This is How Climate Change Affects Our Mental Health

The Serious and Hidden costs of climate change

Whether you believe that climate change is real or a conspiracy by lizard people, it doesn’t matter. No, this isn’t about how people in colder countries are happier or otherwise. I will be discussing some of the research about the impact of climate change on mental health.

Although this link between mental health and climate change has been neglected, the last decade saw more interest and more research in the subject. In June 2022, the WHO continued to raise alarm bells:

“rapidly increasing climate change poses a rising threat to mental health and psychosocial well-being; from emotional distress to anxiety, depression, grief, and suicidal behavior.”

Natural disasters

Floods, hurricanes and typhoons are associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Those events also lead to financial problems, destruction of infrastructure, homelessness and displacement. Those effects can last long after the event itself.

Pollution

The WHO reports that most people on the planet are exposed to air pollution, some more than others. Air pollution and global warming are closely linked. After studying the effects of pollution on the nervous system, scientists studied the effect on mental health on a population level in many countries. This recent British study found that children expose to higher air pollution had more mental health problems. Other studies looked at individual disorders, or symptoms such as psychotic experiences in adolescence, support this evidence.

It is also worth remembering that air pollution also leads to other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

Direct & Indirect effects

“Research shows an increase in suicide rates of 0.7% in the US and 2.1% in Mexico during periods of 1 degree Celsius increase over average monthly temperatures.” — Psychiatric Times

The evidence also points to increased levels of violence with higher temperatures. Earth’s temperature has been consistently rising since the 1880s.

Other studies show that heat impaires cognition and our ability to think, like this Harvard study. In some cases, it is not clear whether this is a direct or an indirect result. For example, studies that showed a link between hot weather and suicide, however, we can’t say it is causal relationship. In other words, extreme heat could be leading to other effects, those effects in turn are linked to suicide.

Psychiatric disorders and medications

Patients with a mental illness could be less likely to remember to stay hydrated or to seek medical advice when unwell. Some psychiatric medications could also affect the normal temperature regulation of the body. This could lead to increased heat-related illness if patients were not infomred about extra measures to take during hot weather, like drinking more water and avoiding vigorous physical activity and so on.

I hope this brief article helps shed some light on this topic. We need to raise awareness of those hidden and in many cases, long term effects of climate change.