Climate Corner: Is climate change driving us crazy?

Aug 17, 2024

George Banziger

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

The mass deaths of coral reefs, the abrupt thawing of the permafrost, the collapse of Greenland Ice, the loss of the Amazon Forest, the shutdown of the Atlantic currents. These headlines can be daunting and anxiety-provoking. What can be more disturbing to our personal psyches are direct experiences with wildfires, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, and floods, which are linked to human-caused climate change.

As a psychologist, I have a long-standing interest in the effects of external events on mental health. I started with dispelling the myth about the effects of astronomical events like phases of the moon (there is no evidence that lunar events affect mental stability), weather, such as seasonal changes (seasonal affective disorder during the winter months of limited sunlight), and economic indicators of mental health. Several years ago I was awarded grant funds for a research project on the relationship between economic factors and mental health in Appalachia, in which we found some lagged influence of economic indicators on intake at community mental health centers in the region.

The pervasive, unrelenting, and increasingly dangerous phenomena associated with climate change create new challenges for all individuals on the planet and for mental health professionals who have to deal with those impacted by these events. Negative responses to climate change include anxiety, helplessness, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts. The risks of such mental health problems are greatest for those directly impacted by climate-related disasters like floods, heat waves, and wildfires (67% of those affected by the Camp Fire of 2018 in California showed PTSD symptoms – The Commonwealth Fund, 2023). It is not surprising that those whose livelihoods are robbed by climate-change-related disasters like floods or hurricanes would experience mental health issues. But even those not directly impacted by disasters can suffer mental health problems when presented with information about the inexorable impacts of human-caused climate change. In a 2021 survey of 10,000 young people (aged 16-25), more than 45% of respondents, reported by The Commonwealth Fund, said that worrying about climate change negatively affected their eating, working, sleeping, or other aspects of their daily lives. The American Psychiatric Association has formulated a statement on climate change and mental health: “Climate change poses a significant and growing threat to public health in general and to mental health in particular … “

Mental health professionals are developing new approaches to treating those with psychological issues related to climate change. Traditional models of psychotherapy have not been shown to work with those experiencing anxiety and, more seriously, depression associated with climate change. In response to this challenge there is a new class of mental health professionals called climate-aware therapists; a directory of these professionals can be obtained online.

Rebecca Weston, a therapist and co-president of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, stated: “Unfortunately, the field of mental health tends to be so individualist and so focused on internal experience to the exclusion of and not in a relationship to the external world” (Yale Climate Connections, 2024).

What can one do in the face of these mental-health challenges presented by climate change apart from seeking assistance from an enlightened mental-health professional? The best antidote to the helplessness and fatalism that these stress-inducing events of climate change present is to exercise one’s personal agency. Evangelical climate scientist, Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, recommends five ways to establish personal agency in the face of human-induced climate change: 1) start a conversation about climate change; 2) join a climate action group; 3) consider where you keep your money (e.g. credit cards, retirement annuities); 4) spark ideas for change at work, school or place of worship; 5) hold politicians (city, county, state, federal) accountable for legislation affecting the climate (Linkedin, 2024).

Furthermore, a family or individual might choose to reduce its carbon footprint by raising the home thermostat in the summer and lowering it in the winter; or by acquiring a hybrid or electric vehicle; eschewing single-use plastics. There are local options right here in the Mid-Ohio Valley to implement Dr. Hayhoe’s second recommendation to establish personal agency; to wit, joining the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action group, the local chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, and the many other statewide groups in West Virginia and Ohio that are taking effective action to address climate change and avert the impending disasters described in the headlines that we see everyday.

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George Banziger, Ph.D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. He is a Group Leader of the Marietta Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.