If you’re located in Australia you’d be well aware that buckets of glorious rain are currently smashing our east coast, relieving us from dry, arid conditions contributing to the devastating bushfires that have been ravaging the country for months now. Sadly, the rain isn’t enough to extinguish existing fires, but it’s a welcome change in the weather and there’s a good reason it’s easing our anxiety.
In a Reddit thread from two years ago, hundreds of users found common ground in the fact that bad weather – and rain, in particular – can soothe symptoms of anxiety.
One user commented, “When it’s bad weather outside you kinda can’t do anything. There are no obligations to do stuff, you can just be inside being you and no one will question why you are not outside doing stuff.”
It’s true, but there’s also a psychological reason crappy weather is super calming. According to a 2017 report from Vice, “the closest clinical concept psychologists have for this preference for dour weather is reverse season affective disorder or ‘summer depression.’”
“The brain naturally craves sensory input,” therapist Kimberly Hershenson told Vice. “Rain produces a sound akin to white noise. The brain gets a tonic signal from white noise that decreases this need for sensory input, thus calming us down.”
Another interesting take is from Laurel Steinberg, a psychotherapist and professor at Columbia University, who said “stormy weather reminds people that the world is made up of forces bigger than they are, which makes their woes pale in comparison.”
There’s nothing like the heavens opening up to give us a little reality check. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of the above – the white noise, the joy of missing out of post-holiday obligations and the realisation that mother nature is incredibly powerful.
Either way, I’m 100% here for the rains if it helps even to slightly ease the fires that have had such a devastating impact on so many Australian communities and lives.