Bird Watching Can Help Beat Depression, Anxiety

If you are living in a neighborhood surrounded by trees and shrubs, with birds chirping there are less chances for you to suffer from anxiety or stress.

Highlights

People who live in leafy suburban neighborhoods are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress.
Bird watching was associated with reduced stress and depression.
Lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress were associated with the number of birds people could see.

Living in neighbourhoods with more birds, shrubs and trees can lower the chances of suffering from depression, anxiety and stress.

Depression is a mental health disorder that affects approximately 340 million in the world. Depression can make you feel confined and can lead to suicide. About 800,000 people with depression commit suicide every year.

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‘Some key components of nature play for our mental well-being. Birds around the home and nature in general, show great promise in preventative health care.’

There are various treatments for depression and a recent one that has been studied is rather a simple one.

Bird watching, enjoying a view of trees, shrubs around your house improves mental health.

A study, surveyed mental health in over 270 people from different ages, incomes and ethnicities found that those who spent less time out of doors than usual in the previous week were more likely to report they were anxious or depressed.

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After conducting extensive surveys of the number of birds in the morning and afternoon in Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton, the findings, published in journal Bioscience, indicated lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress were associated with the number of birds people could see in the afternoon.

The academics studied afternoon bird numbers - which tend to be lower than birds generally seen in the morning - because are more in keeping with the number of birds that people are likely to see in their neighbourhood on a daily basis.

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In the study, common types of birds including blackbirds, robins, blue tits and crows were seen. "This study starts to unpick the role that some key components of nature play for our mental well-being," said lead researcher Dr Daniel Cox, from the University of Exeter in the UK.

"Birds around the home and nature in general, show great promise in preventative health care, making cities healthier, happier places to live," Cox added.

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"Watching birds makes people feel relaxed and connected to nature," the researchers concluded.

Source-Medindia