Solastalgia: Climate Change is Breaking Our Hearts

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Climate change attacks our mental health on multiple fronts simultaneously. There's the acute trauma of disasters—the immediate psychological injury of losing your home to fire or flood. There's the subacute response—the eco-anxiety that comes from witnessing devastation, even from afar, and understanding what it means for our collective future.

And then there's the chronic, grinding damage of living with constant uncertainty. The long-term effects include social disruption, resource conflicts, forced migration, and what researchers delicately call "the ongoing burden of chronic environmental stress."

Translation: we're all slowly losing our minds because the world is ending, and we can't do anything about it. The cruelest part? ...  continue reading the article 

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Transcript

0:25

This is Heliox, where evidence meets empathy. Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe easy. We go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Have you ever had that feeling, you know, that really deep, unsettling feeling when you go back somewhere you loved? Maybe a childhood place or a park, a community. And it's just fundamentally altered, not just, you know, time passing, but something bigger, maybe prominent. Yeah, like something's been disrupted. Exactly. The trees are gone or the coast looks different. The whole landscape feels alien. What if I told you there's actually a word, a specific name for that unique kind of distress, especially when it happens while you're still living there, seeing it change around you? That's a really interesting hook. Welcome to the deep dive. Yeah. Today, we're looking into something really important, something that feels more relevant all the time. The connection between environmental change, especially climate change stuff, and, well, our own mental health, our psychological well-being. It's a huge area and definitely growing. So for this deep dive, we've gathered some key sources. There's one foundational paper that actually puts forward a new term for this kind of environmental distress we were just talking about. And we've also got a big review looking across lots of research that links climate change impacts to mental health more broadly. A really comprehensive overview. So our mission here is to unpack all of this for you. We want to get our heads around this new concept, explore all the different ways a changing environment can affect our minds, you know, from just everyday stress right up to serious conditions. And look at who might be most affected. Yeah, exactly. Identify who's most vulnerable and really underline why understanding this intersection of planetary health and human psychology is just so critical right now. We'll guide you through it. Try to pull out the main points without getting bogged down. Okay, sounds good. Let's start with that new concept then. The main paper introduces this term designed really to clarify environmentally induced distress. It's called solastalgia. Soul nostalgia. Okay. It sounds a bit like nostalgia, but you said it's different. Exactly. And the difference is really crucial. Nostalgia, how we usually think of it, is that homesickness, that melancholy you feel when you're away from a place you love, separated from it. Right. Missing somewhere. Soul nostalgia, though, is the distress people feel while they are still right there, directly connected to their home environment. But that home environment is undergoing these unwanted deep changes. Ah, okay. So it's not about leaving a place. No. It's like the place is leaving you even though you haven't moved. That's a great way to put it. You're still there, but your home is fundamentally changing. The concept actually came out of looking at specific areas in rural New South Wales in Australia. Okay. The researchers studied communities dealing with really persistent drought and also separately, folks living with huge landscape changes from open-cut coal mining in the upper Hunter Valley. Two very different environmental pressures. Right. But in both cases, people were describing this deep sense of loss, this distress, tied directly to the physical environment changing around them, their home. And was there anything that made that feeling, that solastalgia, even worse for people? Yes, definitely. A really big factor that came up in the studies was this profound sense of powerlessness, like a lack of control over the changes happening to their home landscape. Hmm. I can see how that would intensify things. Absolutely. Feeling like you can't stop or even influence this transformation of a place that's so central to who you are, your identity, your well-being. It just really ramps up the distress. Okay. So Solastalgia nails that specific place-based distress from unwanted environmental change while you're still connected. That makes sense. Now, the broader review you mentioned that zooms out, right? Looks at the global picture. It does. That review pulls together findings from across the literature, and it highlights this global pattern. We're seeing a clear increase in ecosystem distress syndromes all over the world. Like what? You know, forests dying back, oceans getting warmer, extreme weather events happening more often. Right. And corresponding to that, there's an increase in human distress syndromes. The two seem to be going hand in hand. And climate change is pointed to as a major cause of these global environmental shifts. Absolutely. The research really emphasizes that human activities burning fossil fuels is the big one, but also deforestation, pollution. These are changing the atmosphere's composition. The greenhouse effect. Exactly. Leading to global warming. And while sure there's natural climate variability, the authors are pretty clear. The human influence, the anthropogenic factor, is seen as a major contributor to the increased intensity and frequency of many extreme weather events we're