How To Deal With Climate Depression?
Worries about Climate Change Global Warming can lead to impaired mental health and stress. Increased frequency of disasters with climate change can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, and depression. Changes in climate and global warming may require population to migrate, which can lead to acculturation stress.
The term for this condition, solastalgia, was coined by Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht in the early 2000s to describe the unique mental anguish caused by living with the experience of negative environmental change. Any changes in a person's physical health or surrounding environment can also have serious impacts on their mental health. In particular, experiencing an extreme weather event can cause stress and other mental health consequences, particularly when a person loses loved ones or their home. Now with legislation making homelessness a crime their is even greater cause for potential stress related mental illness.
Climate change can lead to job loss, force people to move, and harm social cohesion and community resources, all of which have mental health consequences. In addition, fear of the phenomenon of climate change and related consequences for our national security and individual well-being can cause significant distress. One study suggests environmental changes due to climate change could lead to alterations in brain development and function. Researchers are particularly concerned about the effects of extreme weather events and pollution on cognitive abilities and mental health.
Along with this comes the physical stress of climate. The health effects of these disruptions include increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, injuries and premature deaths related to extreme weather events, changes in the prevalence and geographical distribution of food- and water-borne illnesses and other infectious diseases, as well as the threats to mental health.
According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, more than two-thirds of Americans experience some climate anxiety. A study published by The Lancet found that 84% of children and young adults ages 16 to 25 are at least moderately worried about climate change, and 59% are very or extremely worried. This makes sense, as children and young adults will disproportionately suffer the consequences of environmental changes.
A 2021 UNICEF report estimates that one billion children will be at "extremely high risk" as a result of climate change. Children and young adults are also particularly vulnerable to the effects of chronic stress, and climate anxiety may affect their risk of developing depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders.
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