Scorching heat, severe storms surge stress levels. Here’s how to cope until it cools down

There’s a moment each year when we feel the first kiss of summer.

It scorches our shoulders. We relax them. It flushes our cheeks. We lather them with sunscreen. It burns the bottom of our bare feet. We let the lapping ocean cool them. At that moment, some of us believe summer is a cure-all. It signals freedom for children, vacations for the lucky, and for the optimists – perpetual sunshine.

It’s so convincing that it’s easy to forget the major snag: Summer is here to stay. And it’s brutal.

In the Lowcountry, everything that made those first moments feel like a panacea can become a source of distress that can drag into October.

Temperatures hover in the 90s. Cloying humidity makes it feel at least 10 degrees warmer, sparking tempers and impatience. Frequent thunderstorms can dump inches of rain and cut power. Hurricane season is in full swing, triggering anxiety-provoking phone alerts and warnings.

Beyond physical exhaustion and lack of comfort, do months of unrelenting heat, storm advisories, hurricane threats and the changing climate have an impact on psychological well-being?

Cindy Lahar, a University of South Carolina-Beaufort psychology professor and program coordinator, doesn’t hesitate with the answer.

“Absolutely,” Lahar said. “There is no doubt.”

The toll extreme weather takes

From a 30,000-foot view, research confirms what many may know.

As the weather warms, crime, aggressive behavior and domestic violence increase. Devastation from hurricanes and tornadoes can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. And high heat increases symptoms of depression and affects sleep, according to the American Psychological Association.

Though, more commonly, it’s the little stressors that build and compound with everyday hassles.

“Today there’s a hurricane warning, and tomorrow it’s a whole week of 95 degrees, and now there’s the wildfires,” Lahar said. “We can handle stress, our body naturally manages stress, but not if it keeps going.”

Maybe the mind also races to fear of a loved one in Texas or New Mexico, experiencing daily heat waves, or the hundreds of wildfires in Canada that have triggered air quality alerts in the United States for weeks. Some people may even have Eco-anxiety, which the APA says is the “chronic fear of environmental doom.”

Stressors are especially high for people who are experiencing food and housing insecurity, and other socioeconomic factors, said Anna Baker, an assistant professor of psychology at Clemson University. When you add extreme weather, there are situations that could leave a person unable to evacuate or temporarily house their family in the threat of a hurricane.

Any way it’s filled, there’s trouble when the proverbial cup of micro-stressors overflows. It becomes too much for the body to adapt to, Lahar said, which never allows the body to come down from a heightened state. The dysregulation can cause depression and anxiety.

“Most people think of depression as a winter thing,” Baker said. “But down here you don’t have the issue of not getting the sunlight, you have the opposite issue.”

The summer sun is blazing and perpetually miserable.

One health survey of millions in America found that for every couple degrees the temperature rose, there was an increase in self-reported mental health problems.

Another study, reviewing medical records of 2.2 million people who visited emergency departments across the U.S. between 2010 and 2019, showed a link between rising heat and visits for mental health issues. Proportionately, as temperatures ticked up, so did visits for issues such as anxiety and mood disorders, self-harm, and substance abuse.

Not only is it emotionally draining to deal with volatile weather patterns, the stressors surrounding them can take a physical toll beyond heat lethargy and dehydration. Lahar said stress causes blood pressure to rise, a racing heart and a weakened immune system.

“A lot of times we use our physical state to interpret our emotions,” Baker said.

Heat exhaustion causes lethargy, making a person feel so bad that they avoid the outside altogether. The isolation, and mental and physical feeling of tiredness, can worsen depression symptoms.

But with dangerous heat boiling the South, deadly flooding decimating parts of the Northeast and experts saying climate change will only make both worse, it’s hard to avoid not feeling something – physically or psychologically.

There’s no magic pill, but coping isn’t as Herculean a task as it may seem.

Coping until the cool down

It’s difficult to reckon that a day at the beach – a place promising healing and rejuvenation – could create new problems.

Navigating the mentally and physically taxing Lowcountry summer heat isn’t about isolating in a 72-degree room for five months. Well, it could be. But for Lahar and Baker, it’s about strengthening physical and emotional resilience.

Part of that is what your momma told you. Eating well, staying hydrated and exercising work wonders. The big one, and maybe the hardest in our whirlwind, plugged-in and screen-obsessed world?

“People underestimate sleep,” Baker said. “It’s huge for cognition (and) for mental health.”

Then there’s what meteorologists want people to do: Prepare and do what you’re told.

Have emergency bags ready. Locate evacuation routes. Start hoarding water jugs and non-perishables early. Know where to get up-to-date, accurate weather information before a tornado warning sounds. Know where shelters are located. Is there transportation to those shelters?

“Preparation is the first thing when we look at our own survival. ” Lahar said as the first step to lessening anxiety around storms. “You’ve got to take care of your own safety.”

Without it, when a weather emergency is rumbling its way in, meeting those safety needs can feel too overwhelming.

Find a strong social network – neighbors, friends and family to laugh with and stay positive, Lahar said. Check on them often. And check on the people you don’t know. Helping others, such as volunteering at a shelter or handing out supplies after severe weather hits, is an effective way to work through mounting anxiety and depression.

“Depression is living in the past, anxiety is worrying about the future,” Baker said. “When we have that focus on either helping someone else or engaging with friends, we’re in the present moment.”