Essential issues
What is the cause of the increase in mental disorders in populations around the world?
The epidemic of mental illness is an inevitable consequence of all the manifestations of the global crisis facing humanity today. Above all, the effects of climate change, exacerbated by economic insecurity to the point of starvation and the impoverishment of billions, the upsurge of wars, violence and brutality in society and the forced migration of populations due to all these factors.
Mental health and recent world events
Factors contributing to good mental health
What is happening to people's mental health in recent years and decade?
For 30 years, there has been an unprecedented increase in mental disorders worldwide, a trend that has persisted in countries with diverse populations regarding economic well-being and cultural and religious backgrounds. When we examined the prevalence of individual mental disorders in the various countries in which statistics are well collected, we found an upward trend over the last 30 years in most studies.
From the early 90s and 2000s, the prevalence of mental disorders gradually increased, and between 2012 and 2015, there was a dramatic jump. It is starting to grow exponentially. Do you understand what exponential growth is? It's when gradual growth turns into a sharp progression of several times the rate of growth. According to the official WHO statistics,
every 4th-5th person in the world suffers clinically from some kind of mental disorder and 20% of children and adolescents.
About 10-14% of adults suffer from severe mental illnesses, such as clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Every 40 seconds someone in our world dies by suicide.
More than 30-40% of people (in some countries, this figure reaches 50%) suffer from mental disorders in their lifetime.
More than 20% in the last 12 months, teenagers and young people suffer from anxiety, stress and depression, lose the meaning of life and interest in whatever, cut up their bodies, commit suicide, become victims of violence or show aggression themselves.
And this is only according to official figures. Only 25-30% of people with mental disorders go to official psychiatric services, and only 5-10% of those with addictions. We don't even realise the true extent of the prevalence of mental disorders.
Among which ages is the greatest increase being seen?
Particularly alarming is the steady increase in the prevalence of chronic distress, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addictions, self-destructive and aggressive behaviour and other mental health problems among children, adolescents and young people over the last decade. In the research graphs, this appears as a gradual increase among adults and a sharp jump of 2-3 times or more among young people
Completed suicides, rate out of 100,000, by age group
Percent of adults with at least one suicide-related outcome (thoughts, plans, or attempts) in the last year, by age group, 2008 –2017.
Source: Jean M. Twenge, A. Bell Cooper, Thomas E. Joiner, Mary E. Duffy, Sarah G. Binau. Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017.. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2019; DOI: 10.1037/abn0000410
How are changes in the planet's core and magnetic field related to the mental health crisis?
Destabilization of the planet's core under the influence of aggressive cosmic rays leads to decreasing or reducing the geomagnetic field strength. Human has their electromagnetic field, which constantly interacts with the external magnetic field of the Earth. Changes in the geomagnetic field affect the entire body, but the nervous system is most sensitive to this effect.
The cardiovascular, hormonal and immune systems are also very sensitive. These are the controlling systems of the whole organism. As it is known, nerve cells communicate with each other by means of electromagnetic impulses and neurochemical signal transmission, so the nervous system is the first to react to changes in the electromagnetic field of the Earth.
Dr Kyoichi Nakagawa has described Magnetic Field Deficiency Syndrome (MFDS). Most people have felt the effects of this syndrome in the last decade: rapid fatigue, sleepiness, general weakness, nervousness, emotional lability and irritability, sleep disturbances, insomnia, attention deficit, absent-mindedness, forgetfulness, generalised myofascial pains throughout the body, tension in the shoulder, back, neck area, stiffness in movement, frequent headaches, heaviness in the head, dizziness, loss of appetite, visual disturbances, decreased immunity, tendency to frequent illnesses. I have to ask you: Who hasn't experienced this? As you can see, climate change has already affected all of us.
The symptom complex described above correlates with chronic fatigue syndrome and psychosomatic neurotic disorders, most likely different words for the same phenomenon.
When you observe any of the above and during magnetic storms you should follow some general recommendations:
reduce physical and mental stress,
rest more,
keep a calm positive attitude to any situation,
do not overeat and drink enough clean water, it is better to refuse strong tea, coffee and alcoholic beverages.
Also, in this period it is better to postpone the solution of complex issues and making important decisions.
Intense cosmic radiation, of as yet unknown nature, is affecting the entire solar system and the Sun itself. When there is a general decline in solar activity, there are often solar flares, which cause geomagnetic disturbances in our magnetic field or solar storms. Low-frequency magnetic fluctuations also cause autonomic nervous system and emotional disorders. Healthy people may become irritable and have unreasonable anxiety and reduced performance, while emotionally unstable people may experience panic attacks, increased depression and aggression, and increased psychiatric hospital admissions.
Studies show that during magnetic storms, the number of suicides and crimes involving bodily harm to other people increases, up to and including murder.
