PETERS: On wildfires and our mental health

All of these events — even if they don’t affect us directly or acutely — serve to raise our community’s collective anxiety level.

We may not even notice it, but for many of us, as the calendar turns from May to June to July, we tense up. Will it be a good summer or a bad summer?

That judgment has little to do with the actual weather conditions. Instead, it’s the fire and smoke conditions we measure.

Our summertime efforts to relax are sabotaged — if not by fires and restrictions, then by the rising sense of existential dread that comes from these threats. Even the opportunities we may have to get away from the fire and the smoke are followed by that anxiety rising again as we come back home into the firestorm.

It’s certainly true for myself.

That doesn’t necessarily mean more severe mental health episodes, but it lowers the baseline.

And what’s the collective impact of many, many people having a lower threshold for stress? Could it be some of the symptoms we see playing out in our community?

Once again, this is only a theory I have been chewing on. It’s not based on any studies or evidence I have seen.

If it’s true, though, it’s one of the most important and unexpected impacts of climate change.

——

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: On wildfires and our mental health

Our Community