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City Life And Mental Illness

     In the 1930’s, two sociologists noticed that a large portion of the population of the patients who had schizophrenia in Chicago’s asylums were born in the inner-city. Since then, researchers have discovered that mental illnesses of all kinds are more common in densely populated cities that in greener and more rural areas. In fact, Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health estimates that people who live in the city face a nearly 40 percent higher risk of depression, 20 percent higher chance of anxiety, and double the risk of schizophrenia than people living in rural areas.

     Some of the mental health conditions that city dwellers have can be traced to social problems such loneliness and the stress of living cramped together in small spaces. There is something about the physical nature of cities that also puts a strain on the emotional wellbeing of their inhabitants. The strain comes from air and noise pollution stemming from traffic, construction, or their neighbors.

     Meyer-Lindenberg and his research partner Matilda van Bosch, an environmental health researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, searched for studies concerning a wide range of substances and situations that people might run across everyday. They discovered that while many of these factors were abundant in cities, they weren’t exclusively found in cities. For example, air pollution, is present on farms also, but in the form of pesticides.

     Still, a key part of improving our collective mental health will be making our cities more livable, says Meyer-Lindenberg. He and van den Bosch published their findings in 2019 in the journal Annual Review of Public Health. More than half the world’s population already lives in cities and this number is expected to rise to nearly 70 percent by 2050.

     “Globally we are becoming more increasingly urban, so neighborhoods are opening up and changing,” points out Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, who studied the impacts of air pollution on mental health.    

     Meyer-Lindenberg and van den Bosch found that heavy metals like lead, pesticides, common chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA), and noise pollution may contribute to depression, although further research is still needed to confirm that that is the case.

     Poor air quality has been associated with depression, anxiety, and psychotic experiences such as paranoia and hearing voices. Kioumourtzoglou and her colleagues have found that women who live in highly polluted neighborhoods are more likely than others to report symptoms of anxiety and take antidepressants.

     Meyer-Lindenberg says, “Cities are good for most aspects of human life…it’s just that mental health shows the flip side of cites.” Urban areas, he believes, are harmful both because of the lack of greenery and the presence of particularly high amounts of toxic exposures such as air pollution.

     Mental illnesses are caused by complex tangle of genetics and life circumstances; it’s rarely possible to pick out a single issue and name it as the culprit, Meyer-Lindenberg says. Rather, hazards like noise and air pollution, lead exposure, and financial stress contribute to depression. Pollen may constantly wear down people’s moods causing depression due to the fact that it is aggravating. According to Meyer-Lindenberg, Air pollution and other substances may prompt an inflammatory response that over time takes a toll on the brain.

     There’s plenty of research shows that people’s risk for depression and other psychiatric disorders is lowered by one’s contact with nature. People who are physically active in nature settings have their moods boosted though the sights, sounds, smells of greenery and oceans.

     In one experiment, scientists discovered that after a stroll in nature people are less prone to rumination, the tendency to obsess over one’s mistakes and troubles that is a common feature of disorders like depression and anxiety. The nature walk also calmed activity in several brain regions involved in rumination and responding to threats to people’s sense of belonging or feelings that one made a social misstep.

     Nearly one in five adults in the United States live with a mental illness, while depression is considered the leading cause of disability worldwide by the World Health Organization. It is important to put nature in the city. Parks and street trees gives city dwellers a revitalizing dose of nature, they also help us by muffling noise and absorbing pollution.

Signed by: Renee D. Warring of Uniquely and Wonderfully Made Ministries

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/city-life-damages-mental-health-in-ways-we’re-just-starting-to-understanding