We all know anxiety is very real and overwhelming, often triggered by specific experiences or events for a given person. It turns out one trending trigger now has become grief and despair about the state of the environment — more specifically, climate change — labeled by psychologists as ‘eco-anxiety.’ According to the American Psychology Association, eco-anxiety is linked to a laundry list of mental health conditions: trauma and shock, PTSD, compounded stress, strains on social relationships, depression, anxiety, suicide, substance abuse, aggression and violence, loss of autonomy and control, loss of personal and occupational identity, feelings of helplessness, fear, and fatalism.
“To compound the issue, the psychological responses to climate change, such as conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness, and resignation are growing,” the APA notes. “These responses are keeping us, and our nation, from properly addressing the core causes of and solutions for our changing climate, and from building and supporting psychological resiliency.”
A 2018 Yale study revealed that 70 percent of Americans consider themselves ‘worried’ about climate change and 29 percent of Americans are actually ‘very worried’ about climate change. Meanwhile, more than half of Americans (51 percent, to be exact) feel helpless in reference to the phenomenon. Beyond that, the rush of climate change news on television and the internet is a recent enough phenomenon (the past 10 years, specifically) that we also haven’t developed an understanding of how to process and communicate those concerns. On those statistics alone and observations alone, you can imagine that the feelings people harbor toward climate change and the news they regularly consume about it can form a recipe for anxiety.
According to Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO), Australia, Canada, Spain, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) led the charge in the heaviest coverage of climate change news in 2018, whether that is reporting the news of specific events or passing on and translating information o climate change studies for the public. In fact, coverage ramped up through the year, according to MeCCO. In January of 2018, between 250 and 300 articles per news source globally were devoted to climate change related topics. By October of the same year, just under 400 articles per source were dedicating their coverage to the topic. With a slight dip in November, we finished out the year climbing back up to that mark of 400 articles per source covering climate change in 2018.
"[Eco-anxiety] is often hidden somewhat under the surface," Thomas Doherty, a clinical psychologist based in Portland, Oregon said, "people aren't taught how to talk about it."
The symptoms of eco-anxiety aren’t understood or defined well enough to this point that it has yet to be listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a list of official diagnoses psychologists reference, but scientists and mental health professionals have given eco-anxiety growing recognition in the past decade nonetheless. The American Psychological Association simply defines eco-anxiety as “a chronic fear of environmental doom,” which ranges from everyday worries about the health and future of our natural world to legitimate panic attacks that we associate with anxiety disorders. In fact, eco-anxiety mirrors just about any other known, diagnosed anxiety disorder, with its cause — grief and despair about the fate of the planet — being the factor that makes it so unique.
In 2017, the American Psychological Association published a 70-page report detailing the implications of climate change on mental health, and later this year there will be four separate climate change-related sessions at their annual conference in Chicago. “We have to ask, Is it more pathological for someone to be so worried about climate change or is it actually more pathological that people are not more worried about it?" Austern said, which he argues may be exactly what (anxiety) gets mankind to take greater action in combating climate change. Professionals have cited that people battling eco-anxiety can temper symptoms by fostering a greater connection with their environment and community, which in turn lends itself to taking action in caring for the environment, whether that’s volunteering or changing daily habits and so on. These first steps can, at the very least, help manage the “helpless” feeling those 51 percent of Americans hold toward climate change.
"I'd be lying if they said that there wasn't a lot of time when you think, ‘Why do we bother’? But, when you sit down, chat to other scientists and have a bit of a think about it, you realize that there's a huge amount that we can still do. Yes, these places are in trouble. But it's in our power to protect what's left and make a meaningful difference. And that's why we do this. That's why we carry on.”
Aside from the climate change news that floods our social media channels and television shows, the American Psychological Association cited direct experiences with natural disasters — events that are understood to be growing in frequency and significance thanks to climate change — have been triggering mental health problems for many Americans. For example, “suicide and suicidal ideation” more than doubled for areas affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2007, according to a Harvard Medical School paper. Meanwhile, a Columbia University report said that one in six people in the same areas suffered from PTSD following Hurricane Katrina. People who live through wildfires and extreme storms are also more likely to suffer from PTSD as well.
"I’ve noticed a great increase of clients needing to talk about eco-anxiety since the IPCC report at the end of last year," says Mary Jayne Rust, a British eco-psychologist. "Mostly, they are in need of talking it through with a therapist who is knowledgeable about the issues. I think it is a massive thing to live with the suspicion that (as some of my younger clients have said), ‘We’re completely screwed’. I suspect it might be part of the reason for binge-drinking epidemics, and other addictions, for example. There is a general feeling that the future is so uncertain and it’s extremely hard to live with.”