MENTAL HEALTH VS. CLIMATE CHANGE
You might think that climate and mental well-being are not connected. Well, you are deceiving yourself. Everything that human beings does depends on his surroundings from how he thinks to how he acts.
Climate | Rebreathe.com (2022)
Studies show that more and more people are facing the psychological effects of climate change. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, storms, and droughts are well known for leaving behind physical and emotional devastation People often lose everything in such events, making them feel hopeless, confused, deeply sad, and depressed.
According to the Fourth National Climate Assessment: Mental health consequences—ranging from minimal stress and distress symptoms to clinical disorders, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and [risk of suicide]—can result from exposures to short-lived orprolonged climate- or weather-related events.
Simply, human being depends on his environment to think and act properly. Climate is part of the environment whereby any human put their dependency on to actively think and act accordingly.
According to Climate Central in a survey conducted of 10,000 youth across 10 countries found that 84% were at least moderately worried about climate change. In the U.S., surveyed youth reported feeling sad (57%), anxious (58%), and depressed (34%) about climate change.
Is Mental Health Really Affected By the Climate Change Crisis?
In February 2022, a major scientific report from the IPCC systematically reviewed evidence linking climate change to diagnosable mental health disorders and broader outcomes for well-being.
Well, the impacts of climate change has led to many global crisis that make a human mind to be disturbed. Look at severe drought, floods, famine, migration, displacement, unemployment, death, landslides and fire all of these resulted from climate change that makes person's mind to negatively think of how to tackle the challenges. Can you see it coming?
To start with, many people are now thinking of how are going to stabilise in economy as the households were displaced and move away from their motherland due to famine and constant floods for example look at Somalia, northern Kenya and many other places where a number of people are unemployed and financially unstable, this makes their mind to much affected and disturb their mental health.
Also, let's look at a number of youth who commit suicide due to poverty and lack of employment is a way huge every year due to redundancies as many raw material processing industries are shut down and employees contracts are terminated, all of these contribute to depression, stress, overthinking and anxiety that contribute to unstable mental health.
Not to mental places and areas with constant heavy rains and flood, people are stressed on what impacts will come next as rain season starts, instead of rain being a blessing to be grateful for, people think how is it going to destroy their houses and properties as well as their businesses.
What about students at school? Children and young people are to acquire knowledge in a safe space and undisturbed space but look at Canada and some parts of USA where fire erupts due to high temperatures, students are inactive concentrate on studies but fire and its effects. Look at the sugarcane farmers whose farms burnt due to bad weather as a result of climate change. Do we expect their mental health to stabilise as far as their source of engine has been distributed.
Climate activists and educators are severely hit by eco-anxiety as they are scared of what will happen if they do not educate and spread awareness to the society and push governments and institutions to take action of the impacts of climate change as far as they are referred to as the last generation to save the next generations from the changing climate. Do you think they are mentally stable to accept that?
Climate | Rebreathe.com (2022)
What do you think of parents who are doing everything they can to make their families proud. Places that are severely affected by the impacts of climate change leave parents in a shock and stay stressed of how they are going to handle their families as their backbones for economy are severely hit in different ways as many parents are from the saddest countries which one of the reasons being natural catastrophes and disasters as a production of climate change.
Migration and displacement, many families have displaced from their homes because of climate change for example data shows that by 2050 at least 25 million people to 1 Bilion people are expected to to move due to the changing climate, this increases the dependency syndrome of families and people such that people are to move in such of shelter and refuge.
How are we going to stay mentally healthy despite all?
Accepting that climate change is real, study shows that amidst challenges, accepting that challenges exist and are real is one of the vital ways to stay focused and tackle the challenges that are in existence. By saying so, if we accept that climate change exists, we are going to make our minds healthier since we will be concentrating on ways to tackle the issue and not otherwise.
Adaptability, amid any challenge the need to adapt new life and ways to bring solution is inescapable to stay mentally healthy. After accepting that climate change is real we should as well stay focused on adapting ways and new life contrary to how it used to be 50 years or 100 years ago by look at sustainable solutions to not continously destroy our environment and so our mental health to remain as healthy as possible. For example plating trees, using recycled materials, and using renewable energy can be part of the Sustainable solutions.
Restoring ecosystems, our minds need clear air to effectively make decisions and meditate, to avoid the opposite, we need to restore the lost ecosystems such that we can plant trees, keep ocean clean, and cleaning rivers and keep them safe from plastic waste and pollution will help amd reduce the emission of carbon gases and so we will stay mentally healthy.
Study shows exchanging ideas and thoughts from other people helps to cure pain and so many times it has been a help to dying on challenges. This is to say, group discussions are vital places and platforms where people would share their ideas and thoughts and ways towards climate change and how to solve the challenge so to relieved and stay stressed free and so mentally stable and healthier.
Individual resilience and Community resilience - Do what makes you happy, during beautiful and hard times performing things that makes a person happy has always led to great positive results of healing, during this hard time doing the things that makes us happy will help us to release stress, anxiety and depression and stay mentally healthy. This can be applied in two ways; you can do what makes you happy to refresh and meditate or educate others and help them staying mentally healthier for example storytelling, writing, singing or book club.
Despite having climate change to severely affect our life, we can still choose to stay mentally healthy by accepting the change, adapting new methods of life to tackle the change, restoring ecosystems and sharing our thoughts to one another on solving the challenges of climate change and so will help us stay and keep our mental health safe.
