Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to a mental health provider in the remote West Australian town of Geraldton, climate anxiety is causing big problems for the local youth.
Climate change, natural disasters behind rising anxiety in Geraldton youth: mental health provider
ABC Mid West & Wheatbelt / By Bridget Herrmann Posted Yesterday at 10:45am
A youth mental health provider says there has been a steady increase in the number of young people presenting with anxiety in Geraldton this year.
Key points:
- Headspace says climate change, threat of natural disasters and COVID are affecting young people’s mental health
- The Geraldton clinic has seen an increase in young people with anxiety
- Experts say looking after key wellbeing aspects can lower anxiety
Headspace Geraldton manager Fiona Stewart said numbers were split evenly between males and females.
“We have definitely seen a gradual increase in numbers of young people presenting with anxiety rather than depression, and comorbidity definitely with autism spectrum disorder and anxiety,” she said.
“It’s unfortunate but I’m not surprised because nationally, young people are presenting into Headspace [clinics] with increased levels of anxiety, so we’re not alone in that.”
Ms Stewart said Tropical Cyclone Seroja and climate changes were common concerns underlying the youths’ anxiety, with people as young as 12 asking for help.
“We’re definitely seeing some themes around the comorbidity for young people,” she said.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-17/geraldton-anxiety-rise/100706758
Geraldton is also suffering a raging meth abuse epidemic, which might be contributing to the mental health crisis.
But its a real question which came first – the ice abuse or the climate anxiety? In 2019, a renowned drug abuse doctor Alex Wodak testified to a government inquiry that fear of climate change is driving young people to destroy their lives with hard drugs. Climate change wasn’t the only factor, but it was a significant contributing factor.
If you tell kids the world will end soon, and they’re doomed to a horrible miserable death, don’t be surprised if they don’t smile as much as they used to.
Over the last two years, COVID and extreme response measures are certainly major contributors to anxiety.
The government responses (lockdowns, forced business closures, face diaper requirements, etc.) have caused even more damage than the horrible toll extracted by the Chinese Communist Wuhan virus.
Isn’t it strange that in past epidemics most of the emphasis was on keeping the sick quarantined at home unless their problems were life-threatening. Usually the immediate family was required to stay home. Much of the slack for things such as shopping were taken by neighbors.
Of course, in most place people also cut down socializing, and needless joint activities. But people still went to work, went shopping, etc.
The economy didn’t tank, factories still produced, schools and teachers taught.
My mother or other relatives often told us about “Marcie”, the oldest child. She was 19 or 20. During the 1918 Epidemic she came home early one Saturday feeling a bit ill. She had a fever. It spiked in the evening. She went to bed and never woke up.
The US population was about 103 million in 1918. About 675,000 died of the influenza, plus 45,000 military. It was much worse than the current pandemic. About 4 times the death rate.
Damage that can’t even begin to be understood yet. I recently saw a mother who shared how her kindergartner draws masks on people in his Highlights magazine because “they look weird” without them.
Even more disturbing is that the mother (along with many others) thinks this is ok, “perfectly normal”.
Isn’t causing anxiety the goal of climate alarmists? They don’t have the science, so manipulation emotions is the only tool they have.
Yes, the “cunning plan” of global Marxists has always been to engender despair in the kids through climate doomsday scenarios so that the kids can pull their parents into the “DO SOMETHNG” climate religion.
I’ve said it before, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol-Pot, all knew they must get into the minds of the children to achieve their objectives!!! Under British law, brainwashing in the education system is illegal, yet where Climate propaganda is concerned it’s open season!!!
Alarmists can’t argue from logos (logic), but rather pathos (emotions). Alarmists also fallaciously argue from ethos by appealing to their authoritative 97% of ‘scientists’ believe…
Did no one measure anxiety and co-morbidity levels experienced by people in general during the plagues of the Middle Ages? After all, it was all the fault of witches, wasn’t it? The Pox swept through Europe and scarred everyone. The Black Death showed up and destroyed whole villages.
Had to be the witches. It’s always the witches!!!!
We’ve been saying for years that teaching this kind of end-of-the-world climate doom is nothing short of child abuse. To say nothing of how the fear of Covid is being handled by government bureaucrats .. lockdowns, masks, now vaccine mandates. OF COURSE it scares kids witless .. what did they think it would do?
They thought it would scare kids witless.
They have the result is not compliance but potential suicide
Wait until it is their kids
Is the DSM-V going to have climate anxiety in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?
I saw a headline yesterday claiming a doctor had diagnosed a patient to be afflicted by climate change.
I passed on reading the story as the headline told me all I needed to know, so I don’t know what medical condition the doctor was attributing to climate change.
I suppose it could have been mental illness, now that I think about it. In that case, it should have been attributed to climate change propaganda, not climate change.
