Mental Illness Outdoors & Mental Health

[simpleliving21]

I noticed there is a big issue when it comes to mental health across the board. I see it becoming more and more of an issue for teens and young adults. Numbers are higher than they have ever been when it comes to anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and other mental health challenges. I was reading into the impact spending time in nature has on the human mind and I feel like there might be a connection here. People spend WAY less time in nature, especially people living in city areas. Do you think this plays a role in any of this?

 

[Foxy]

That's an interesting observation, you could be onto something @simpleliving21

 

[hikershawn]

I noticed there is a big issue when it comes to mental health across the board. I see it becoming more and more of an issue for teens and young adults. Numbers are higher than they have ever been when it comes to anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and other mental health challenges. I was reading into the impact spending time in nature has on the human mind and I feel like there might be a connection here. People spend WAY less time in nature, especially people living in city areas. Do you think this plays a role in any of this?

I'm a big time hiker. Before I was hiker, I was going down a very dark road. I even thought about doing someone bad. I won't say much beyond that but it was bad towards myself. But I ended buying a bicycle and fell in love with that and that led me to hiking and that changed my life altogether.

Now I have to get my outdoors in order to be happy. I feel bad thought for folks in cities. I live in the woods and 3-minutes from my driveway is a 280,000 acre National Forest. I couldn't imagine not living where I am living.

If you can find some sort of nature, get out there and enjoy it! Take it in.

 

[Dave]

People tend to spend far too much on screen time and taking notice of what others think instead of getting on with their lives. I tend to find that people are very touchy and sensitive, far more so than when I was in my teens (that's a while ago BTW lol) and tend to get hot and bothered over trivial issues that others blow up into issues that should not be an issue.

Getting outdoors and socialising with real people in real settings makes a huge difference, perhaps this is why (and this is what I believe myself) people from my era who had no Internet, mobile phones or computers when growing up are more stable.

 

[SafeInSanity]

Well yeah, people today are more anti social and self absorbed in their video games and internet like @Dave said. They have no social skills so they have less friends to talk to which could lead to loneliness, depression, and other mental problems.

 

[Jason]

Outdoor time is something very healthy for people. Outdoor work and exercise can be therapeutic. Well, at least from a one POV, just some exercise, any of it, raises testosterone and maybe estrogen, I don't know, so I'm sure people might want it for that at least.

 

[Altair]

I'm a big time hiker. Before I was hiker, I was going down a very dark road. I even thought about doing someone bad. I won't say much beyond that but it was bad towards myself. But I ended buying a bicycle and fell in love with that and that led me to hiking and that changed my life altogether.

Now I have to get my outdoors in order to be happy. I feel bad thought for folks in cities. I live in the woods and 3-minutes from my driveway is a 280,000 acre National Forest. I couldn't imagine not living where I am living.

If you can find some sort of nature, get out there and enjoy it! Take it in.

I'm so glad biking and hiking changed your life.
--
I definitely think nature plays a role in mental health. People are not designed to be in cities and without nature.
Up until a few years ago I was not an outdoor person at all.
Now I live for kayaking and really enjoy hiking. I love the outdoors and really enjoy the nature. I have peace and serenity with it.
I have also had bad depression for years. I almost committed suicide a few time. Being in nature really helps. It calms and clears my mind. It also helps boost my mood.