seeing globally, the ones with disastrous outcomes. So, OK, the planet's changing rapidly, profoundly, and that's having a real measurable impact on our mental health. Yeah. What does that actually look like for people? Is it just like feeling more stressed or does it go deeper? Oh, it goes much deeper. The research shows the mental health consequences really cover a wide spectrum. It's not just mild stress, though that's part of it. It ranges from those minimal stress symptoms and sort of general distress all the way to clinical disorders, you know, things that would meet diagnostic criteria. Can you give some examples the review mentions? Sure. They list things like anxiety disorders, sleep problems, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and in really severe situations, even suicidal thoughts. Wow. But it's even broader than just the clinical diagnoses, you know. It affects our everyday lives, how we see the world, our ability to cope, how we understand and respond to all these changes happening. Right. And a really significant consequence that comes up a lot is the loss of sense of place, that deep feeling of connection and familiarity with where you live. That loss of sense of place feels like it ties directly back to that soul nostalgia idea we started with. It really does. It's sort of the core psychological experience that Solastalgia tries to capture, that feeling of being detached from an environment that just doesn't feel like the home you knew anymore. And that feeling of uncertainty, that powerlessness we talked about, it's a theme that just keeps coming up across the research no matter what type of environmental change people are facing. It makes sense intuitively that going through or seeing a disaster would be traumatic. But do the sources talk about when these mental health impacts actually hit? Is it only like during the flood or the fire? No, and that's a really critical point the review makes. The impacts aren't just limited to the event itself. They can show up at different times before an event even happens, like in the buildup or warning phase. Okay, the anticipation. Right. Then during the event, of course. And importantly, after it's over. The impacts can be acute, like immediate responses, subacute, developing shortly after, or really long term. Could you break those down a bit? What's an acute impact? Acute impacts are generally linked to direct exposure during those extreme events. Think major floods, hurricanes, big wildfires. This can cause immediate psychological trauma, what the sources sometimes call mental injuries. Okay. And subacute, what does that involve? Subacute impacts are more about the intense emotional reactions from indirectly witnessing or being affected by the consequences. This is where you see things like intense anxiety about, say, the future of humanity or species survival. That's increasingly being called eco-anxiety. Eco-anxiety. Right. It can also lead to feeling kind of blocked or disoriented, maybe even passive or numb. So you don't have to lose your house in the fire just seeing the devastation on the news, knowing it's happening. That can still take a serious toll. Exactly. And then there are the long-term effects. What do those look like? Long-term outcomes are often more systemic, affecting whole communities. Things like large-scale social disruption, maybe increased violence or struggles over resources that become scarce, displacement, forced migration, obviously huge long-term stressors, the challenges of just adjusting after a disaster, and the ongoing burden of just chronic environmental stress, living with that uncertainty day after day. That timeline really helps clarify things. Okay, let's dig into the specific kinds of environmental changes the sources connect most strongly to these mental health issues. They covered quite a few, right? Starting with extreme heat. Yes, heat waves are a big one, noted as getting more frequent, more intense because of climate change. And the research links them directly to increases in things like mood disorders and anxiety. Okay. And there's one finding that really jumped out at me. People with existing mental illness are significantly more likely, the source said, up to three times more likely to die during heat waves compared to others. Wow, three times. Yeah. That's stark. It really shines a light on a vulnerability you might not immediately think about with heat waves. It really does. It shows how these climate impacts can just dramatically worsen existing health inequalities. And it's not just mortality. Heat affects pregnancy outcomes like lower birth weight, preterm birth. It impacts child development, adult well-being, potentially leading to less schooling, lower economic activity, behavior problems, even reduced IQ scores mentioned in some studies. So the impacts are really wide ranging. They are. And the research also points to specific vulnerabilities. Gender, for example, women, showed higher death rates in some big European heat waves. Social factors, too, like low socioeconomic status, age both the very young and the elderly, and underlying health conditions make people more susceptible. And you mentioned earlier there's a link between hotter temperatures and aggression. That sounds quite disturbing. It is disturbing. And, yeah, the research discusses it. Basically, increased heat leads to discomfort, right? That discomfort can escalate into hostility, aggressive thoughts, and sometimes aggressive actions. So like more crime. Studies have shown hotter cities tend to experience more violence, and this heat-related violence seems more pronounced during hotter summers. There's also a pretty clear link found between rising temperatures and increasing suicide rates. Really? Yeah, particularly with a peak in the early summer months. And alcohol consumption is noted as potentially making aggression worse in hot conditions. That connection between just the temperature and human aggression or self-harm. Yeah. That's powerful and, yeah, unsettling. Okay, moving