The liberals have no shame. Claiming CO2 (plant food) is going to kill us is as pathetic and irresponsible as pretending a modern society can run on sunshine and breezes. It doesn’t matter if their claims are because of being willfully uninformed or agenda driven. The result is the same. Tragic and inexcusable.
I live in the USA both my wife and I come from large families she from 7 and me from 6. We have lots of grand children among the our siblings. Absolutely no anxiety about climate change among them. Most think its silly
Yeah, this could be fake news in its entirety. The “steady increase” data could be from the voices in her head. The excessive use of the word “definitely” suggests voices in the head science.
You’re lucky. Public education and the Universities turned my kinds into socialists.
Ditto.
Youngsters in my family circle aren’t worried about cancer or heart attacks – they’ve been conditioned into thinking that climate change will kill them before they get to middle age.
So sad.
Very sad.
Kids are getting overwhelmed with a lot of false realities from the minds of delusional people. Unfortunately, these delusional people control the Voices of Authority in Society, so the false realities they create seem to be real to the kids.
The kids need a lot of help in sorting things out. Adults need a lot of help in sorting things out, too.
I guess that’s what WUWT is here for. 🙂
That is why they always say we’re all going to die if we don’t change our ways, but there is time if we do & we can fix the climate crisis/disaster/chaos/catastrophe/breakdown/emergency!!!
Fortunately, one major thing I was able to teach my son was “question everything”. When he was old enough, I even told him to question me (on matters of fact). I also told him that he needed to be able to back his position with evidence if he wanted to challenge me on anything.
He has taken that attitude to college. He knows better than to argue with the teachers, but we have had some…interesting…discussions around the study topics.
The entire notion is idiotic on its face. Even if we assess climate on the minimum rational period of 30 years, a youth cannot possibly experience any impact from a barely measurable change in climate. It’s rather like telling them they’re in danger from a virus with virtually no risk of infection.
Knowledge is the key. When someone is crying wolf, realizing it is at most a Pomeranian relieves a great deal of the anxiety.
And amazingly, The Weather Channel continues to push its video which incorrectly says July 2021 was the hottest ever on record … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQKbm4qU_lQ
The Weather Channel originally showed forecast screen shots to a background of elevator music, and the occasional severe weather alert. Once they changed their format decades ago, TWC hasn’t been about reporting weather for public information. It is all about drama, entertainment and alarmist propaganda. When severe weather approaches, tuning to TWC for updates never even enters my mind.
Tuning in to any corporate media channel for an alert of what ever kind – Approaching Asteroid, Climate Change, etc. is just not worth it. They are lying, they always lie. Just cut off the last few inches of the power cord and read a book.
Easy fix tell the Alarmists to stop pushing there destructive propaganda and evil agenda
Coincidentally, the very business in which this worthy operates. True serendipity for Fiona.
Gullibility kills or at least enslaves.
For my generation it was “the bomb”.
And rightly so.
Even as kids we were shown newsreel footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And now these weapons were being targeted at our cities.
Now THAT’S an existential threat.
Climate change we can progressively adapt to – pffft.
The trouble is, there is no “climate change”, as it is being promoted. If for no other reason than … there is no climate. Although it may be true that weather is dynamic and constantly changing, vast areas of the planet have seen no change in living memory. Like evolution, the process is glacially slow and no one is likely to notice any growing pains … or that they have adapted to something.
I am still waiting for a couple of scientists promoting the fear to tell me when in the last 4.5 Billion years the Earth’s climate didn’t change & stayed the same!!! No joy so far & it’s been over a year now!!!
I’m still waiting for anyone to describe to me what this global climate is, that so many talk about. The 1ist chore in science is to describe your terms. As far as I know climate is the average weather at a particular location over time. How can they say the climate is in crisis, with so much certainty, when no one can describe where it is?
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
Everything is horrible all the time and getting worse.
As Marshall Mcluhan once observed, the medium is the message.
reminds me of that Woody Alan movie- where Woody is standing in line with his girl friend at a movie theatre- discussing the work of McLuhan- when McLuhan was standing behind him- and corrected something he said- I thought that was extremely funny
http://www.waclimate.net/round/imgs/torok-graph-geraldton.gif
Geraldton Max. & Min. temperatures look stable enough not to be the cause of any Youth Anxiety.
Yes climate change is the convenient crutch to excuse all challenges in modern life.
Problem is – far too few of us are loudly & publicy calling “bullshit” on this bullshit.
It’s not so easy. I tried to make comments on the youtube videos from certain ”climate scientists” claiming for example that ”the hockey stick has now been verified”, and my comments a removed from public view forth with. It is very convenient for them to lump climate change sceptics into the ”flat Earth” camp and their followers lap it up. We might have to wait for nature to call bullshit just like it has each and every time in the past.
If the youth are anxious, it certainly isn’t any aspect of the climate causing it. It’s the constant background of negative “messaging” causing the problem.
