When murky water first tore down a perimeter fence, then bubbled into the yard before spilling into every room, Daniel Ebiesua's electronics, kitchen appliances, furniture, documents and academic certificates all learned to swim. Within minutes, the Shogunle area resident evacuated his home with his wife, their two-week-old baby, four-year-old son and mother-in-law to a neighbor's upstairs apartment, where they stayed trapped for four hours watching the flood swallow the streets below.
"It was a painfully difficult evening for my family and me," Ebiesua says of 28 June, now spending 35,000 naira (£19) daily on a hotel and ordering food. A distinct brown water line still marks his living room walls, and a damp smell hangs in the air as soaked mattresses, broken furniture and ruined electronics lie outside. But the real damage isn't material - it's psychological. "Now every dark cloud feels like a warning, every rainfall sparks a pang of fear that it could happen again."
As Nigeria sees more frequent and devastating floods from torrential rain, clogged drainage and rising sea levels, mental health professionals call the resulting anxiety one of the least-recognised effects of the climate emergency. Dr Faith Aboloje, a trauma recovery expert and founder of Safe Corner by Jevwe, reports seeing more climate anxiety: "Unlike typical stress, this fear is linked to repeated environmental disasters, trapping survivors in anticipation and dread. For some, the sound of rain alone triggers panic."
In Okun Alfa, 26-year-old driver Joseph Moko lives with recurring floods. "Whenever it rains at night, I find it hard to sleep because I could wake up any moment and find my bed submerged. You can never truly rest because you don't know what the next hour will bring." The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency has warned of another dangerous flooding season, putting more than 14,000 communities at high risk and at least 15,000 at moderate risk.
Climate advocate Jennifer Uchendu of SustyVibes describes "allostatic overload" - prolonged stress from constant environmental threats raising risks of depression, anxiety, hypertension, heart disease and weaker immunity. Unlike trauma, chronic climate stress develops gradually, often unnoticed until it affects every aspect of daily life.
In Abule Ogun, Ogun state, smallholder Glory Sunday lost her maize and pumpkin crops. "Only a little maize survived. The ugu (fluted pumpkin) was completely destroyed. I might not survive the flood if it comes again." The flooded farm destroyed months of work and a harvest that would have supported her four children - about 500,000 naira (£270) from the ugu alone.
In Lagos, Kenechukwu Okosa's fish farm Cloudearth Farms in Okota flooded while he was at church. "The caller told me on the phone that everything don go, all your fish don go, my heart just sank." He lost nearly 8,000 fish and 32 chickens. "My partner and I are contemplating just giving up on the business."
Arjun Jain, the UN refugee agency's representative in Nigeria, says families displaced by disasters face overwhelming uncertainty about survival, safety and future. "They come in with a lot of trauma, and when you compound that with massive, forced displacement, those worries just become more intense." Strong family and community networks remain key psychological protections, he notes.
In Sogunle, Solomon Kehinde couldn't afford hotel accommodation after flooding and took shelter with a friend along with his wife and three children. Though waters receded, he says psychological trauma keeps them from sleeping at home: "I can't sleep here for now because I'm scared of frogs, scorpions or snakes. The flood could have carried them into my apartment."
Nigeria has a significant treatment gap for mental illness, with few psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric social workers for more than 220 million people. Services are mainly in urban hospitals, limiting access. Survivors rely on relatives, neighbours and churches. Humanitarian efforts focus on shelter, food and medical care, often overlooking mental health despite evidence of long-term psychological impacts.
Prof Godson Ana of the University of Ibadan's department of environmental health sciences attributes Kehinde's fears to a natural psychological response: "When victims are displaced from their homes, it severely affects their mental wellbeing, disrupts livelihoods, threatens survival, and halts socioeconomic activities." Repeated disasters can create a cycle of climate-related anxieties - because nothing says "you're safe now" like knowing the next flood is already on its way.