Penticton Herald

Nuclear anxiety exploding

Trump-induced fear of nuclear war normal reaction, say psychologi­sts

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TORONTO (CP) — President Donald Trump’s avowal to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea in response to any military strikes against the U.S. has raised the spectre of a nuclear confrontat­ion between the countries, ratcheting up public anxiety about the potential for such a devastatin­g event.

While the escalating rhetoric may be mere sabre rattling, psychologi­sts say feeling fearful or anxious about the threat of a nuclear holocaust or any life-altering catastroph­e is perfectly normal.

“Sometimes we might experience a sense of being in constant danger, especially if we’re questionin­g if there’s this threat to life and safety,” said Dr. Katy Kamkar, a clinical psychologi­st at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

“And it becomes not only the concern for the safety of self, but then of course for the safely of loved ones, the destructio­n of everything we have establishe­d,” she said. “The uncertaint­y can induce more worry. We feel more vulnerable and it can lead to feeling more helpless and powerless.”

Shmuel Lissek, founding director of the ANGST Labat the University of Minnesota, said humans have been hard-wired to err on the side of caution.

From an evolution perspectiv­e, organisms that were overly cautious in the face of low-probabilit­y threats were more likely to survive and pass on their genes — and humans inherited those genes, Lissek told the Washington Post this week.

“So when there’s a very small-probabilit­y threat that is of very high intensity, we tend to worry instead of not worry,” he said.

A person’s age may also dictate how they react emotionall­y to the perceived threat of nuclear war, Kamkar said.

Many baby boomers grew up during the Cold War, when then U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev took the world to the brink of a nuclear conflagrat­ion with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and the fear of annihilati­on was a seminal event in many of their lives.

In his 2001 book A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal, New York-born chef Anthony Bourdain, 61, wrote: “I grew up thinking the Big One could come at any moment, and this country — or fear of it, the way my country reacted to the threat — radicalize­d, marginaliz­ed and alienated me in ways that still affect me.”

While younger adults did not share that experience with their parents or grandparen­ts, later military conflicts with or without the risk of weapons of mass destructio­n may have increased their psychologi­cal sensitivit­y to a perceived threat of atomic war.

For instance, a study of Finnish students aged 15 to 19 around the time of the 1991 Persian Gulf War — in which a U.S.-led internatio­nal coalition defeated Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait — found those adolescent­s who frequently worried about nuclear war had an increased risk of having developed a mental health disorder five years later.

Kamkar said teens and children process events differentl­y than adults, “but we know children look to their parents. So if they see any fear or panic within their parents, they might in turn feel it as well.

“Also we know that if they hear it through the media ... it can then in turn induce those negative or frightenin­g images in them.”

 ?? The Associated Press ?? U.S. President’s Donald Trump’s reaction and rhetoric to North Korea’s nuclear posturing is increasing the anxiety level of the world.
The Associated Press U.S. President’s Donald Trump’s reaction and rhetoric to North Korea’s nuclear posturing is increasing the anxiety level of the world.

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