on. What about water, floods, hurricanes? Floods are mentioned as one of the most frequent types of major disaster worldwide. Huge impacts, causing immense death and injury. The review gives examples from all over India, Bangladesh, the U.S., Italy, Venezuela. It really shows the global scale. And the mental health toll from floods. PTSD is a major one, often strongly linked to how intense the flood was. But the problems often stick around long after the water's gone. Like what? Well, studies mentioned found depression in about 20% of flood victims, anxiety in over 28%, PTSD in 36%. You also see increases in substance abuse, domestic violence, all made worse by the stress and disruption. And the recovery is tough. Very tough. Economic problems, kids having ongoing behavioral issues. These continue to add psychological burdens long after the flood itself. In hurricanes. Similar story. Similar, yes. Hurricanes cause massive damage, and crucially, they often damage health care infrastructure, public services. That disruption makes people sicker, worsens existing health problems. Okay. And for both floods and hurricanes, the research flags those vulnerability factors again. Poverty, living in insecure housing, poor health care access, being female, very young or old, having a disability, being part of a minority group, lower education, fewer resources, especially in lower income countries. It sounds like the poorest often bear the brunt. That's a recurring theme. And another key point is the disruption of community cohesion. When social networks break down, it adds enormous stress. The sources really stress how important it is to restore those community bonds quickly for recovery and resilience. So it's the physical loss and the tearing of that social fabric. Makes sense. Wildfires were another big one mentioned. Yes, definitely. Large-scale fires and forests, wildlands globally, Siberia, Africa, the Amazon are mentioned. Massive ecosystem impacts like releasing stored carbon, changing landscapes, maybe permanently. And they're affecting cities more too, right? Right. Increasingly, yeah, especially urban areas, new bushlands. And the research shows a consistent pattern after fires, increased mental health issues in the people affected, general psychological problems, PTSD, psychosomatic illnesses, increased alcohol abuse. Do these effects show up right away or can it take time? That's a key find. The effects can be significantly delayed. They might not show up for months, even years after the fire, and they can persist for a long time. It's also noted that even people living nearby who weren't directly evacuated or didn't lose property, they can still experience significant psychological impacts, just the proximity and the event itself. Does the research give any numbers on that? It does. Some examples. Studies after Australian bushfires found potentially 42 percent of the population showing psychiatric issues a year later. Forty two percent. Wow. Yeah. After Californian wildfires, one study found 33 percent with major depression, 24 percent with PTSD. Following Greek wildfires, they observed increased somatization, physical symptoms from psychological stress plus anxiety, hostility, paranoia. And what kind of symptoms are we talking about generally? Across these events, symptoms included things like hyperarousal, being constantly on-edge dissociation, sadness, detachment, disorganized thinking, feeling numb, poor concentration, behavioral problems, a whole range. And children, again, seem particularly vulnerable with fires. Absolutely. The studies highlight significant impacts on kids. Anxiety disorders, panic attacks, sleep issues, acute stress reactions, sometimes compulsively replaying the trauma in their games, flashbacks. That sounds awful. In some severe cases, even psychotic disorders. And these seem especially common in children who felt their life was directly threatened during the fire. God, that's heavy. Drought is another one. The source is linked to psychological distress, right? A slower kind of disaster in some ways. Right, a creeping disaster. Drought has these huge ripple effects, hitting crop yields, food and water access, security. It's especially devastating for indigenous communities whose culture and survival are so tied to the land. The Turkana farmers were mentioned as an example. And it can force people to move. Yes, drought can lead to displacement, forced migration. And tragically, it can increase conflicts over resources that become scarce. An example from Ghana was cited for that. And the specific mental health link there. Critically, the research highlights a connection between prolonged drought and increased suicide rates. Studies from rural New South Wales, Victoria and Australia, and also India are referenced as providing evidence for this really concerning link. Okay, so we've talked about these acute shocks, fires, floods, heat waves. But the sources also look at changes that happen more slowly, right, gradually over time. That's a really important part of the picture, yes. One of those slow-onset changes is large-scale landscape modification. And this brings us right back to soul nostalgia. Ah, right. The sources describe this kind of gradual change as a major source of deep psychological impact. When those familiar places, the territories people know and identify with, change profoundly, it leads to this pervasive sense of losing connection, feeling detached from an environment you feel you belong to. How does that slow loss affect people psychologically? It can make it really hard to adapt. It can lead to a loss of identity if your identity is tied to that place. Feelings of helplessness, watching it happen, fear, too, for the future of the place, the community. The sources even say that experience can feel psychologically similar to the trauma of being forced to migrate, even if you physically stay put. Wow. Okay. What's another slow change they looked at? The long-term increase in average global temperature. So not just the extreme heat waves, but