What’s the Deal with Nature and Mental Health?

4 min read

When I first heard that ‘Nature’ was the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, my first thought was seriously?

The idea of connecting to nature brought to mind some sort of hippy person laying in a field of flowers. Yeah, not for me.  But then there was this nagging question, what does nature have to do with anything, especially our mental health?

 As it turned out, a great deal.

In this article I’ll talk about

1. Why nature matters- does it really impact mental health?
2. If nature’s so great, then why does no one talk about it?
3. Why does nature work?
4. Ways you can connect with nature.

Before we begin, I want to clarify that nature has benefits for people with ADHD, PTSD, eating disorders etc. but in this article I mainly refer to research on depression & anxiety.

The reason for this is anxiety and depression are the most common mental health disorders in the UK, and a lot of us have experienced the associated emotions e.g. stress, loneliness, hopelessness, worry, despair at some point in our day to day life.

Cool, let’s get started.

1.What does nature have to do with mental health?

Depression and Anxiety are now at epidemic levels across the world. Among other mental health conditions, they have mainly been approached from a biological point of view, i.e. we are told that the conditions are due to some sort of chemical imbalance in the brain, and so we should take pills to rectify this.

But many people take larger and larger doses of medication across their lifetime and some find that the medication doesn’t work for long.  This begs the question, if mental illness is purely chemical, shouldn’t the medication work for everyone?

In reality, scientists have actually uncovered multiple causes of depression & anxiety that are non-biological. These causes are summarised nicely in the book Lost Connections by Johann Hari. One of the nine main causes of depression & anxiety was disconnection from the natural world.

DISCLAIMER: Medication does help certain people, and that's amazing! I just want to bring attention to the benefits of nature. While nature may not be a 'full cure',  it has a significant role in our mental health, as do other environmental factors.

What happens if we become disconnected from nature?

 Let’s take a look at animals in captivity  who are deprived of their natural habitats .e.g. in zoos.

From more than a century of observation, it is well known that animals in captivity show compulsive and depressive behaviours that they don’t exhibit when they’re in the wild. Bonobus develop tics, scratch their skin until they bleed, or develop compulsive behaviour. Parrots rip out their feathers. Elephants, who take pride & strength from their tusks will grind them against the cell walls to stumps.

What about in humans?

Let’s look at a prison study: At State Prison of Southern Michigan

In the 1970s, by pure coincidence, half of the prisoner's cells looked out at farmland and trees, while the other half looked out at brick walls. From medical records, it was found that the group who could see nature were 24% less likely to get physically or mentally sick. 

Since then, research has found that walking in nature reduces stress, fear, anger, despair and in turn promotes positive emotions. In one experiment they got people who lived in cities to take a walk in nature. Everyone had better mood and concentration after the walk, but the effect was multiplied in depressed people. Their improvement was 5x greater than the improvement of other people.

2.If nature’s so great, then why does no one talk about it? Hint: £££

Professor Howard Frumkin a leading expert in environmental health suggests that if there was a medicine that showed the level of effectiveness that nature does, then we’d be all over it. “Here is a treatment that has very few side effects, is not expensive, doesn’t require a trained or licensed professional to prescribe it and has pretty good efficacy so far.”

So why aren’t we all over it?

As it turns out, it’s hard to find funding for research because the direction of biomedical research is heavily shaped by the pharmaceutical industry, and they’re not interested in nature because it’s hard to commercialize. “You can’t sell it, so they don’t want to know.” - Lost Connections

3. Why does nature work?

When you’re struggling, you sort of become trapped inside yourself and your thoughts. You and your thoughts expand and take up space in your mind, leaving little room for anything else. Your struggles take centre stage.

But something interesting happens in nature. Research has repeatedly shown that being out in the natural world often leads to a feeling of awe. Here’s something immense, something much larger than yourself. The world feels very big, and you and your concerns start to feel small.

From personal experience I’ve felt this way, it’s like my problems won’t really matter. Here’s this canal and these trees and everything will still be here in 5 years and the world’s sort of ticking on.

But on a biological level, what’s happening?

In 2015 Researchers found that the brain area that's activated when you're caught up in a loop of negative thoughts  (the prefrontal cortex) becomes less activated when you walk in nature, compared to when you walk in an urban setting.  Basically, nature interrupts negative thinking cycles to help you feel more at peace.

4. So, Here are some ways you can connect with nature

(Note: It’s not about just being outside but being in a green space and the key is to Savour it- pausing to notice how you feel, what you can see, smell, hear and taste.

• go for a walk, do some yoga or outdoor exercise, e.g. running outside instead of on a treadmill or see if you can book a nearby tennis court
• Plan a day in the countryside or by the beach
• Read, write, paint or take photographs outdoors

And if you can’t go outside, bring nature to you

• Grow or look after a plant at home
• Do some gardening
• Set up a bird feeder and watch or listen to bird song
• Open the window to let in fresh air in
• Even drinking your morning cup by the window will help.

Maybe you still can’t stop thinking of hippies when you think of nature, but a walk could do some good. I hope this benefits you,  if you enjoyed the read let me know by dropping a like on instagram. Also, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments,  are you surprised by what nature can do?

Lots of Love,

Nadine