And being told by national leaders not to worry, or not think about the cause of these threats, was the worst way to deal with anxiety, he said."It is the most unhelpful thing you can do [for someone with anxiety]," said Professor Hickie. A report by the World Health Organisation released last week found few of the 101 countries it surveyed were doing enough to prepare for the effects of climate change on physical and mental health. Loading “Climate change is not only racking up a bill for future generations to pay, it’s a price that people are paying for now with their health,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, said. Lifeline said there had been a significant spike in calls to its suicide prevention hotline on catastrophic fire days. On other days, its counsellors were also hearing people talk more about how the fires and the smoke affected their mental health.

For many people, the fires will have a lifelong impact. Blue Mountain's resident Kate Reid, 33, suffers anxiety and from ongoing nightmares related to the 2001 bushfires that struck on Christmas Day. As someone who suffered anxiety, she said it "scared the heck out of me when our leaders don't seem to be taking it seriously." Loading This time of year is "never great" but this season was far beyond anything else. "It is a constant fear, that a fire could be behind my house at any time, there is no real reprieve," Ms Reid wrote in the Herald.

Professor Hickie said city dwellers, usually two steps removed, were directly affected by the fires close to home and the "appalling weather quality". "It is the physical reality. Normally [Sydney residents] are seeing it on TV. Now they are seeing it themselves," he said. "Ash is falling on their clothes, there are dust storms, smog similar to Beijing, fires are happening close to home, it is not matching reality. " Professor Hickie called for bipartisan leadership in the same way that former Liberal prime minister John Howard acted on gun control after the 1996 massacre at Port Arthur and Labor prime minister Bob Hawke worked with business and unions in the 1980s to modernise the economy and address rising inflation. Loading “I'd like to see the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition, and the Greens out there saying that they care about the impact and they're interested in effective collection action.”