Mental health is increasingly part of debates across society, but where does it feature in conversations about geography?
The link between mental health and urban environments has been the subject of an emerging field of research in psychogeography and urban planning. Cities are commonly conceived as sites of stress; the antithesis of the idyllic rural setting or coastal resort, where we would go to give our brains a break.
Most are familiar with the overt problems city dwellers endure day-to-day: the noise and air pollution of developing cities such as Kathmandu and Mumbai and the miles of traffic that plague LA. The less tangible problems are equally prominent: the idea that being around crowds makes us lonelier and the social inequality that accompanies urban life.
The connection between cities and negative effects on mental health is well established in psychological literature, with perhaps the most notable being Meyer-Lindenberg’s 2011 paper, which concludes that living in a city affects how we process social stress.
Like other studies which link city-living to a higher risk of schizophrenia and anxiety, there is uncertainty about whether it is a causal relationship. The complexity of urban life makes it hard to locate one source or if it’s the insecurities and jobs that cause people to move to the city in the first place which bear the most responsibility?
It’s something we might think can be fixed by the trend towards urban green spaces, and indeed, research suggests that parks and interaction with nature are beneficial for our mental health. One study conducted in London concludes that residents are less likely to be prescribed anti-depressants the closer they live to trees, but again, doesn’t prove a causal relationship.
However, the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health – the first global think tank dedicated to sharing information on the mental health effects of urban environments – is urging planners to consider more. They argue that promoting green, social, safe and active spaces is fundamental to wellbeing. The think tank shares stories of successful planning in Tokyo, where the ‘superblocks’ that improve walkability and social contact were made a priority in a city where suicide is a major issue.
The economic benefits to living in a city are enormous, which is partly why growing numbers of people are choosing to live in them across the world, so the healthiness of the urban lifestyle has now become an imperative for the future of the global population. Currently, the growing number of meditation and wellbeing apps such as Headspace (the adverts for which make you want to punch your computer) perhaps reflects the need of city dwellers to find ways to cope with their burdensome environments.
Cambridge can be a stressful place as a student, but how much of this is intensified by the traffic, tourist tours, restrictive streets and religious architecture which makes it a beautiful place to live but is often labelled a ‘bubble’. The sheer number of grand academic buildings sometimes makes it feel like those overdue supervision essays are following you everywhere.
Cities affect everyone in unique ways, but on anyone’s bad day they can be frustrating and depressing. As geographers, we can contribute to the mapping of mental health that can help planners design better spaces, but as students sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to escape from the city stress every now and then. A trip to Grantchester could be prescribed for those week 5 blues.
By Sean Cobb
References
Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health https://www.urbandesignmentalhealth.com/
Meyer-Lindenberg, A. et al. (2011) City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans, Nature, 474, 498-501 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10190
Taylor, M. et al. (2015) Research note: Urban street tree density and antidepressant prescription rates- A cross sectional study in London, UK, Landscape and Urban Planning, 136, 174-179 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204614002941
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF COMPASS MAGAZINE AS A WHOLE OR THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY.