Ecocentricity Blog: Nature Is Calling

NDD. As an acronym, it stands for quite a few things. Options include “no designated driver” and “narcotics detection dog” according to my Google search. For my purposes though, NDD stands for “nature-deficit disorder.”

Richard Louv coined the term in 2005 with his book Last Child in the Woods. Before I dive into this topic, I should say that NDD is not a medical diagnosis, and Louv has never claimed that it is. Rather NDD is what I would call an observable trend, and a bad trend at that.

Let’s see if you think this trend exists as well. Do you think people are spending more time indoors? Are we turning to electronics for more of our entertainment? Are parents more fearful of their kids playing outside? Are kids therefore more afraid of nature? Are attention disorders and depression more common in society, especially for children? Is childhood obesity more common?

My answer is “yes” to all of these, and I think they are related. As a species, we evolved in nature. It was our home long before drywall and stucco were created. It’s still our home whether we acknowledge it or not, and I believe that we benefit physically, emotionally and spiritually from returning to it frequently.