximity and knowing people who were at Ground Zero when the Camp Fire began is definitely grounds for feeling deep despair. But for those who were directly impacted the mental health consequences are often not addressed.
Surveys found that after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast in 2005, one in six survivors met the criteria for PTSD, while half developed an anxiety or mood disorder. Suicide and suicidal thinking doubled in the storm’s aftermath. But there's a dearth of data-rich, large-scale studies on how best to design campaigns to treat populations coping with disaster. WHAT ONE DEVASTATED COMMUNITY CAN TEACH THE WORLD ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH
World Health Leaders: Climate Change Is Putting Lives, Health Systems at Risk … Health professionals are seeing new risks to human health, include antibiotic-resistant bacteria, impaired cognition for students in overheated classrooms, and mental health problems including increased suicideinsideclimatenews.org/...
“I honestly think that the NIH should have a disaster recovery institute,” research psychologist Adrienne Heinz says. “There's one for alcoholism, there's one for drug abuse, there's aging and heart and lung. We need to have institutionalized mechanisms to study and support communities. With the anticipated increased frequency of these events, you need systems of care.”
In a Union of Concerned Scientists report on Climate Change and Mental Health says psychological impacts of experiencing severe drought, flooding, or wildfires can be psychologically devastating.
“An intensely traumatic event will have a substantial effect on the mental health of many survivors,” said psychologist and researcher Carl F. Weems, an associate professor at the University of New Orleans. “The more severe and intense your exposure to traumatic experiences during a disaster, the more likely that you will have severe mental health symptoms. If you watch someone die or your house floods, you tend to have more intense effects.”
On a lighter note …
We all have to find healthy ways to cope with ecological angst. I found over the Thanksgiving holidays that bringing out a couple of favorite board games was a fabulous way to spend time with family and friends and a way to forge almost immediate connections among people who were meeting for the first time.
You can always benefit from a healthy distraction like playing a board games since it is an excellent way to kick back and relax. According to an online survey by RealNetworks, Inc., a casual games developer, found that 64% of respondents said they play games as a way to unwind and relax and 53% play for stress relief. Top 10 Health Benefits of Board Games
What are you favorite board games?
Have you tried Pandemic, the Game focuses on Cooperation not competition?
You are part of a team of five specialists working together to combat four diseases which have broken out around the world: a dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher or operations expert.
And, as usual folks, this is an open thread.
