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Allergies Are Definitely Getting Worse, and It’s Affecting Your Mental Health
Don’t think sneezing and allergies are only affecting your breathing because research points to mental health issues, too.
Climate change can lead to mental health effects on well-being through physical alterations. These can manifest in ways, such as injuries and fatalities that can take a toll on health, and respiratory ailments like allergies and asthma that may exacerbate conditions like depression and anxiety.
Even people in the U.S. who have never been personally affected by a climate disaster are feeling climate anxiety, a powerful emotion of fear, sadness, and dread about the future of a warming planet. 56% of people in the U.S. who took part in an APA poll in 2020 said that climate change is the most important problem the world is facing right now. Every day, nearly half of young people (18–34) experience the stress of climate change.
Many adults (68%) say they have at least some “eco-anxiety,” which is any worry or stress about climate change and its effects. This suggests that worrying about climate change may be affecting their mental health.
