Stressed-out climate change scientists are suffering from 'pre-traumatic stress' disorders

The effects of climate change scientists predict we'll see keep getting darker and darker — sea level rise powerful enough to submerge cities and droughts that could lead to famine, to name a couple. Living with these apocalyptic predictions has taken its toll on climate scientists, Esquire reports.

It's "pre-traumatic stress" characterized by sadness, fear, and anger, psychiatrist Lise Van Susteren said. And that's not just caused by a gloomy global outlook and frustration with some politicians' reluctance to help effect change before it's too late.

There are cases like climatologist Michael Mann's, where a provocative graph showing rising temperatures was denounced in Congress. He got thousands of emails suggesting things like he should be "shot, quartered, and fed to the pigs along with your whole damn families."

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"You find yourself in the center of this political theater, in this chess match that's being played out by very powerful figures—you feel anger, befuddlement, disillusionment, disgust," Mann said. Read more about the psychological toll of studying climate change here.