How Nature Helps Cure Anxiety and Depression
I’ve been reading a lot about this topic and nerding out over the data, but when I came across this statistic yesterday, I was shocked.
According to the National Institute of Mental Illness, HALF of U.S adults 18-24 experience anxiety symptoms every year, 7% of kids ages 3-17, and 31% of people experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. This is 1 in 3 adults.
Depression affects about 8% of adults every year, and about 4.4% of young children. 15% of youth ages 12-17 are affected by major depression.
My Story
I’ve dealt with depression and anxiety on and off throughout my life, starting around the age of 14. My home life, my risk-craving teenage brain, and my peers were all the main factors in my rebellious teen years, which caused me to get into trouble a lot, get rejected and shamed a lot, and feel alone and unsupported a lot.
I was lucky enough to grow up in western Washington State, where nature was not only prevalent, but right outside my door. I spent countless hours in the thick greenbelt woods behind my house as a teen, just thinking and feeling all my feels. In fact, the only two things that actually helped me through the dark thoughts and dark feelings were going outside in the woods, and journaling.
Despite the rough teenage years when I had a lot of struggles, I did go on to make a great group of high school friends, graduate, and go to college. As I continued to grow up and deal with the pressures of the real world, I had many phases of feeling depressed, and/or anxious. I also found out I had “crowd claustrophobia,” and had my very first true panic attack in the middle of a giant three-day music festival called Sasquatch at the Gorge Amphitheater in George WA. I was in the general standing area rocking out to Modest Mouse one minute, and then being pushed and shoved during M.I.A the next. Even though I was outside, I had to be crowd-surfed out because I couldn’t breathe. If you’ve never had a panic attack before, I’m not being dramatic, it feels like you’re going to die. People around you often call 911 or want to call 911 because it’s hard to get a response through the hyperventilating.
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After graduating college and leaving the fun and cozy college life, the symptoms got worse. In somewhat typical 21-year-old fashion, I decided to move to the city of Seattle with my then-boyfriend, now husband to find jobs and live the city life. Since we both had experience working in the restaurant industry, we both got jobs working in different restaurants and catering companies before really starting a true career. We lived in apartments surrounded by buildings, and overall rarely took the time to go enjoy the outdoors. We were too busy working, going out to bars, then recovering from the working and going out.
Eventually, we moved to Alki Beach, where there was the beach a block away, and a big old-growth forest about 3 blocks away. I started my own urban garden, and we also adopted a dog, which obviously forced us to go on more walks and be outside more. It was life saving to say the least, as we then made the insane decision to start a food truck business while I also started graduate school. It was definitely one of the top three most stressful times of my life, and my anxiety was at an all time high. I started having panic attacks more regularly, and really dark scary thoughts at times. Everything in our life felt so unbelievably hard, we were struggling to survive as a couple, and survive as functioning people in the world.
We made it through though, and eventually got married, followed by my first pregnancy. I was working as a 4th grade teacher in a Title 1 public school in South Seattle, where the majority of my students suffered from various forms of trauma. It was emotionally exhausting every single day, and I never felt like I was keeping up with all the demands of being a teacher, let alone my own health and well-being.
One day in the middle of my pregnancy, I had a panic attack soon after the kids left for the day, somehow got myself together, and then somehow went straight into a serious meeting with my principal, colleagues, and a few parents. Thinking about that to this day breaks my heart, as I put myself and my needs (+ my baby’s needs) on the back burner over and over for my job. Had I known what I know now, I would’ve prioritized myself in order to be a better teacher to those kids. Things were so bad that my loyal dog Annie started having seizures due to stress and all she was picking up from me.
In 2020 the pandemic hit, and my first son was born that May (just a few months after the first COVID cases were recorded). I won’t go into all the complications and traumatic birth details, but just know my stress and mental health symptoms turned into physical symptoms that put myself, my baby, and even my dog in danger. We were eventually fine, but I was hit hard with the postpartum anxiety which made the beginning of motherhood very difficult.