the overall background warming. How does that gradual warming affect our minds? Well, the research suggests that a general rise in ambient temperature can, over time, actually compromise central nervous system function. Really? Yeah. It suggests some mental disorders might be sensitive to temperature shifts, possibly linked to disruptions in brain chemistry like serotonin, dopamine pathways, and maybe affecting the body's ability to regulate its own temperature. So specific disorders are linked? Higher average temperatures are associated with an increased risk of certain conditions, like mania in the elderly or transient mood disorders. There's also a correlation found with more hospital admissions for various mental health issues, substance abuse, behavioral disorders, neurotic disorders, schizophrenia during hotter periods. And what about people who already have a mental illness? For them, there seems to be a correlation with increased risks of mortality and morbidity getting sicker or dying at high temperatures. It just reinforces that vulnerability point we keep coming back to. Right. And the sources also bring up that link again. Between this gradual temperature increase and higher rates of aggression, violence, self-harm, homicide, and suicide risk, it seems to be a consistent finding. Okay. Rising sea levels, another big, slow change impacting communities. Yes. The projected rise, they estimate something like 30 to 121 centimeters by 2100, is driven by melting glaciers and the fact that warmer water just expands. And that's a huge threat for some places? Massive. A direct existential risk for low-lying coastal areas, small island nations. It means land loss, the potential for huge numbers of people being forced to migrate. And even before that happens, just the uncertainty, the looming threat, creates this persistent worry anxiety about having to relocate. Is there a specific psychological impact mentioned for coastal communities? Yes, the sources describe a particular fear, a feeling of being encircled almost under siege by the rising sea. It fundamentally changes their relationship with the ocean from something that provides resources or identity to something threatening. That's a profound shift. Deforestation is another widespread change. What are the psychological impacts there? Deforestation, caused by climate events like drought, but also a lot by human actions clearing land for farming, logging it represents a huge ecological loss. Now, for people in, say, Western societies who are more aware ecologically, hearing about large-scale deforestation can be stressful. It can lead to this feeling called biospheric concern. Biospheric concern. Yeah, like a sense that a vital part of the world's natural heritage is being lost forever, a kind of grief for the planet. But for communities living in or near those forests. For them, especially indigenous populations, the impact is much deeper, more maladaptive, as the sources put it. It can directly lead to depression, other mental health issues. The research points out that forests are often seen in these cultures as sources of health, protection, identity. Losing them is a profound psychological blow. Interestingly, the sources also talk about the opposite, the mental health benefits of having green environments around. They do, yeah. It's a nice counterpoint, actually. The research highlights the well-documented upsides of urban green spaces, parks, tree cover. Like what? Lower city temperatures, better air quality, significant stress reduction, better physical and mental health outcomes, even potentially longer life expectancy. And these benefits seem particularly strong for vulnerable groups, the elderly, people recovering from illness. For kids, having access to green spaces is linked to better cognitive development, doing better in school, fewer behavioral problems, Even positive changes in brain structure. Wow. Actual brain changes. Apparently so. And potentially it might even have a preventive effect against developing mental disorders later in life. But I guess not everyone has equal access to these green spaces. And that's the critical catch the research points out. Often the people who could benefit most, those with lower incomes, living in crowded, underserved areas, they're the ones who lack the resources or ability to easily access these green environments. It highlights a really significant environmental justice and health inequality issue. So we've covered a huge range of environmental changes, sudden disasters, slow shifts, and their varied mental health effects. Let's pull back a bit. Who are the people most at risk? Who does the research consistently identify as being most vulnerable to all this? Okay, yeah. The sources consistently flag several groups as being highly vulnerable. These include children, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses already, those with mobility issues, pregnant and postpartum women, people with pre-existing mental health conditions, and people with lower socioeconomic status. That comes up again and again. And the research connects climate change itself to making that economic inequality worse. Yes. It states that pretty clearly. Climate change tends to hit those with fewer resources the hardest globally. It just worsens existing economic divides. If you have less money, less access to health care, less ability to move or rebuild, you're just inherently more vulnerable to the psychological fallout as well as the physical impacts. Traditional native populations are also specifically mentioned as being high risk, right? Absolutely. Groups like First Nations, Aboriginal communities, Inuit peoples, they're identified as particularly vulnerable because these rapid climate changes are profoundly disrupting their traditional ways of life, their deep connection to the land. Can you give an example? For the Inuit, the sources mention how being on the land is fundamentally important for mental health. But melting ice, changing weather patterns, it disrupts hunting, travel, cultural