Climate change can cause depression, anxiety

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Ottawa, June 12 (Canadian-Media): The dramatic shift in Canada’s climate causing severe flooding, droughts and fires in different parts of the Canada can give rise to new mental-health issues, media reports said.

Besides alleviating existing conditions which disrupt the medical care of patients, Dr. Georgia Pomaki, leader of mental-health specialists at Group Disability Benefits at Manulife said, new mental health issues also possibly occur.

Depression. Image credit: Pixaby

“We have extreme situations where people flee from a fire [for example] and they’re trying to save their own life,” Pomaki says. “In these cases, it was a risk to their life and that can cause PTSD." 

Environment Canada -- reportedly the department of the Government of Canada with responsibility for coordinating environmental policies and programs as well as preserving and enhancing the natural environment and renewable resources -- reported that these events are becoming more frequent every year.

According to a study published in the journal Nature Plants on Monday, latest possible victims of climate change is death of some of the oldest and biggest baobab trees in Africa.

In the past 12 years, nine of the oldest 13 baobab trees and five of the six biggest ones, said the researchers, have partially or completely perished,

The trees -- some of them dated back to the times of the ancient Greeks -- reportedly located in Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia have died completely, or partly, according to the study. .

The average cost basement being flooded in Canada is $43,000. according to the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation and Manulife and Intact Financial Corporation.

Anxiety is felt not only during the event itself, but before and afterwards as well Robert Gifford, professor of psychology at the University of Victoria

“[These events] mainly cause anxiety, also fear and the discomfort of uncertainty about the next possible event,” he says. “Anxiety is not the emotion with which we hope to lead our daily lives. A little is OK, and even can be motivating, but multiple episodes of it weakens us both mentally and physically.”

Effects of climate change are reportedly felt by those who live in forested areas,  at water’s edge,  low-lying land (like Richmond, B.C. for example) and or by rapid or slow changes in plants and animals most important to them, Gifford explains. 

“Ultimately, we will all be affected through increased civil conflict over immigration — people escaping even worse scenarios and physical health disease vectors moving north,” Gifford says.

But reportedly only 29 percent of Canadians take preventative measures  from flooding, the University of Waterloo reports, and only six percent are aware that their house is located in a flooding region. 

Adopting pre-emptive measures including setting aside savings, investing in renovations to your home and/or having a plan in place future emergencies, said Pomaki, can lead to reduction of much of the stress and anxiety and help manage symptoms of other mental-health disorders. 

​(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)