Waves of extreme heat that last for days, or even weeks, have been experienced by an increasing number of people in various countries in recent years. Increased discomfort leads to increased hostility, aggressive thoughts and actions with high temperatures. There has been more violence and shootings in hotter cities than in colder cities. A review of 35 studies of the impact of periods of extreme heat on mental health in different countries found the most robust evidence of increased risk of suicide, as well as an increased risk of morbidity, hospitalisation and mortality due to mental illness.
Increases in suicide rates with increasing temperature have been reported worldwide, from low- to high-income countries. Meta-analyses show that suicide rates increase by about 1% for every 1°C increase in temperature once the temperature crosses a threshold that is unique to each location.
Several studies have established a link between higher temperatures and aggressive behaviour up to and including homicide.
Mares and Moffett (2016) investigated the relationship between average annual temperature and homicide rates in 57 countries between 1995 and 2012. The researchers found that each degree Celsius increase in average annual temperature was associated with an average increase in homicide rates of nearly 6 %.
The rise in average annual temperature and what is called global warming is also a consequence of destabilisation of the planet's core and ocean pollution by microplastics. Because of the pollution, the ocean has almost lost its ability to remove excess heat to the atmosphere and beyond, meaning our air conditioner is broken.
Elementary evidence that climate change and catastrophes are due to processes in the core and not due to an increase in anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere is that the ice is melting from below, the ocean is warming from the depths and identical processes are observed on all planets of the solar system and on the sun.
What are climate anxiety and depression?
A study of 10,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 from 10 different cultural, economic, and climatic backgrounds was conducted in 2021. Structured interviews and surveys were conducted to find out what emotions they felt about climate change, how it affected their daily lives, and how they thought about the effectiveness of governments in responding to the climate crisis.
The results were shocking. Over 50% reported each of the following emotions: sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness and guilt. However, almost 60% said they felt "very bad" or "extremely" worried about climate change. More than 45% of participants said that their attitude towards climate change had a negative impact on their daily life and functioning, with many (75 to 83%) of survey participants reporting high levels of negative thoughts about climate change.
“Distress about climate change is associated with young people perceiving that they have no future, that humanity is doomed, and that governments are failing to respond adequately, and with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults”, – authors of the study.
Of course, we are talking about climate anxiety. There is nothing pathological about this condition. On the contrary, it shows a healthy instinct that you feel and understands that there is trouble in our common home, the life of our planet hangs in the balance, and this situation demands active and urgent action. Anxiety is an emotion that warns us of danger, which can make us look for more information about the problem and find possible solutions. But where does the energy of anxious young people go? To the protests against greenhouse gas emissions. To the fight against anthropogenic CO2. Empty and ineffective actions are frustrating without results, and people give up. Anxiety gives way to hopelessness and despair - climate depression.
I'm addressing you guys with a climate anxiety. There is nothing wrong with you, you are healthy, and you are adequately perceiving what is happening. Please don't fall asleep. You have the potential to turn things around. You just need to take the right action. Join the millions of people in the Creative Society Project who are creating the conditions for the survival of all people.
Once deceived, it is not easy for someone to overcome their scepticism and doubts and continue searching for reliable climate information, but please continue! Explore different points of view and closely examine the results of the multi-year, multidisciplinary research of the global climate science platform of the Creative Society Project. The results of this research have been presented at conferences and forums in the Global Crisis series. The important thing is to take the proper steps, and by joining forces, we can not only avoid tragedy but also build a better world.
How do climate change and natural disasters affect mental health, behaviour and brain function?
Of course, due to climate change, the mental health of people around the world is deteriorating very rapidly, especially children, adolescents and young adults. The graphs of increasing prevalence of mental disorders correlate with the graphs of increasing climate change and natural disasters around the world.
Victims of various climate disasters are at high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive and anxiety disorders with panic attacks. People often experience sleep disturbances, suicidal thoughts, and outbursts of anger and aggression that are difficult to control.
Not only climate-related disasters themselves, but also socio-economic factors contribute to the increase in mental disorders. Such as migration, lack of water and food resources. Drought and crop failures lead to economic losses, hunger and thirst, which can certainly lead to distress and despair, up to and including suicide.
We also talked about the phenomenon of climate anxiety and depression. But the most important factors that are still very poorly understood are the direct physical effects of changes in the planet's magnetic field, increases and sudden fluctuations in temperature and the direct effects of cosmic radiation and solar wind on the human body, brain and consciousness.
As a result, we have not only seen a dramatic decline in the mental health of people around the world, but also a change in their behavior. We have seen an escalation of aggressive and self-destructive behavior, up to and including suicide and murder. Overall, our society is becoming less and less adequate and more prone to cognitive distortions and violence.
Necessary measures of emotional stability, mental health and behavioural disorders are the rates of suicide (auto-aggression) and homicide (aggression) in society.