When my son was only a month old, we packed it all up and moved to the opposite side of the state to a smaller, more rural area. We found a house surrounded by old growth trees, wildlife, fruit trees, and plenty of space to run around. I began therapy, and my long, always evolving healing journey. I started going on walks every single day, even in the deep snow. I started exploring more, and taking my son on adventures to check out all the different local parks, hikes, rivers, and creeks. I started doing yoga, and even went snowboarding a few times in the winter again (one of my all time favorite past-times). I came back to myself, by going back to the mental health medicine that’s free and never fails…being in nature, and moving in nature.
Today, I have two boys, my dog Annie still, and my husband. We have stressful times, sure, but I’m not overcome with anxiety to where I struggle to get out of the car to go into a store anymore. I haven’t had a panic attack in about 3 years, and my dog hasn’t had any seizures in about 3 years either. I stopped working in public schools, and now just teach remotely so I can be there my boys.
Looking back, I know getting outside (especially daily walks) was a huge part of my healing, and still is to this day. If I’m having a really hard time, I know I need to pack up the kids or leave them with my husband and head to the forest, or down to the river, or even just go for a walk. It helps immensely every time, and allows me to be a stable support for my kids to support their health and happiness.
The Science
Nature reduces stress: A recent systematic review of more than 40 experimental studies indicates that measures of heart rate, blood pressure, and perceived stress especially, were reduced by exposure to nature or outdoor environments. “The stress reduction theory or SRT, describes how spending time in nature might influence feelings or emotions by activating the parasympathetic nervous system to reduce stress and autonomic arousal because of people’s innate connection to the natural world.” (1)
The biophilia effect: Coined by social psychologist Erich Fromm who described it as “the passionate love of life and all that is alive; it is the wish to further growth, whether in a person, plant, an idea, or social group.” Harvard entomologist E. O Wilson distills the idea as “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms" which aids in not only human survival but broader human fulfillment. (2)
Yoshifumi Miyazaki, a physical anthropologist and vice director of the Center for Environment, health and field sciences at Chiba University in Tokyo explains, throughout our evolution, we’ve spent 99.9% of our time in nature. Our physiology is still adapted to it. During everyday life, a feeling of comfort can be achieved if our rhythms are synchronized with those of the environment.” (2)
Miyzaki’s research also shows that leisurely forest walks, compared to urban walks, deliver a 12% decrease in cortisol levels, 7% decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4% decrease in blood pressure, and a 6% decrease in heart rate. On questionnaires, they also report better moods and lowered anxiety.
Urban living vs. rural living: Recent research shows that the steady stress of urban living changes the brain in ways that can increase our chances of developing schizophrenia, anxiety, and mood disorders. This makes sense for me personally, as I mentioned above, living in the city of Seattle even amongst a plethora of nature (beach, forest, mountains), had a huge effect on my mental health. Now that I live in a town of only about 30,000 people, I have much better control over my mental health.
Nature reduces depressive moods: There have been many studies on this, however a recent systemic review and meta-analysis found a reduction in depressive mood following short-term exposure to natural environments. In a study investigating forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, researchers found that time spent in forests was associated with a reduction in reported feelings of hostility, depression, and anxiety among adults with acute and chronic stress. Forest bathing may play an important role in health promotion and disease prevention, however, there are a lack of studies focused on youth or children. (who wants to pay me to do this research with kids? :)
Nature alters the brain: Exposure to nature has been associated with changes in the prefrontal cortex which is the area of the brain that houses mechanisms in emotional regulation. Studies have been done on people looking at real plants vs. pictures of plants, and seeing real plants was associated with increased oxyhemoglobin concentrations in the prefrontal cortex. (1)
There’s so much more!! but I will keep it at that for now or I’ll keep going forever. Let me know if this post was helpful or not in the comments below!
References:
Jimenez MP, DeVille NV, Elliott EG, Schiff JE, Wilt GE, Hart JE, James P. Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 30;18(9):4790. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18094790. PMID: 33946197; PMCID: PMC8125471.
Williams, Florence. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
