Global warming affecting psyches

Global warming affecting psyches
(April 2009 Issue)

By Pamela Berard

The realities of global warming aren't clear-cut; the causes and effects of the increase in the Earth's temperature are a subject of political and scientific debate. But the prevalence of the topic in our culture, combined with a flurry of natural climate disasters, is having an effect on our psyches.

Among the most obvious ways climate change affects mental health is with victims of natural disasters.

Connecticut's Disaster Response Network Coordinator Candice Weigle-Spier, Psy.D., a Red Cross disaster mental health volunteer and a psychologist in private practice, was deployed to Alabama in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and to Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Gustav.

"The people of Baton Rouge had been hit by Katrina as well and then were attributing the repeated battering of these storms to global warming and other climate change," Weigle-Spier says. "They were really feeling pretty helpless and like they had no idea what the future would hold before them."

Most people take refuge in their homes. "But when their homes can be destroyed twice in a couple of years, they feel like there's nowhere they can go to be safe," she says.

Even those who aren't victims of a natural disaster can feel the effects of major climate changes. Much like previous generations worried about nuclear bombs, today's generation struggles with the idea that life as we know it may not exist for future generations.

"On one level, we begin to think of the issue of global warming as having to do with the fundamental fear of one's mortality," says James Reid, Ph.D, a staff psychologist at Massachusetts' McLean Hospital. "We begin to think about how the planet warms and eventually there becomes a cessation of life as we know it either literally or figuratively. If the planet is not able to sustain crops, clean water, animal or plant life, or even oxygen, we fear that we will be lost. And that's a great fear."

In addition to mortality, Reid says global warming can provoke fears of the unknown, uncertainty and change. The issue seems overwhelming and difficult to understand.

"When we think about the concept of global warming, the science behind it is esoteric to most people, so it's hard to understand that science," Reid says. "When you don't understand something, you get anxious."

It's important to remember that climate issues are not completely out of our control. "In this and many other things that we become anxious about, we do have agencies," he says. "We do small simple daily things that can impact global warming and virtually any other situation."

Those steps could include trying to cut down on energy use or thinking about readiness and preparation if a catastrophic climate event happened in your region. "You can begin to think of ways that you can change your life in more immediate and profound ways rather than prevent some catastrophe that is probably not going to happen in your lifetime," Reid says. "I think when we fall back on feeling powerlessness or denying that something exists, that's when the challenge becomes more troublesome."

Paul Epstein, M.D., associate director for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, agrees that taking action is key. He was part of a study in Nicaragua in which people in and out of the war zone answered questions to gauge anxiety and depression. "The distinguishing thing was that everybody was anxious, but those who were organized into community groups were not depressed, whether they were in the war zone or not," Epstein says. "So key to not being depressed is taking action and organizing and having social cohesion."

Todd Farchione, Ph.D., assistant research professor, Boston University Department of Psychology, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, says that all of us experience anxiety when faced with situations where the outcome is uncertain and difficult to control. "In these situations, the anxiety is designed to serve an adaptive function, in so much as it helps to prepare us to manage a possible threat," he says. "So it's a natural emotion, it's not a bad thing."

The way global warming or climate change is portrayed can have a negative effect. "Right now, the picture is, I think in a lot of ways, kind of sensational, and it's grim," he says.

Much like with nuclear threats, anthrax and the Y2K bug, the information that is being presented to the public has some value and truth to it, Farchione says. "But the way the information is presented, often times there's an emphasis on sensationalism."

Climate changes can also affect psyches more gradually. Rapidly melting ice in the Arctic Circle is changing the way of life for those who rely on fishing and animal life, and as residents see their livelihoods and culture affected, it could lead to other social and mental health issues that can accompany job loss or major changes in one's way of life.

"It's not an acute event. It's more of a chronic major change that is causing increase in domestic violence and alcoholism and crime and so on," Epstein says.