Adapting to Climate Change Part 4: Mental Health

Last week I tangentially explored how mental health would be affected by climate change by looking at hobbies and recreation. This week, I plan to incorporate ideas from climate neuroscience to unpack other ways climate change and extreme weather events can hurt one’s mental health.

When it comes to warmer temperatures, people tend to feel grouchy. Heat can be overstimulating, and hits hardest for children and the elderly, as well as those who have seasonal affective disorder in the summertime. Not only are people’s bodies forced to work harder just to stay cool, but heat exacerbates chronic illnesses, and increases the rates of hospital visits. Other illnesses like asthma are usually made worse by other effects of climate change, like air pollution and wildfires, which in turn can also lead to an increase in hospitalizations.

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From a physiological standpoint, heat physically hurts us, and doesn’t let us recover. Heat overwhelms and confuses your brain, and it gets worse as you age. People may not understand when they are actively suffering from heat exhaustion or heat stroke and may not seek a reprieve from the sun. People usually absorb water from their meals, but extreme heat can even lower appetites and cause fluctuations in blood sugar. The resulting dehydration can lead to shock, which can result in death.

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Heat disrupts sleep—this means that our bodies are unable to heal and repair previous physical damage. A bad’s night sleep can not only exacerbate existing mental health disorders, like depression and anxiety, but even trigger new ones. And of course, the amount of people who are forced to become climate refugees or are otherwise traumatized by extreme weather events will only increase!

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People who are tired, hungry, dehydrated, and in pain are not likely to be happy. As temperatures rise, so too does violence. Homicide rates, domestic violence, rape, and shootings have all been linked to heat. Even suicide has a statistically significant rate of increase when compared with an increase to relative humidity!

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Since the past thirteen months have been the hottest on record, and this might just be the last “cold” summer we have, there is no better time empathize with those around us while also understanding why we must adapt to a warming climate. It is scary to acknowledge, but without facing the facts, we will never arrive at a solution. Stay tuned for next week’s conclusion of this article series!