{"id":60076508,"date":"2025-04-11T14:56:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T13:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60076508"},"modified":"2025-04-24T15:32:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:32:26","slug":"climate-change-takes-its-toll-on-latin-americas-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/climate-change-takes-its-toll-on-latin-americas-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change is taking a toll on Latin America\u2019s mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the hottest months of 2024, a year in which Mexico<\/a> and the world reached record temperatures, Yanine Quiroz began to feel a fatigue and anguish that prevented her from working during the day. \u201cI was very afraid to see the water shortage and how all my family and friends were suffering,\u201d says the 33-year-old journalist from Ecatepec, one of the most drought-stricken municipalities in the State of Mexico. The state is near the capital, where last year there were fears of a looming \u201cday zero\u201d<\/a> \u2013 the point at which critically low levels might leave residents without water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies have confirmed<\/a> that prolonged exposure to heat affects physical and mental health, increasing the risk of exhaustion, heat stroke, mood disorders, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. In Quiroz\u2019s case, weather-related concerns were compounded by an episode of acute anxiety she was already suffering from, and she began to have panic attacks, which led her to apply for a period of leave from her job. She also sought professional help, which has helped her to talk more openly about her mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The responses to environmental challenges that Quiroz describes suggest signs of what has been termed \u201ceco-anxiety<\/a>\u201d: a state of agitation, restlessness or unease of mood in the face of the climate crisis and other environmental issues. Though not yet formally recognised as a medical condition, this concept, popularised by the American Psychological Association (APA) in its 2017 report<\/a>, \u201cMental Health and Our Changing Climate\u201d, <\/em>refers to the emotional distress and discomfort a person experiences due to concerns about the state of the environment and climate disasters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Yanine Quiroz at her home in the State of Mexico, March 2025. The severe drought and high temperatures in Mexico has left her suffering from what has been termed \u201ceco-anxiety\u201d (Image \u00a9 Ginnette Riquelme)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is a feeling that has been observed as mainly affecting the younger generation and those working on environmental issues. A 2021 study<\/a> published in The Lancet medical journal found that more than half of 10,000 respondents, all aged between 16 to 25 and from ten different countries, experienced negative emotions such as anxiety and powerlessness in the face of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the world facing more powerful and frequent disasters, and more erratic weather threatening communities with droughts, floods and heat waves, there is an urgent need for health professionals to understand the impact of climate change on mental health, says Ana Laura Torlaschi, an advisor on health and climate change projects for the Pan American Health Organization. \u201cYou can have a deep knowledge about diseases, but if you don\u2019t recognise that a person is exposed to environmental factors that affect them, you won\u2019t be able to offer the right help,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mental health and climate disasters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Studies have shown that people who experience a natural disaster first-hand are likely to suffer acute impacts on their mental health. That was the case for Diana Ruiz, 35, and her mother, who were caught underprepared for the arrival of Hurricane Otis in 2023, the worst storm to hit the Mexican Pacific in more than three decades, which devastated the tourist resort of Acapulco<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otis took only 12 hours to go from tropical storm to a category five hurricane, the highest possible, and an unprecedented escalation. Faced with a rapidly strengthening cyclone, mother and daughter were unable to evacuate, and had no choice but to lock themselves in the bathroom of their Acapulco home with their cat to wait for the storm to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a shock. We were scared. We tried to sleep, but there was a very strange noise from the wind,\u201d recalls Diana. In the morning, they emerged unharmed, but were left to take stock of the aftermath: their house was heavily damaged, and they had also lost the shop where they sold accessories and clothes. In the following weeks, the challenge was to get food and prevent burglars from entering their house, as looting became prevalent in the storm\u2019s aftermath. \u201cMy mother endured a lot of things, pain. But we didn\u2019t cry,\u201d the daughter recalls. \u201cSome time later, things start to drop on you, and [you realise] how they happened.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"group<\/div>
