The psychological toll of California's catastrophic fires
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Entire neighborhoods in Southern California have been destroyed by deadly wildfires, displacing communities that don't know what — if anything — they'll have to return to.
The big picture: Researchers have linked wildfires to long-lasting anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors, in addition to the well-documented physical toll.
- Both the loss and uncertainty surrounding wildfires are traumatic, Jeff Katzman, a Connecticut-based psychiatrist who grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, told Axios.
- "There is the lingering, not knowing status of what happened," he said. "There's the experience of loss of an entire community that has generations of meaning."
Between the lines: Like other modern tragedies, destruction in California is being shared immediately on social media.
- "There's something potentially positive about it that people who have suffered together or are in this together can connect and can share resources and can share experiences," said Katzman, director of education at Silver Hill Hospital.
- On another level, he added, it can be "difficult to integrate" seeing so much relatable, devastating information, leading to a sense of helplessness.
Context: Research published last year found a link between wildfires and worsened mental health by analyzing psychotropic prescription data on 7 million people over an eight-year period following 25 large fires on the West Coast.
- People exposed to California's deadliest wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, showed greater chronic symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to research published in 2023.
- "These findings dovetail with significant psychological impacts noted after extreme climate events," researchers wrote. "Warming temperatures have been further linked to greater suicide rates."
- Another study from last year found that wildfires are associated with increased emergency room visits for anxiety disorders in the western U.S.
State of play: Sometimes pragmatism comes before grief during a disaster like the urban wildfires, Katzman said. People might first prioritize figuring out what a return to work or school will could like, before processing the loss.
- "Like when we lose our loved ones, there's stuff to do that often shields or distracts us from the underlying experience of loss," he said. "That can be a really tender experience."
- Surviving can help people rationalize their situation, too, he said. Material objects might become secondary, but memories and all existing notions of the future are still tainted.
Zoom out: Survivors in California could even grapple with feelings that they have to move out of their home state to stay protected from future extreme weather events — which could bring upon loneliness and further instability.
- "Solastalgia" has been used to describe the chronic distress of seeing negative environmental change in one's home environment.
- "With this increase in the pace of these events, which one would imagine will keep growing, anxiety and all mental health issues will increase," Katzman said. "Mental health issues following a single event are nothing compared to an exposure to multiple events."
Case in point: Los Angeles families calling into Parents Anonymous' California Parent & Youth Helpline have been expressing extreme overwhelm this week, said Lisa Pion-Berlin, CEO of Parents Anonymous.
- For those whose houses were destroyed, "it's not just the things in the building you lost, you lost a home," she said. "And that's a safe place where you're raising a family, where you go to relax, where you go to cry, where you go to celebrate, where you have birthday parties."
- "A home is much more than a building, a home is part of your heart, and that's been totally cut out."
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