The Influence of Work, War, and the Weather on Mental Health Over the Past Year

This video series is taking a short break while Dr Moffic travels. For now, enjoy the rerun of this video with updated commentary.

At the end of this video from about a year ago, I commented that “hopefully the war in the Middle East will simmer down in the future.” Well, it has taken about this whole year for an apparently viable ceasefire peace plan to be put into motion, led by President Trump and his administration. That potential for peace in the entire Mideast helps offset that work in the Untied States is producing rising moral injury and that the global climate continues to be worsening, with consequent climate-related mental conditions. With our help, may work and the weather also improve over the next year.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.