Alcohol and drug abuse are by far the biggest issue for youth in Geraldton as anyone who has ever spent time in the town would know …. the problem is rather hard to miss. I was thinking is this health professional on the drugs but on reading the piece I see it is kids on the autism spectrum presenting … just like Greta.
So I guess the take away message is the climate scientists are scaring kids with autism spectrum disorder but having trouble convincing anyone else.
”According to a mental health provider in the remote West Australian town of Geraldton, climate anxiety is causing big problems for the local youth.”
Hmm. Perhaps it’s something other than the climate giving them anxiety? Maybe the outright bullshit we are fed from the ABC et al everyday? Who knows?
pure and simple CHILD ABUSE
Frankly, I would be anxious just living in Geraldton.
Harsh but true 🙂
We’re living in a period marking the end of Western Civilization which was based on the supremacy of rational, moral, ethical, virtuous and scientific thought.
The absurd and irrational CAGW cult is one of the best examples of this sad reality. Another perfect example of this death of reason and the scientific method is the hysteria we’re suffering through over the recent omicron variant propaganda.
The consequences of regressing back to dark times where subjective feelings supersede empirical fact and reason, are tragic.
Thankfully, more and more people are finally realizing the absurdity and extreme dangers Leftist thought is having on our societies, and a backlash against Leftism is rapidly growing.
Hopefully, this backlash will grow and Leftist thought will soon be thrown on the trash heap of history before it leads to total economic and societal collapse.
I usually preserve my anonymity on WUWT, but gotta risk it all –
Persistent anxiety is a recognized mental health condition with an underlying assumption that the anxiety is disproportionate to the actual risk. The most effective treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy, sometimes coupled with medication for acute cases. The patient learns to recognize that the physiological response to the trigger is exaggerated and develops methods to subdue the emotions with self dialogue and techniques to calm the body like deep breathing. The salient point is that the anxiety is recognized as disproportionate to the danger. So climate anxiety as a mental health condition, by definition, assumes that the fear of climate disaster is exaggerated. Which we already knew. Have fun pointing this out to your climate-anxious friends.
yadda yadda bet theres a link to lewpaper there as well. and the cyclone? phht on a par with the ones usa cops ours are rather small n sad. would say its the headspace mob looking to justofy and get handouts from govt (again/ongoing) personally I suspect they do as much harm as “good” for kids
Always the intention. The agenda has nothing to do with climate.
I can attest to this from personal experience. I interact with a diverse group of under 30 year olds and they are all suffering anxiety over all this shyte that is being spewed on them. I have actually broken through with more recently, the ones who know someone who has died “from” covid. With just a bit of coaxing I get them to read for themselves real medical facts about respiratory ailments and the role of comorbidity in deaths in certain groups. Once they read for themselves and apply it to their own experience the light goes on. Then they stop being anxious and depressed and they get pissed off. As Terminator said, anger is more useful than despair. And use cultural references they get, don’t throw a bunch technical jargon at them. I send them links for here and for Drs Roy and Judith and to Joe Bastardi. Finding things out for themselves works far better than preaching or railing angrily about this, that and the other blahblah.
There are Reasons to Worry Less
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BCGLTVV
Bureaucrats,tyrants and weasels like people to be in distress depending on their sage advice and authority. They figure if they can ingrain fear in the young they will have them in submission for life. The weasels are of course the danger worth avoiding.
The Climate Liars don’t give a frack about what effect their lies have on children. That is how evil they are.
From the article: “If you tell kids the world will end soon, and they’re doomed to a horrible miserable death, don’t be surprised if they don’t smile as much as they used to.”
The kids are being lied to on a scale unknown in human history. It is no wonder that some of them are taking the lies to heart.
This is your legacy, Michael Mann. This is what your climate change lies have led to. Your little Cabal of temperature data mannipulators have inflicted this insanity on the children, and on the adults.
These climate change lies are a Crime Against Humanity. And an especially aggregious crime against the young people of the world.
Those lies piled atop of savage women murdering their own babies by the millions, disintegrating families, sexual perversion and confusion, alleged “systemic racism,” elimination of borders and national sovereignty, massive deficit spending, “entitlement” propaganda, cancel culture, ultra-rich power plays…
…. cats and dogs living together …
We have far worse concerns, meanwhile enjoying the benefits of mild warming in some places over the last century. Climate milding, what’s not to like? Unless one has a rather strange love affair with ice.
A few years ago I knew a young man who helped my late wife and I with yard work. He was concerned with AGW and could not see any solution as his High School teachers were all on board the AGW wagon. then he joined the US Army. Ended up in Fairbanks. cured him of AGW anxiety . He is now based in Ft. Hucachua AZ. And likes it.
Kids and other weak minded types, inexperienced or without ability to question, are likely suicide statistics.
I encourage and parents or families of these statistical victims to search out those who caused this destructive behaviour.
The inevitable result of the constant panic-mongering.