My mother was a chronic worrier. Oh, it wasn't an obsession or anything; just the normal motherly worrying. When I would do things like disappear into the woods for three or four days at a time, she'd worry, and Dad would tell her, "He'll come home when he gets hungry." I always did, but Mom always quietly fretted.
There is worrying, though, and then there is unreasoning paranoia. It should come as little surprise that if someone has an irrational, unreasoning worry about one topic, they will likewise have such worries about other topics.
With that in mind, we refer you to a study indicating that LGBTQ+ youth are more worried about climate change.
Dr. Steven Hobaica, a research scientist with The Trevor Project, said in a statement to The Advocate, “Our data show that today’s LGBTQ+ young people are tuned into the world they are inheriting, reporting frequent worries about climate change. These concerns were also intertwined with broader mental health problems, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, which are already heightened among LGBTQ+ young people.”
“In short,” he continues, “this could mean that climate change, and how climate change is addressed, may contribute to the mental health challenges that LGBTQ+ youth face, yet more research is necessary. Our findings underscore a crucial need for mental health services and integrated support systems that address both environmental and psychological stressors for LGBTQ+ youth.”
Take this with a grain - no, a ten-pound bag - of salt.
In the event you're wondering why "The Trevor Project" saw fit to research the worries of LGBTQ+ youth, we can look at what The Trevor Group's purpose is:
The Trevor Project’s mission is to end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.
The Group also offers a variety of counseling services for LGBTQ+ and transgender youths. Now, suicide prevention, no matter what group it is focused on, is a laudable goal, although it raises the (rhetorical) question as to why, if this is their purpose, they saw fit to survey LGBTQ+ youth on their worries that we are apparently setting the planet on fire.
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Those aged between 18 and 24 and living in larger cities within the Northeastern, Western, and Midwestern United States were the most likely to report concerns for climate change, with data ranging from 55-59% expressing some concern. Those outside of these populations had slightly less concern, around 50-54%.
Of course, it's so often the case that those who are most worried about the environment are those who live the farthest away from, you know, the environment. That's one layer of the onion. Here's another:
In fact, those most likely to be affected by climate change reported greater worry about it, however not as much anxiety as the general population.
Additionally, those who had symptoms of anxiety were more likely to worry about climate change (59%) compared to those that didn’t (47%). Similar results were found for those who had symptoms of depression (58%) to (51%).
So, people who have symptoms of anxiety are more likely to show signs of anxiety about the climate.
And, presumably, lots of other things. So climate change is one of what we can assume is a laundry list of worries that have already been identified as having a problem with being consumed with unreasoned worries.
Wow. There are few surprises here, so let me explain - no, actually there is too much; I'll just sum it up.
We have a group concerned with providing support for LGBTQ+ youth, particularly with suicide prevention; again, a laudable goal. But they chose to do a study of LGBTQ+ youths about their worry over climate change; is this intersectionality? And they discovered that LGBTQ+ youths who have irrational worries about a range of topics also have irrational worries about climate change.
Value added: Zero.