practices. It literally cuts off access to the land in some cases. And the impact. Tragically, the research points to a link between these disruptions and disturbingly high rates of youth suicide in some Inuit communities. That's devastating. Are there other groups mentioned as vulnerable? Yes. The research also includes refugees and migrants, ethnic minorities, people experiencing homelessness, and the poor in various countries. It basically reinforces that if you're already facing adversity or marginalization, you're likely at higher risk. And having previous mental health issues or trauma? That significantly increases vulnerability too. And as we mentioned with fires, children often show more severe or complex psychological disturbances after disasters compared to adults. This is all quite heavy, outlining this huge psychological strain. Are there new terms emerging beyond Solastalgia to help us talk about these specific feelings related to climate change? Yes, the sources definitely discuss some emerging concepts. We mentioned eco-anxiety earlier, that feeling of loss, helplessness, frustration about the scale of climate change, and feeling unable to cope. There's also ecological grief, which is a term used by groups like the Inuit to describe their sorrow and loss over the environmental changes they're witnessing firsthand. And we talked about biospheric concern, that distress over losing global natural heritage. Are these like official diagnoses yet? Can you get diagnosed with eco-anxiety? That's a good question. The research notes that while these terms are really useful for describing experiences people are having, and they're emerging from observation and clinical practice, they aren't yet listed as specific formal disorders in the main diagnostic manuals, like the DSM-5 or the ICD-10. But conditions related to them, like psychological distress caused by economic problems or exposure to disaster, those are certainly recognized. The sources also mention the development of ecopsychology as a field. Ecopsychology. Yeah, a growing field of treatment, specifically looking at these environment-related psychological issues. Therapists are starting to specialize in this area. Okay, so this deep dive has covered so much ground. Local impacts, global trends, individual vulnerabilities. How do the sources try to bring all this complexity together at the end? Well, they reiterate that there's now a strong body of evidence connecting natural disasters and these broader environmental changes to a whole range of mental health problems. Right. They also acknowledge it's complicated. The research landscape has challenges like different studies measuring impacts in different ways, making comparisons hard. And just pinning down direct cause and effect in these really complex systems is difficult. Sure. What factors do they say help build resilience? make communities stronger against these impacts. They highlight things like socio-behavioral factors, how people and communities respond. Cultural strengths are important. Having access to reliable information and being prepared makes a bug difference. They also underscore that the impacts happen through different routes, direct exposure, indirect witnessing, the acute shock, the chronic long-term stress. It's not just one pathway. And the effects can last a long time. Yes. And an important point they raise is that the economic and social problems resulting from climate change can create burdens that don't just affect people now, but future generations too. So where do we go from here? What's needed next in terms of understanding and addressing all this? The sources are pretty explicit. More research is needed. Particularly, they say we need studies focusing on psychological reactions to specific types of gradual landscape change, like what happens psychologically when glaciers melt and rivers disappear, or with long-term desertification, or the chronic impacts of repeated fires or water shortages. Getting more specific. Exactly. And better understanding the differences between acute, subacute, and long-term consequences. They really stress the need for multidisciplinary approaches, getting environmental scientists, psychologists, sociologists, public health experts all working together. Makes sense. And they mention the potential growth of eco-psychiatry as maybe a specialized branch of study in the future. So as we wrap up this deep dive, the core message from these sources seems crystal clear. The environmental changes happening, driven significantly by climate change, are having really profound and varied impacts on our mental health. Yeah. Impacts that we're starting to name with concepts like solastalgia and eco-anxiety. It's a powerful reminder, isn't it? Our psychological well-being isn't somehow separate from the health and stability of the planet, of the places we call home. They're deeply intertwined. And recognizing that feels so important because it shifts the conversation, doesn't it? It's not just about abstract environmental problems out there. It's deeply personal. It's about our sense of place, our emotions, our well-being, and how we navigate individually and together a world that's changing fast. Absolutely. This deep dive really does challenge our perspective. It leaves us and you listening with a pretty crucial question to think about, I think. What does it really mean to acknowledge the reality of solastalgia and eco-anxiety? How should that change how we design climate adaptation plans? And maybe even more fundamentally, how we provide mental health support and try to build resilience in communities facing these environmental shifts. How does understanding all this reshape our relationship with the environment itself? Thanks for listening today. Four recurring narratives underlie every episode. Boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren't just philosophical musings, but frameworks for understanding our modern world. We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles at heliocspodcast.substack.com.