Weather disasters, extreme heat, and poor air quality can trigger mental health issues and complexities among kids and teens. It has been proved that natural disasters lead to post traumatic stress disorder. Longer term disorders like bipolar disorders, aggression, cognitive impairment also are a result of climate change.
According to a report by the American Psychological Association authored by Dr Sue Clayton, a professor of Wooster, climate change related weather events leave kids more vulnerable to mental health consequences because young people might not have the coping strategies and strength that adults have.
If a parent is stressed by hardship associated with an environmental event, like extreme heat or wildfires, it can affect the child too both mentally and emotionally.
Dr Clayton says, “If your parent is under stress because of worries or fears, then it can affect the child and their mental health. Experiencing trauma at an early age can have lifelong impacts on emotional health and well being.”
The mental health conditions begin even before childbirth. Prenatal exposure to weather disasters, high temperatures, air pollution, and maternal anxiety can lead to development of mental health issues such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, developmental delays, low self controls and psychiatric disorders.
The consequences affect the nervous system and are irreversible. For infants and young children, weather events linked to climate change and exposure to related news can lead to anxiety, sleep troubles, PTSD, disruptive cognitive development and major depressive disorder.
Adolescents are prone to mental health affects like trauma and anxiety, from climate change related natural disasters, but they can also be indirectly affected. Weather severity can disrupt their education and lifestyle, for example they can be forced to migrate from their homeland for natural calamities like earthquakes and floods. Therefore tackling climate change should be a priority for all governments.
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