People from the community of Aguas Blancas, in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, wash their clothes in a river in November 2023 after their homes were destroyed by Hurricane Otis (Image: Luis E Salgado \/ ZUMA Press Wire \/ Alamy)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the hurricane, psychologists from international NGO M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) and the State of Guerrero arrived<\/a> in Acapulco and Coyuca de Ben\u00edtez, two of the most affected municipalities, to attend to people\u2019s mental health. MSF has since the 1990s implemented mental health interventions as part of its emergency work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe arrived in what is considered the immediate post-disaster phase,\u201d says Berzaida L\u00f3pez, a psychologist who oversaw MSF\u2019s mental health intervention after Otis. She explains that at this stage, a sense of disbelief prevails, and those affected feel as if they are living a nightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStress is very high in those early days. People talk about difficulty sleeping, being startled, or being on constant vigilance,\u201d says Lopez. \u201cIf there was a strong wind that made noises associated with the hurricane, people would experience the trauma again,\u201d she adds. These flashbacks \u2013 reliving the hurricane \u2013 are signs of acute stress.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

The importance given to mental health in relation to disasters, and that dedicated professionals exist to care for people in these situations, is a relatively new development. In 2011, after a devastating earthquake in Sendai, Japan, killed more than 18,000 people and was observed<\/a> to have left survivors with acute mental health problems, the United Nations\u2019 Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction<\/a> was created, recommending improved recovery plans and psychosocial support for those affected. Although still emergent, especially in Latin America, evidence<\/a> that these events can raise risks of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and suicidal behaviour highlights the importance of such plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than two years after Otis, mental health is still a challenge for Diana and her mother. She experiences long-term health impacts from the dengue fever she contracted after Otis \u2013 an illness that spiked in the area after the disaster, inflicting a further blow to the local economy and adding to the factors that ultimately prompted Diana to move to Mexico City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond disaster: the pain of losing the landscape<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For many of Latin America\u2019s Indigenous peoples, whose traditions, cultures and often livelihoods are founded on close relations to their environments, eco-anxiety may also be a response to a changing landscape and climate. Regeane Oliveira Suares is a young Terena woman who left her community in Nioaque, in the southwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, more than five years ago to study medicine in the state capital of Campo Grande. She describes how her mental health has been affected by both the uprooting and the gradual loss of her territory since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came from a small township where everyone knew each other and the routine was different. When I started living in the city, my mental health suffered a lot. I started to develop depression and anxiety,\u201d she says. Suares recalls how, in her village, everything gave her a sense of freedom, such as being able to walk outside or ride a bike more safely.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if leaving her community was a challenge, it was also difficult to return and see that the land and landscape had changed, she says: \u201cI noticed drastic changes in the crops; the lack of rain impoverished the soil and the strong sun killed most of what was being grown for food or sale.\u201d The river was getting drier and drier, and often even diverted, creating a landscape she describes as \u201csad\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Mato Grosso and its southern neighbour, Mato Grosso do Sul, are among the most significant agricultural states in Brazil for products such as grains, sugarcane, livestock and soybeans. But in recent decades, this position has also led the states to be ranked among the top ten for deforestation<\/a> \u2013 vast swathes of this being illegal<\/a> \u2013 which has brought changes to landscapes and caused other impacts on ecosystems. In recent years, some areas in these states, and yields of some crops, have also felt the effects<\/a> of extreme weather, including droughts driven by the La Ni\u00f1a weather pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/div>
A field that has been deforested to make way for a soybean plantation in Quer\u00eancia, Mato Grosso state, central Brazil. Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul are among the ten Brazilian states with the highest rates of deforestation (Image: Fl\u00e1via Milhorance \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Oliveira\u2019s feelings of uprootedness and sense of loss over the changes in her home may be an expression of what philosopher Glenn Albrecht christened in 2005 as \u201csolastalgia<\/a>\u201d: \u201ca pain experienced when one recognises that the place in which one resides and loves is under assault\u201d. It is a kind of mourning for the loss of a familiar place, and a phenomenon that various studies<\/a>, including research<\/a> by Albrecht, have sought to explore further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think my children may not see what I was part of, where I grew up. This depresses me even more because, little by little, I saw that place crumbling before our eyes,\u201d Oliveira says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, Oliveira participated in research<\/a> at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul\u2019s School of Medicine \u2013 the institution where she is studying \u2013 that sought to explore what actions are needed to improve the mental health of Indigenous people in relation to climate change. \u201cThese people are losing their perspective on life, on hope \u2013 so, for them, everything that happens has a deeper meaning,\u201d says Antonio Grande, the professor leading the research, on a video call. \u201cAt this point, it\u2019s all about climate change. The land has been devastated and [the people] can no longer communicate with nature. Some even talk about not being able to hear it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies and international organisations, including the United Nations<\/a> and Pan-American Health Organization<\/a>, have highlighted increasing rates of mental health problems in Indigenous communities worldwide, often connected to their dispossession and environmental change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These people are losing their perspective on life, on hope [\u2026] At this point, it\u2019s all about climate change<\/blockquote>Antonio Grande, professor at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul\u2019s School of Medicine<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Grande and his team\u2019s research proposes preserving Indigenous territories, respecting Indigenous peoples\u2019 ways of life and breaking taboos on mental illness that they found exists in these communities. \u201cIt\u2019s something political, which starts with not destroying their land,\u201d says Grande. The study he leads is one of the few<\/a> on mental health and climate change that has been conducted in Latin America, and provides clues to the transformation that the region needs to begin to address an issue that has been historically stigmatised<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliveira offers her perceptions as an Indigenous woman who is about to graduate and become a doctor. Medical schools, she says, need to work on this relationship between Indigenous mental health and climate change, but addressing the root causes of the factors that drive anxieties and puts pressure on communities is the key. \u201cGovernments need to guarantee the right to ancestral land and financial assistance, and schools need to educate about our origins, our rights, and our values as human beings in society,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Action: a pathway to mental health work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the frequency and intensity of extreme weather projected<\/a> to increase in a warming world, more people are likely to have their mental health affected. Nora Leal Marchena is a psychiatrist who in 2023 promoted the creation of the Environmental and Urban Mental Health Chapter of the Association of Psychiatrists of Argentina. She stresses the importance of taking concrete actions to manage these emotions: \u201cWhen you start working on an issue, the actions trigger positive responses that help to mitigate the concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies such as The Lancet\u2019s on youth eco-anxiety have shown that the magnitude of the climate crisis, on a global scale, can bring about feelings of despair \u2013 an apocalyptic sense that it is \u201ctoo late\u201d. But for mental health at least, taking action on climate impacts is effective. Marchena sees this especially with children and adolescents, in whose mental health she has specialised. \u201cYou have to get them to take action, because if you don\u2019t, you generate powerlessness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The affection or emotional bonds that are formed in collaboration help us not to be so afraid of the dystopian future that we imagine<\/blockquote>Alice Poma, researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico focusing on emotions and social movements<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Alice Poma, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico focusing on emotions and social movements, corroborates this. One of her work\u2019s findings is that \u201cactivism is almost therapeutic in terms of climate emotions\u201d, she explains. \u201cBecause by organising, by participating, you get to manage some of the climate emotions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having hope via collective action and creating spaces for discussion allows us to think about a different future, Poma says: \u201cThe affection or emotional bonds that are formed in collaboration help us not to be so afraid of the dystopian future that we imagine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why people like Yanine Quiroz are looking for strategies to cope with the emotional impact of extreme weather. \u201cI have some ideas in mind to respond in the short term to those future situations that could trigger eco-anxiety again,\u201d she says. These strategies range from individual solutions, such as adapting and preparing the spaces she lives and works in for future extremes, to collective actions, such as participating in reforestation efforts with NGOs. \u201cBut the fear definitely comes up every time the heat becomes more intense,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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