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2009-07-28 04:00:51
By BRYAN WALSH Bryan Walsh 1 hr 56 mins ago
Depressed people often need someone to hug. On occasion, that someone may just
be a tree.
A new and growing group of psychologists believes that many of our modern-day
mental problems, including depression, stress and anxiety, can be traced in
part to society's increasing alienation from nature. The solution? Get outside
and enjoy it. (See the top 10 odd environmental ideas.)
While traditional psychotherapists focus their treatments on the patient's
interior - whether through pharmaceuticals like Prozac, mindfulness practices
like meditation, or old-fashioned couch-bound therapy by the hour -
practitioners of the burgeoning field of eco-therapy believe that patient care
must include time spent in the great outdoors. "It's psychotherapy - as if
nature really mattered," says Linda Buzzell-Saltzman, a psychologist and the
founder of the International Association for Ecotherapy, which currently lists
slightly more than 100 official members.
Eco-therapists point out that human beings have evolved in synchrony with
nature for millions of years and that we are hard-wired to interact with our
environment - with the air, water, plants, other animals. But in the past two
centuries, beginning with the Industrial Revolution, people have been steadily
removed from the natural world, our lives regulated not by the sun or moon but
instead by the factory clock. Recently it's gotten worse, with the rise of the
Internet and other technologies, like iPhones and BlackBerrys, that dominate
our lives, pushing us even further from any appreciation of our natural
surroundings. (See the best iPhone applications.)
"We began to get the impression that we were somehow above and separate from
nature," says Craig Chalquist, an instructor at John F. Kennedy University in
San Francisco and co-editor with Buzzell-Saltzman of the new book Ecotherapy:
Healing with Nature in Mind.
Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities, and many
people barely ever get a glimpse of green. At the same time, human beings
appear to be doing their best to destroy what remains of the earth by
contributing to climate change - a problem that in itself causes some people
deep anxiety. But what the average person feels as stress or depression,
eco-therapists suggest, is a longing for our natural home. "People were
embedded in nature once," says Buzzell-Saltzman. "We've lost that, and we're
paying the price."
Getting it back doesn't have to be difficult, according to eco-therapists, most
of whom, unsurprisingly, practice in California. Patients' treatment typically
begins with starting a nature journal, in which they record how much time they
spend outside. The results can often be shocking, says Buzzell-Saltzman. "Some
patients find they spend less than 15 to 30 minutes a day outside, other than
walking to and from their cars," she says. Eco-therapists counsel patients to
slow down and reconnect with nature by hiking, gardening or simply taking walks
outdoors. Therapy sessions may also take place outdoors - in a park, for
example - rather than inside yet another office. "We can use the natural world
to be part of the healing process," says Chalquist. "We have to acknowledge
that we're part of this, not the master of it." (See the top 10 green ideas of
2008.)
If such prescriptions sound a little simplistic, consider this: A 2007 study by
researchers at the University of Essex in England found that a daily dose of
walking outside could be as effective as taking antidepressant drugs for
treating mild to moderate depression. Of course, it's no secret that regular
exercise is a powerful mood enhancer - although researchers noted that a
similar regimen of walking in a crowded shopping mall did not have the same
impact - and the boost in vitamin D production in people who spent more time
outside in the sun surely helped as well.
It may be that eco-therapy is less a practical psychological treatment than a
timely philosophy that connects common feelings of isolation and stress with
the fact that the world in which we live is slowly becoming something it
shouldn't be. And with worsening climate change and a relentless drumbeat of
bad news about our endangered environment, it seems our eco-anxiety may be far
from being cured. "Ultimately, what we need to do is change human behavior,"
says Buzzell-Saltzman - a commonsense recommendation for humans as well as the
environment.