Eco-Anxiety and Depression vs Reality Based Concern
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
Previous articles have dealt with the progression of disease through endemic, epidemic, and pandemic phases with attention paid to the effect of climate change on enablement and/or acceleration of the process. Recent articles in publications such as Medscape point to an increase in depressive illness and panic anxiety states due to obsessive worrying about ecologic change. The general label given to all of this is eco-anxiety. Is the answer to the threat of eco-anxiety blissful ignorance of the ecological threat or blind faith in actions taken or not taken to meet the developing crisis? Notification of your congressmen and women of your concerns is a realistic way of alerting them and possibly getting more information as to what is being done or what can be done.
Press Revelations
Recent press revelations about WMDs is a good example of what can happen if citizens are blase or unaware. Unbeknownst to most of us, the funding for detection of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) has been diverted so that airport alarm systems across the country are ineffective. Two bipartisan bills exacting fines for the UAR for continuing refusal to allow outside medical assistance to Yemen in the face of the worsening cholera epidemic have been quietly vetoed by POTUS. If the worsened cholera situation should get beyond Yemen and involve the continental U.S. (by virtue of an infected person gaining access to our shores) through a diplomat or returning citizen, cholera can be handled by existing resources and is unlikely to become an epidemic. Ebola on the other hand is only a plane ride away for a large number and largely because of U.S. non-participation in WHO is simply being observed. Measures such as temperature checking, inspection for rashes and airport isolation are clearly inadequate leading to the conclusion that it is only a matter of time before numbers of cases appear. What to do before Ebola is upon us? Again, contacting your representatives on the county, state, and national levels can persuade the government to be part of an attempted solution.
Eco-Anxiety
The foregoing issues are not obvious parts of healthcare option discussions, but are reminders that the government has an important part to play in the nation's welfare. In being asked to play that role, it is not socialism or communism, do not believe that eco-anxiety is outside the purview of DSM-V but is legitimately within the category of anxiety. Keep in mind that DSM-V is the classification bible which allows physicians to bill and which dictates what is reimbursable under Medicare and Medicaid as well as private insurance. Many physicians and other practitioners are calling for a review of DSM-V with respect to the possibility that it has been subject to big pharmacy manipulation.
A Sense of Powerlessness
I believe that a large part of the malaise that is widely felt is integrally related to a sense of powerlessness as wealthy, politically powerful, or group corroborated scientific experts occupy center stage. The digital age with its condensation of news and information predisposes us to seek entertainment in our "spare time" rather than valid information. "The game's afoot" and the future is increasingly slipping from our (every man's) grasp.
