A forest fire in Australia; an extensive and long-lasting drought in East Africa; a punishing heatwave that’s spreading across Europe and leading to many deaths. These stark reminders of the impact of climate change are constant on our news feed.
In turn, this might cause extra stress in our daily lives. It could be the fear of starting a family and having children that might inherit a destroyed planet; the guilt of ‘not doing our part’ whether it’s not using a reusable cup or driving to work; or feeling despair for the changes to the planet that are out of our hands.
Climate change is, without a doubt, one of the most important issues of our time. However, the weight of the situation can often become overwhelming. Many are left experiencing climate anxiety, otherwise known as eco-anxiety, a term that describes the psychological impact of the effects of the climate crisis.
To find out more about climate anxiety, we sought the expertise of Alexandra Bohnen, senior counsellor and psychotherapist at Sofia Wellness Clinic. Here, she shares more about how climate change impacts our mental health as well as tips for managing climate anxiety.
What exactly is climate anxiety? How can we define it?
Climate anxiety is a term for the distress that we feel in the face of climate change and its effects. It encompasses worries and uncertainties about the future in the face of a very real danger. The American Psychological Association calls it “a chronic fear of environmental doom”. Various surveys in the past few years have found that between half and three quarters of people experience climate anxiety.
How does climate change affect mental health?
Firstly, even on a conceptual level, climate change is a real threat, and we feel on a very instinctual level. Of course, the degree to which someone cares and is affected by it varies individually. Some people experience this anxiety as fleeting worries about what will happen, where others may have panic attacks and existential crises about it. Sometimes we move past a threshold of fear and into numbness towards it all.
As we look at and experience all the ways in which the planet changes, we may feel fearful and trepidatious about what may come next. We may feel helpless to being able to do anything about it on an individual level, and frustrated that those around us aren’t doing their part. We might feel anger and rage at corporations and politicians, as well as those who have come before us. Grief at all the different losses – death, ways of life, perceived futures. Guilt around all the different ways we, too, contribute and in the ways we fail. And when these emotions feel so big and the weight of the responsibility so heavy, we may feel paralysed. Clinically, that looks like depression and anxiety, but I want to stress that those are appropriate responses to real threats.
Secondly, climate change has real life consequences we experience, like food insecurity, displacement and disease. Not all of us have the privilege of being insulated from that. These consequences lead to an increase in agitation, fear, anger, helplessness and despair, among others.