The combined effects of somaterratic disease (bodily illness
from environmental causes) and psychoterratic
disturbance (mental states generated by our relationship to the environment) delivers
sanity disruption.
A sanity disruption epidemic is occurring because
we can now more clearly see the links between endocrine (hormone) disrupters such
as fungicides,
other ‘cides’, plastics (phthalates)
and other forms of environmental pollutants (heavy metals such as lead) that
are entering our bodies via the air and food chains – and mental health. Epidemics
of autism, bipolar syndromes, depression, anxiety and suicide speak loudly here,
especially in young people.
In addition to being smothered by environmental
mind pollutants we are changing our home environments at such a pace and scale
that the positive psychoterratic states (biophilia, ecophilia, topophilia,
endemophilia, eutierria) are being overwhelmed by the negative ones (biophobia,
ecophobia, solastalgia,
ecoanxiety). Both urban and non-urban home environments are being rendered
toxic by global forces (urban sprawl, slums, large-scale development) that are
deeply implicated in social dysfunction.
The combination of negative somaterratic
and psychoterratic conditions creates sanity disruption. World-wide, we are experiencing mental health epidemics on an unprecedented
scale. The WHO, have stated:
An estimated 450 million people worldwide have a mental disorder. At any
given time, approximately 10% of adults are experiencing a current mental
disorder, and 25% will develop one at some point during their lifetimes. Mental
disorders are found in all countries, in women and men, at all stages of life,
among the rich and poor, and in both rural and urban settings.
Mental disorders account for 13% of the global burden of disease, and
this figure will rise to nearly 15% by 2030. Depression alone is likely to be
the second highest contributor to the global burden of disease by that date.
Mental disorders also are associated with more than 90% of the one
million suicides that occur annually. In reality the number is likely to be far
greater, due to common underreporting of this cause of death.
As we enter the third generation of humans exposed to now ubiquitous toxic substances (the world was by default ‘organic’ until about 1950), we are witnessing the tragic results of this ethically blind experiment on ourselves. Our genetic makeup is now being altered in multi-generational ways as genetic damage is passed on as a deadly Chinese whisper. Add to that the psychoterratic pressures we are placing on ourselves and I think we can see at least one of the major factors behind the epidemic of mental health collapse we are seeing worldwide.
