What is eco-anxiety and how can we overcome it?

WILDFIRES, floods, droughts – over the past few years, more and more extreme weather events and natural disasters have been attributed to climate change. And things are only predicted to get worse.

Given this apocalyptic outlook, it is hardly surprising that some people feel overwhelmed by anxiety about our prospective future. But how widespread is this eco-anxiety, and what can we do to overcome it?

There is no formal definition of eco-anxiety, also sometimes called climate anxiety. The Climate Psychology Alliance – a collection of therapists and researchers interested in the psychological impact of the climate crisis – describes it as “heightened emotional, mental or somatic [bodily] distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system”.

It is the anxiety that keeps on giving. “With ordinary anxiety, the expectation is that with some form of intervention, some form of support, you will recover,” says Caroline Hickman, an eco-anxiety specialist at the University of Bath, UK. “But the thing about eco-anxiety is that it is unresolvable, because the eco-crisis is not being resolved.”

Increase in eco-anxiety

The label “anxiety” is overly narrow, says Hickman. “We use it as an umbrella term to describe a range of emotional responses to environmental breakdown, which includes fear, grief, rage, despair, sadness and hopelessness.” For that reason, some have tried to rebrand it as “eco-distress”, but even that seems inadequate, says Hickman. “I think we should call it ‘climate terror’ or ‘climate oh-my-fucking-god’.”

Recent research suggests that eco-anxiety is common, especially among young people. “It is endemic across the world,” says Hickman. In an international survey conducted in 2021 of 10,000 people aged 16 to 25, Hickman and her team found that more than half reported simultaneously feeling sadness, anxiety, anger, guilt, powerlessness and helplessness about climate change. More than 45 per cent said that these emotions negatively affected their daily life, including eating, sleeping and having fun.

This last number varies across the world, from 28 per cent of respondents in the UK to more than 70 per cent in India and the Philippines. That isn’t surprising, given that people in the Global South are on the front line of ecological breakdown and often have personal experience of the consequences, says Hickman.

There is no baseline to compare these numbers with, but Hickman says that her experience as a psychotherapist suggests a rising tide. Five years ago, four or five people a week came to her seeking help for eco-anxiety. Now, it is 25 to 30. “It’s increasing massively,” she says.

Treatment for eco-anxiety

The symptoms may be the same as anxiety, but the remedy is not. The American Psychological Association and similar bodies don’t recognise it as a medical condition. “Strong climate emotions and climate anxiety do not constitute mental illness,” says Lindsay Galway at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Canada.

It should stay that way, says Hickman. Pathologising eco-anxiety misses the point, she says: it isn’t a mental health condition in need of individual treatment, but a rational response to ecological breakdown. The people who don’t feel some level of eco-anxiety are the ones with a problem, she says. “If you’ve got eco-anxiety, you should be proud, because it’s an indication that you care about the planet.”

Indeed, eco-anxiety can be a strong motivator to demand change. Ironically, though, it may also be a root cause of climate denialism, according to the Climate Psychology Alliance, because dismissing the problem or electing people who do so can be a cosy security blanket.

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Even if eco-anxiety cannot and should not be cured, there are measures people can take to cope, says Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria in Canada. Research on other forms of anxiety shows that they are driven by the perception of uncontrollable personal risk. Ergo, eco-anxiety can be alleviated by identifying and controlling those risks. People who live in flood-prone areas, for example, can make a plan to safeguard their property and belongings, while those in areas at risk of drought may reduce their water usage and install more water storage.

Ultimately, the only solution is for people in power to do their jobs and sort out the mess, says Hickman. “Until we take forceful action on climate breakdown, eco-anxiety will keep going up. But if we stopped oil extraction and shifted to renewables, eco-anxiety would almost disappear overnight.”