Now that climate change activists have freaked people out with their apocalyptic predictions of doom for the planet, apparently people in droves are seeking mental health therapy over the issue, prompting the American Psychological Association to create a voluminous climate-change guide as an aid for mental heath care providers.
Climate change linked to greenhouse gas emissions has created record high temperatures and more extreme storms, droughts and wildfires. Those climate change-related natural disasters have had a profound negative impact on the mental health of survivors of these extreme events, according to the United Nations. Suicideshave increased, as have depression, anxiety, stress, grief, anger and PTSD. Even for people who aren’t directly affected by natural disasters, climate change is causing measurable mental distress. Higher temperatures alone have led to more suicides and increased psychiatric hospitalization and have hurt our sleep, which can also harm mental health.
Susan Clayton, one of the authors of the 69-page APA guide, told CNN, “The psychological responses to climate change such as conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness and resignation are growing. These responses are keeping us, and our nation, from properly addressing the core causes of and solutions for our changing climate and from building and supporting psychological resiliency.”
The APA guide first makes claims that the climate change we are living through is unprecedented – READ MORE