Weather, Climate, and Mental Illness

In his article published February 28, 2016, Tyler Hamilton of the Toronto Star wrote up a brief report about how climate change rhetoric and mental illness are correlated. I have been saying this for the last several years but it's nice to see that others are on board.

My thesis focuses more on the notion of "How could it not?" whereas Hamilton's article focuses on the emotional impact of future thinking - the apprehensive expectations (worry) that we tend to associate with anxiety. The "How could it not?" approach has to do with how much air time climate change has received over the last decade-plus and the violent, apocalyptic rhetoric it receives. Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is a great example of this rhetoric. He divides the many faces of climate change to focus on the impact of global warming and the climate refugees that become victims of the battle we have with our environment. Any time there is any even remotely significant weather event - high temperatures, stronger hurricanes - news agencies like CNN cannot wait to point to global warming/climate change. The Ottawa Sun, more than ten years ago, created an image of Santa swimming in the Rideau Canal on December 25 sometime in the not-so-distant future because the average temperature in the winter is over 15 degrees.

I have the link already provided for Hamilton's article and I don't want to dive to far into this as I plan on making this a discussion topic for future presentations but the point is this: The weather messes with our heads in a variety of ways. The DSM-IV-TR had a disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder wherein depression-like symptoms would appear in certain times of the year - stereotypically in winter but it depends on the person. With the DSM-5 this disorder has been declassified and is now part of the diagnosis for Major Depressive Disorder as it occurs in seasonal patterns.

My point for posting this quick note is this: Find out if you are, in fact, so concerned for the future of our environment that it is causing anxiety. I am in the process of finding quick self-assessments but you will know if that worry exists just by how your body reacts to reading this article, Hamilton's article in the Toronto Star, or to other stories that come through various media.

If caught early anxiety can be dealt with much easier.