According to data provided by the US National Center for Health Statistics, the overall suicide rate in the United States increased by 35.2% from 2000 to 2018. However, in the category of children, adolescents 10 - 14 years old, it tripled from 2000 to 2020, and among youth 15 - 24 years old, it increased by 87%.
Suicide was the second leading cause of death among 10 to 14-year-olds and 25 to 34-year-olds, and homicide in the 15 to 24-year-old category, second only to accidents.
There has been a significant change in the cause of death statistics for children and young people in the US in recent decades, which shows an unprecedented increase in aggression/auto-aggression in our society. We see that accidents and injuries are the leading cause of death in the 1-24 age group, but what are these accidents? For over 60 years, road traffic accidents have prevailed. However, since 2017, firearm-related injuries have become the most common cause of death.
Overall, two-thirds of these deaths were homicides, and 30% were suicides. In 2021, seven children per day were killed by firearms. In the first six months of 2022, more than 300 mass shootings in the US.
"Every single time I walk into a classroom, the first thing I do is find the nearest exit," says Osadolor-Hernandez, the student from the University of Chicago. Instead of being focused on her professor's lecture, she finds herself constantly glancing around to see if anyone looks suspicious. "Every single time anyone just reaches into their backpack, there is a sense of panic that I feel," she says. "It's extremely frustrating to have to feel this way, and it's extremely hard to live with this reality."
Why do some people and even professionals ignore climate change and not perceive it as an immediate and imminent threat even when natural disasters occur?
The psychological perception of climate change is affected by various cognitive distortions. For example, such as lagging in time and lagging in space, i.e. it is seen as delayed in time and distant in space. As something that will be somewhere, sometime, with someone, but not with us or not now.
The influential sociologist Anthony Giddens refers to this space and time distancing of the climate change problem as the Paradox. The Giddens Paradox states that: “since the dangers posed by global climate change aren’t tangible, immediate or visible in the course of day-to-day life, many will sit on their hands and do nothing of a concrete nature about them. Yet waiting until such dangers become visible and acute—in the shape of catastrophes that are irrefutably the result of climate change—before being stirred to serious action will be too late”
The perception of the climate and environmental crisis is influenced by the human tendency to assess as risky what has an immediate outcome and to underestimate events with distant consequences in time.
Distortions also affect the workings of memory, including the collective memory of huge disasters of the past. The effect of "remoteness from the past" is triggered: it happened once, with someone, but not with me. And was it? And if it was, who knows under what conditions? This makes us short-sighted with regard to the future.
Media information from governments and the scientific community about climate change is not presented as an immediate threat to humanity's survival at the moment. I would even say that everything is being done to play on the above cognitive distortions so that people remain ignorant and inactive. The facts about the causes and increase of climate change, about the scale, frequency and intensity of natural disasters are glossed over and distorted. They talk about climate catastrophes as something that probably will happen in tens of years. When they talk about the anthropogenic factor as the cause of climate events, the locus of control over the climate situation is shifted to the political and economic ruling elite. Because of this lie, people's healthy instincts of self-preservation do not work, and they do not act. There is a purposeful manipulation of public consciousness. Those who do it are well aware of unconscious mechanisms of people's behaviour. In essence, we are being led to the slaughter. Before our eyes, a crime against humanity is being committed by those on whom we have shifted responsibility for our fate. And we are all accomplices.
While young people are "going crazy" with climate emotions, adults, who have resources and opportunities, because of fear and laziness choose the ostrich strategy, simply deny and ignore the problem, deceive themselves, creating the illusion of false well-being: "climate disasters are something that happens somewhere, sometime, to someone, but not to me" or "not now". They make plans for the future that are not destined to materialise. Others, more cunning, make a lot of money out of it, sometimes hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
Egon Chalokian, a renowned scientist from the United States, who recently initiated the urgent establishment of a unified international scientific centre to overcome the climate crisis, pointed out in his address to humanity, the concealment of facts and misinformation about climate change.
How can changing the format of society from a consumerist to a creative society stop the epidemic of mental disorders and enhance mental wellbeing?
Obviously, there is no way we can stop the rise of mental disorders, addictions, and behavioral changes in a consumer format society.
First of all, because nobody at the interstate level is looking for solutions to climate problems, except Egon Chalokyan and a small group of scientists. The global crisis is only growing.
We can create conditions for mental well-being only by joining efforts and all our resources in changing the format to a creative one. In such a society, people's life and health will be in the first place, and the whole society will be interested in the development of each person, in his or her maximum self-realization.
This will happen by reallocating resources. Science will receive unlimited funding and development, which means there will be a solution to environmental problems and stabilization of the core, and therefore the climate.
Everyone will have an unconditional basic income, enough space for a living, free quality medicine and education, and free energy. In case of a danger, people will be quickly relocated to a safe place. People will be able to move freely around the world and communicate with each other, share knowledge and experience. Each person will be able to do their favorite work and art in any country. Rapidly developing science will create conditions for health and longevity. There will simply be no reason to develop mental disorders.
