Solastalgia May Be the Reason Climate Change Is Making You Depressed

When an area has been toppled by a natural disaster, lives and homes are totally disrupted. Not only do people need to rebuild their lives but they also have to reconcile with what they've lost. This can really put those of us who experienced something like a hurricane, flood, or forest fires in a depressive state. There's actually a name for this specific type of depression—solastalgia.

Other effects include a disruption to a person's sense of identity, belonging, and security relating to where they live.

The Types of Natural Disasters That May Lead to Solastalgia

Essentially, an ecosystem in distress can create significant, chronic distress in the people who call these places home.

Examples of the types of situations that may induce the condition of solastalgia include:

• Drought
• Forest fire
• Flooding
• Drought
• Clearcutting (tree removal)
• Mining
• Smog
• Extreme weather

Solastalgia And Climate Anxiety Are Related

Solastalgia, which is sometimes also referred to more broadly as climate anxiety, interferes with the normal interplay between the well-being of our physical environments with that of our mental health—and as researchers, therapists, and doctors are increasingly becoming aware that damage to one tends to negatively impact the other.

A Little History Lesson On the Origin of the Term Solastalgia

The term for this condition, solastalgia, was coined by Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht in the early 2000s to describe the unique mental anguish caused by living with the experience of negative environmental change.

In fact, the name of this condition was actually inspired by the concept of nostalgia. However, there are key differences in these emotional states.

Solastalgia vs. Nostalgia

Nostalgia describes homesickness or a state of sadness or longing caused by being away from one's home. It can be rectified by returning there.

This is quite the opposite of solastalgia, which describes the experience of chronic trauma, longing, or hopelessness due to negative or distressing changes to the home or ecosystem you are still in due to the impacts of climate change, weather events, fire, or other environmental factors.

Earth Emotions

Albrecht, an honorary associate in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, has written a book on the subject, Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World, which delves into the relationship between a person's land and their mental health and general well-being.

In other words, solastalgia is a unique form of distress that specifically results from upsetting, unstoppable, often abrupt changes to a person's home and/or larger environment. These changes are becoming all the more common as climate change escalates.

What Are the Symptoms of Solastalgia?

Solastalgia encompasses a wide variety of overlapping signs and symptoms that often accompany other mental health conditions. Plus, this condition often presents itself differently in different people and may occur in response to a wide variety of circumstances.

Typical signs and symptoms of this condition include:

• Anger
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Despair
• Distress
• Fatigue and trouble sleeping
• Feeling ungrounded or unsettled
• Feeling unsafe
• Grief
• Guilt
• Helplessness
• Hopelessness
• Loss of appetite or overeating
• Loss of identity
• Recovery fatigue
• Restlessness
• Suicidal ideation

How Long Do Solastalgia Symptoms Last?

Another key component of solastalgia is that symptoms of this condition tend to be experienced chronically. The feelings of distress may ebb and flow but do not tend to be alleviated quickly or easily and are not transient in the way that nostalgia often is. When a homesick person goes home, their nostalgia disappears.

How Does Someone Get Diagnosed With Solastalgia?

Doctors, therapists, and other mental health professionals can diagnose solastalgia. Your mental health provider will evaluate your symptoms, medical history, and life circumstances—in general as well as the specific environmental situations that may have precipitated your condition.

Pre-existing and comorbid conditions, such as anxiety disorders, depression, and other mood disorders, and any other pertinent medical conditions will also be reviewed by your doctor.

The Solastalgia Paradox

For a person with solastalgia, they are already home, so the quick fix of returning home is not possible. It may feel that there is nowhere to go to escape the devastation that accompanies the destruction or other permanent changes in their environment.

Additionally, there is often a profound sense of helplessness that accompanies this condition as these changes are usually out of a person's control.

Solastalgia May Lead to PTSD

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a distinct but related condition caused by experiencing or witnessing traumatic events of all kinds such as sexual violence, war, acts of terrorism, or natural disasters.

An experienced mental health professional can determine if a person is suffering from PTSD in addition to solastalgia or if only one of the two conditions is present. The same is true for depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.

What Does the Research Say About Solastalgia?

While scientific studies specifically on solastalgia are rare (but the field is growing), there is a solid body of research pointing to the significant mental health toll that climate change events can have on people's mental health generally.

In a 2019 review study, this condition names the cumulative impacts of climatic and environmental change on mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

In fact, a 2020 descriptive review finds clear links between the occurrence of environmental disruptions and extreme or prolonged weather-related events, including natural disasters, high heat, and drought, with spikes in the frequency of mental health disorders.

Will Everyone Who Experiences Natural Disaster Develop Solastalgia?

No, not all people who live through a natural disaster or environmental change will develop solastalgia. On the other hand, just the experience of living through climate change can be enough to trigger this condition in some people.

People Who Live in High-Risk Areas May Be More Likely to Develop Climate-Related Depression

As we all live on a planet undergoing the effects of climate change, we may all be susceptible to this condition to varying degrees. However, people who live in areas that are more prone to environmental disasters or damage or that are under threat of such events are at added risk of solastalgia.

Some factors that put people at heightened risk for solastalgia include:

• Direct impact of a distressing environmental change
• Indirect (but emotionally significant and distressing) experience of environmental change
• Living in areas at higher risk of natural disasters such as within flood zones, along fault lines, at low sea level, and in erosion and fire-prone landscapes
• Living in poverty and/or communities of color—overlapping groups that tend to live in areas more susceptible to sustaining greater damage in natural disasters and gentrification or being pushed out by urban growth. These groups also tend to have fewer financial resources and/or access to political support with which to rebuild their lives.
• Having other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder

Research makes clear that climate change and its negative impact on mental health tends to disproportionately affect people in marginalized or underserved communities. People living in these communities may be at greater risk of developing solastalgia—and of not getting properly diagnosed or treated.

How Can Solastalgia Be Treated?

While many people endure this condition without seeking help, effective treatments are available. Standard treatments for this disorder include various forms of psychotherapy with qualified mental health professionals.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a type of talk therapy based on the idea that a person's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are all interconnected. This approach for counseling seeks to redirect and/or alter negative thoughts in order to improve mental health and a person's overall outlook on life.

CBT has been shown to be effective in treating both anxiety and depression and is the first-line treatment for solastalgia.

Medication

Antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, and/or other medications may be prescribed to help alleviate symptoms. Medications are typically used in combination with working with a mental health professional for counseling.

Treatment Challenges

One of the greatest difficulties in treating solastalgia is that much of what is so distressing about this condition is outside of the person's control. In treatment, people with solastalgia work on ways to take back their sense of control, hope, purpose, and plans for the future.

What Can We Do to Cope With Solastalgia?

Solastalgia does not have an easy fix, particularly as its causes are all around you and what might normally serve as a refuge—your home, land, and/or community—has been damaged.

Validate Your Feelings of Loss

Talk about and honor your loss—and ask for help when needed. Honor and accept that environmental change can have big consequences on the psyche and processing those changes can take time, effort, self-compassion, community support, and often money.

Make Redecoration and Interior Design Your Best Friends

Making plans for the future, whether big or small, from moving to a new location to redecorating your bedroom, can help. Aim to transform your home back into an oasis of comfort, whatever that means for you.

You might want to try:

• Moving furniture around
• Painting your walls a calming color like blue
• Adding flowers or artwork around your home