The Importance of Climate Change on Mental Health: A Case Study of a Bahamas Medical Student’s Survival during Hurricane Dorian due to Hurricane-Induced Depression

It is well known that extreme weather events and disasters can have an immediate traumatic impact — as well as “a long tail of mental-health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, substance abuse,” says Emma Lawrance, who studies mental health at Imperial College London. Also taking a mental-health toll in vulnerable countries are less sudden — but nonetheless devastating — disruptions caused by global warming’s impacts, such as forced migration, loss of livelihoods, food insecurity and community breakdown.

In the Bahamas, a medical student saw the fury of Hurricane Dorian and now fears for the country’s future because of its vulnerability to sea-level rise. Will there even be a country in the next 20 to 30 years? she says.

Almost all people with depression receive inadequate treatment in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and only around 3% receive adequate treatment in high-income countries, due to climate-linked mental-health conditions. Lawrance says that many communities are finding their own ways to cope, but that the effectiveness of these efforts is rarely studied and shared. There is a huge gap surrounding evaluation, she says.

Studies also suggest that people with existing mental illness are at greater risk of dying during extreme heat4, but “understanding why that is and what we can do to stop it is really unexplored”, Lawrance says. One potential explanation is that some psychiatric drugs can interfere with the body’s response to heat5.

But the 2021 survey documented widespread distress that went beyond those who were immediately affected by extreme climate events. Around 75% of respondents said that climate change made them think the future is frightening and 56% said that it made them think that humanity is doomed. People who felt their government was failing to act on climate issues were more likely to feel eco-distress.

How culture and context impact climate anxiety is a question researchers have. Some studies show that the mental health and well being of some indigenous Australians can be traced back to tribal practices such as hunting and gathering food, which has been shown to be important for mental health. But rising sea levels, drought and bushfires threaten those practices. Tools used in health-care settings “rarely take into account the important cultural values that underpin Indigenous mental health”, says Dickson, who is a Darkinjung/Ngarigo Australian Aboriginal.

Many people who shared their experiences with connecting climate minds, like Wamaitha, have turned their concerns into action. Last year, after trying and failing to grow drought-resistant crops, she quit farming and is now working at a non-governmental organization in Bura, Kenya, that is focused on poverty relief. She earns enough money to take a master’s degree in public health and she uses her social-networking site to raise awareness of global health. But she is anxious about the future and worries about whether to have children. “I don’t think I am in a good environment to be able to bring kids into this particular place,” she says. “That is the saddest thing when I think about it.”

After graduating from medicine at the West Indies’ University of the West Indies, Burrows says she wants to help the environment and walk more. She prays that rich countries and companies will understand what’s happening and not just say smooth words to try to give us some relief. They should help the smaller countries and the world at large.

It is also important that world leaders understand that their actions are causing distress and that government action is what is needed to calm it.