Many factors contribute to mental health challenges. Genetics, personal history, diet, and lifestyle all play significant roles. However, when trying to parse the causes of our mental health struggles, many of us fail to consider one of the biggest factors of all: the environment in which we live our day-to-day lives.
The environment we live and work in forms part of the wider context of our lives, which as counsellors we know, is vital to consider when treating mental health issues. Understanding how these factors intertwine is crucial for improving mental well-being.
Physical Factors that Affect Mental Health
Physical environmental factors are ‘hard’ factors which come from things like noise, temperatures, pollutants and so on. They’re often linked to ‘soft’ social factors but can occur independently.
- Sleep deprivation: Sleep deprivation or an unhealthy sleep cycle is known to be bad for your mental health. There are plenty of environmental factors which could affect sleep cycles – not all of which are within our control. Noisy neighbours, a loud road nearby, nights which are too hot or too cold, creaky architecture…all of these and more could contribute to poor sleep, and therefore a downturn in mental health.
- Environmental pollution: Growing up around ‘dirty air’ quadruples a child’s chance of developing depression later in life. This may be related to other environmental factors (polluted areas typically combine more of the factors on this list than just air pollution), but the risk is still worth noting.
- Hazardous working conditions: ‘Hazardous’ can refer not just to physical danger where work is concerned. It refers to any working condition which can put significant strain on the body and/or mind. If your work environment is stressful, your mental health can suffer.
- Extreme weather conditions: Bad or extreme weather is stressful and it can wear you down. If you’re perpetually cold, sweltering, battling against snow, struggling over ice, or drenched to the skin every time you step outside, your mental health will experience a toll. This is particularly the case if extreme weather endangers your life, your family, your loved ones, or your property.
- Smoking: Both passive and active smoking are very bad for your mental health.
- Inaccessible architecture: Being unable to move easily around your environment is very frustrating. If you’re excluded from certain areas or activities (perhaps due to being physically unable to do things like climb stairs or cross busy roads), the frustration and isolation of this can contribute to mental illness.
Social Factors that Affect Mental Health
Social environmental factors—ranging from family dynamics to societal conditions—play a crucial role in shaping mental health.
- Stigma: Experiencing stigma such as racism, sexism, homophobia, or other, perhaps more insidious forms of prejudice is known to majorly increase a person’s risk of mental illness.
- Conflict and Violence: Living in environments where conflict or violence is prevalent leads to stress, anxiety, and, in severe cases, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Abuse: Emotional, physical, or sexual abuse can encompass anything from domestic violence to bullying within the community to catcalling. Experiencing it regularly within your environment can be very bad for you.
- Poverty: Poverty attacks mental health from a great many angles. It can restrict access to the kind of nutritious diet which benefits mental health. It can make it harder to get good jobs or other opportunities, which results in frustration, stress, and a lack of self-worth. It brings the constant stress of worrying about where the next rent payment will come from. And it often forces people into unhealthy environments
- Lack of Social Support: Humans are social animals, designed to rely on one another. Feeling ostracised, alone, or otherwise unsupported within your community has a major impact on mental health.
- Toxic Relationships: Toxic relationships can lower self-esteem, increase irritability, cause anxiety, contribute to depression, and even foster conditions like PTSD.
- Lack of Safety: Feeling unsafe in your environment will bring with it a great deal of stress and anxiety.
Other Factors That Influence Mental Health
Some environmental factors are harder to classify but still contribute significantly to mental health outcomes.
- Lack of Access to Green Spaces: Access to green or naturally beautiful spaces has a massively positive impact on mental health. To be trapped within concrete jungles means never getting the mental benefits of fresh air, green leaves and so on.
- Lack of Visual Stimulation: People often describe certain urban environments as ‘bland’ or ‘dull’. It’s noticeable that people perk up to the extent that their moods visibly lift when they enter more interesting (or perhaps more aesthetically pleasing) environments. Being within a ‘bland’, uninspiring environment is unpleasant, and may have a negative impact upon mental health.
- ‘Oppressive’ untidiness: Untidiness makes us anxious on an instinctive and on a personal level. Instinctively, we are programmed to have a degree of anxiety about mess due to the health hazards it may present. Personally, people in messy environments may become anxious about what others may think of their living conditions, the time it will take to clean up, and so on.
Breaking the Cycle
Environmental factors which affect your mental health may well be bound up with other factors. For example, depression or substance abuse can lead to unemployment, which in turn can lead to poverty, poor nutrition, and all of their associated environmental troubles. Similarly, mental health conditions like hoarding can result in environmental problems. Often, environmental and other factors end up complimenting one another in a vicious cycle.
Getting help from a counsellor who understands how mental health and the environment are interlinked can be a critical step in making positive changes. Therapy can help individuals break free from toxic spaces, improve their mental well-being, and regain control of their lives.
By considering both the physical and social factors that affect mental health, it’s possible to create a healthier, more supportive environment for yourself and those around you.
