Relation with Climate Change and PTSD
Climate change can cause extreme situations beyond just high and low temperatures. Silveira, Sarita, and et al. (2021) notes that natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, droughts, and wildfires have become more powerful over the past few decades as global temperatures have increased due to climate change. Also, those kinds of disasters due to climate change cause mental damage as well as material damage. In extreme situations, people get post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cause mental problems (HHR, 2018). Therefore, this research will identify the incidence of PTSD according to climate change and suggest ways to avoid PTSD through a case study.
Wildfire Case Study by Universities from California
Silveira, Sarita, et al. (2021) aimed to understand the aftereffects of severe climate change exacerbations, especially the mental health of wildfire 2018, the deadliest wildfire in California. In particular, the mental health of those who experienced wildfires was evaluated.
In order to find out the outcome of mental illness related to wildfire due to climate change, the method was designed as the degree of mental health disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) based on 725 Californians who experienced different degrees of wildfire from 18 to 84 years old in 2018. The study lasted for six months post-wildfire (Silveira, Sarita, et al., 2021). In this study, the reason why PTSD, MDD, and GAD were classified is that there is not only PTSD as a mental symptom, and this research aims that PTSD is more severe than other symptoms due to wildfire.
The methodology of the study was identified by dividing the degree of exposure to forest fires into three major categories: directly exposed, indirectly exposed, and not exposed among those who want primary proximity and help in the event of a forest fire. The reason why they classified them as direct, indirect, and unexposed is that they want to see in what situations people have the highest mental health problems when wildfires occur.
Looking at the table above, many people directly experienced wildfires. Typically, the proportion of people who were directly exposed to wildfire and were in primary proximity and helped seeking was about 50%. In other words, the majority of 725 people were directly exposed to forest fires to the extent that they asked for help.
Based on the high exposure population, the degree of PTSD, MDD, and GAD symptoms was investigated according to the degree of exposure to forest fires.
As a result of the research, the overall proportion of PTSD symptoms was the highest, and among them, PTSD was the highest among those who were directly exposed to forest fires. This means that natural disasters caused by climate change later cause serious mental illness in people. Therefore, there is a correlation between climate change and mental health, and efforts should be made to solve mental problems with climate change.
Solutions
First, in order to resolve mental confusion such as PTSD, it is effective to receive drugs and treatment therapy (Bhandari, 2020). For example, it is necessary to increase self-esteem and shake off the fear of natural disasters caused by climate change by periodically receiving stress vaccination education. In particular, since mental improvement is ultimately needed, it is most important for people with PTSD not to make a lot of changes around them and to be relaxed.
Next, as industries develop around the world, fuel consumption has increased, and carbon dioxide emissions have worsened, causing temperature and seasons to change. Due to these problems, efforts should be made to minimize climate change such as greenhouse gases and global warming by replacing the energy currently consumed.