“Not only tiredness, among the effects also fear and decreased desire”

2023-08-22 18:46:38

Anxiety, fear, decreased desire, relationship problems are just some of the psychological effects of the high temperatures that have been scorching Italy since July. A vice that has important consequences on the natural balance, jeopardizes physical health and melts the thousand-year-old glaciers of our Alps. But such intense exposure to heat has numerous effects on our psyche, as emerges from a survey sponsored by the Order of psychologists of Umbria during ‘Caronte’, the second wave of intense and sultry heat. Approximately 500 interviewees, mainly women, between 36 and 55 years old. Only 6.6% of the sample is represented by retirees.

“The vast majority of the sample – explains to time.news Salute the president of the National Council of the Order of Psychologists (Cnop) David Lazzari who is also president of the Order of Psychologists of Umbria – states that the heat has significant psychic effects . Furthermore, those who already suffered from psychological problems complain that this high level of heat has produced a worsening/change in them in 20% of cases”.

Among the consequences correlated with the heat – the survey highlights – we can find (with different nuances in the answers, from “quite” to “very much”): asthenia (85%), concentration difficulties (69%), to which in addition, depressed mood (40%), insomnia (72%) and irritability (63%), difficulties at work (57%), relationship problems (35%), psychosomatic disorders (35%) and a state of anxiety/agitation ( 37%). On the “difficulties related to the heat – highlights Lazzari – the free answers are also very strong, such as ‘the heat terrifies me, it makes me feel terrible and the light fills me with anxiety’, ‘it is extremely annoying and irritating for me, constantly feeling the of the mass media on the heat wave problem’, ‘the heat makes me feel ineffective’ and ‘sexual difficulties'”.

Survey participants have no doubts, there is a relationship between these temperature levels and climate change (80% of responses). They also recognize that “heat waves bring integrated consequences that overlap with each other resulting in a complex and alarming phenomenon”. More than 40%, in fact, believe that there are “simultaneously important consequences on the physical and mental health of populations with important effects on social stability”.

“Among the interviewees – continues Lazzari – the theme of fear for further worsening, but also for catastrophic climatic events such as fires, hail, tornadoes; and the theme of pollution, due to a lifestyle that uses Another theme that appears is the widespread criticism of the way in which the media handle this news, a tone and rhetoric that is not always appropriate which contributes to generating alarm not only for the quantity (overexposure) but also for the quality of the information “.

“Consistent with the morphology and characteristics of our Region – says Pietro Bussotti, survey coordinator and Councilor of the Order – only 31.2% of the sample lives in a large or medium-sized city (typically hotter) and 71 .5% instead live in the countryside, in green areas and/or in small towns. Over 90% also state that they work indoors, in environments protected from direct exposure to heat. Despite a distribution on the territory in cooler areas and the possibility of spending many hours indoors, the data that emerge on the influence of heat waves on psychological well-being are therefore very interesting.