Nature Deficit DisorderIn his book Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv defines Nature Deficit Disorder as "the human costs of alienation from nature". While it isn't an official medical term, it is an acknowledgement that there are health effects on individuals and their communities when a connection with nature isn't present in young people. The good news with nature-deficit disorder is that repeated studies show how kids with existing medical conditions such as obesity, depression and attention-deficit disorders, receive great healing of their symptoms with increased exposure to and connection with nature. It would be challenging to prove that quality time in nature could somehow be an inoculation of sorts against now-epidemic conditions such as childhood obesity. However, since the research shows a correlation of healing associated after diagnosis occurs, is it unreasonable to at least consider the role of nature play and it's disappearance over the last several decades as a key suspect in the subsequent rise in these kinds of medical conditions in youth?
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