Eco-anxiety

Eco-anxiety or climate anxiety has been described by the American Psychological Association in 2017 as "a chronic fear of environmental doom" but is not designated as a specific condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.[1] Although climate anxiety is not a medical condition in itself, in certain individuals it can exacerbate pre-existing mental health problems.

Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg has chosen political action in order to respond to her climate anxiety

Climate anxiety stems from fears about the current and predicted future state of the environment caused by human-induced climate change. It is associated with a growing awareness of the many direct and indirect effects on individuals lives stemming from extreme weather events, rising sea levels, floods, forest fires and potential loss of livelihood or housing. When there are feelings of loss involved, the response may be referred to as ecological or climate grief.

Many people see the potential impact of global warming as a crisis, emergency or existential threat to the future of human civilization.[2][3] Younger generations, in particular, have begun expressing feelings of helplessness and fear about their future.[4][5][6][7][8] The anxiety this generates can lead to fear, immobilization, manic re/activity, exhaustion, insomnia, depression, substance abuse and suicide.[9][10][11] Fear and anxiety can also lead to individual action and collective activism which psychologists say is an effective means of relieving climate related distress.[12]

Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, is a high-profile example of youth who have been affected and has been pivotal in making climate anxiety more visible around the world. At the age of 11, she became seriously depressed because of her worries about global warming, although her anxiety exacerbated her pre-existing mental health problems.[13][14] Thunberg's case also demonstrates the benefits of taking action to alleviate climate related mental health symptoms. Since she began protesting outside the Swedish parliament and became the face of a youth protest movement, her parents say her mental health has improved significantly.[15]

Alternative terminology

Some researchers use the term climate distress instead of climate anxiety, because it describes a range of painful feelings, some of which are not necessarily anxiety. For instance, some people develop a sense of disbelief that the situation seems so dire. Others feel angry about it.[16] Other terms include eco-fear which recognizes the distress to be a genuine and realistic response to a serious crisis.

Eco-Psychologist, Zhiwa Woodbury, prefers the term eco-trauma. He says that eco-anxiety is actually a symptom of climate trauma which he argues is a "higher-order category of trauma." He says climate trauma triggers "all past traumas — personal, cultural, and intergenerational — and will continue to do so until such time as it is acknowledged... What is unique about this category of trauma is that it is an ever-present, ever-growing threat to the biosphere, one that calls into question our shared identity.”[17]

Another term is eco-despair where the lack of substantive progress towards reducing carbon emissions and ensuring a viable future can lead to an almost total loss of hope.[18]

In 2005, philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term solastalgia which describes a kind of ‘homesickness’ for the environment the way it used to be. It is similar to nostalgia in that the land around people who have witnessed environmental damage no longer resembles the home they once knew.[19] Psychoterratic is another term developed by Glenn Albrecht to cover various forms of earth-related mental health issues.[20] Psychiatrist, David Pollack, uses other terms such as eco-paralysis and climate grief, which could be considered psychoterratic syndromes. He points out that the mental health consequences of climate disruption typically last longer than other mental health issues and require close attention from psychiatry to effectively identify and treat.[21]

The term eco-angst has been used to describe an emotional reaction "when a new bit of unpleasant ecological information about some product or other plunges us into a moment (or more) of despair at the planet’s condition and the fragility of our place on it".[22]

Range of mental health consequences

Climate-related weather events and environmental change due to global warming has been linked to a wide variety of acute and chronic mental health experiences including anxiety, sadness, distress, despair, anger, fear, helplessness, stress and feelings of hopelessness. Climate change is also linked to elevated rates of mood disorders, such as depression, anxiety, pre- and post-traumatic stress and increased drug and alcohol use. It is also associated with increased suicidal ideation and death by suicide. These reactions may stem from threats and disruptions to one's sense of place or from a loss of personal or cultural identity and traditional ways of understanding and knowing.[23]

Existential anxiety

Even though they may not have been directly affected (yet), many people are experiencing a form of existential anxiety - they have concerns that climate change presents a pervasive threat to society with the potential to drastically alter their way of life.[24] In 2018, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that policymakers have only 12 years to avert the worst consequences of global warming. In recent years, news coverage has been filled with apocalyptic stories of storms and wildfires.[25]

In 2019, the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Melbourne, Australia, described climate change as “a near- to mid-term existential threat to human civilization” and set out a possible scenario explaining how this could come about if there is a failure to take concerted action over the next 30 years.[26] According to an opinion piece in the Washington Post, children in particular are terrified, anxious and depressed about climate change. As a result, parents, teachers and medical professionals face a difficult dilemma: "How do you raise a generation to look toward the future with hope when all around them swirls a message of apparent hopelessness?"[27]

A more generalised anxiety may also develop due to a constant fear of possible natural disasters when living in an area at risk. Eco-anxiety can also stem from slower consequences of climate changes and pollution, such as those impacting agriculture or the livability of an area.[28][29]

Burnout

Thousands of people concerned about climate change are actively trying to do something about it, by joining climate action groups, and trying to get their communities, workplaces, schools, local politicians engaged. Trying to create change at a local level while aware that global warming is a large, complex, global problem and that the global community is dysfunctional and not taking sufficient action to address the issue can lead to 'burnout' - an inescapable sense of running on empty. This manifests in different ways but includes muscle tension, headache, backache, generalised fatigue, negative thinking and feelings of hopelessness.[30]

Examples

Thousands of people around the world are displaced from their homes every year as a result of extreme climate events, putting them at higher risk of mental illness.[28][31][32][33] In some places, the mental health impacts of ecological loss are already severe. In Kulusuk, Greenland, where the ice has melted, rates of depression, suicide and alcoholism have risen.[34] In the Nunatsiavut region of Labrador, Canada, residents report feeling stressed, depressed and anxious because of the melted ice and changing weather patterns.[35]

The 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season has resulted in the loss of homes, land and livelihoods. Farmers in the Australian wheat belt, whose farms have been destroyed in dust storms, have compared losing their farms to a death.[36] These experiences are taking a significant psychological toll on Australian farmers in particular, who feel their sense of place and identity are under threat; persistent drought and prolonged heatwaves have already contributed to increased rates of suicide in rural communities.[37]

In 2017, the American Psychological Association issued a report on the effect of climate change. Although it primarily dealt with trauma from extreme weather, it also recognized that “gradual, long-term changes in climate can also surface a number of different emotions, including fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, or exhaustion.”[38] Also that year, researchers found that rising temperatures over the past three decades have contributed to the suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers and farm workers.[39]

A number of studies have shown that short-term exposure to more extreme weather, multiyear experience with hotter temperatures and exposure to tropical cyclones are all associated with an increase in mental health problems. This is because global warming amplifies the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, which often cause physical injury, psychological trauma, infrastructure damage, and societal disruption.[40] For instance, Hurricane Katrina led to a 4% increase in the prevalence of mental health issues among those who lived through it.[40]

Impact

On young people

Dr Patrick Kennedy-Williams, a clinical psychologist from Oxford, has discovered worrying levels of environment-related stress and anxiety in pre-teen children including his six year old daughter.[41] Lise Van Susteren, a psychologist in Washington, D.C. says children are generally more likely to accept the scientific consensus that humans are responsible for climate change. She says “They look at the generation ahead of them that could have taken action and didn’t,” and says this triggers feelings of anger, grief, resentment, fear, frustration and a sense of being overwhelmed.[42]

Greta Thunberg
Main article: Greta Thunberg

Swedish youth activist, Greta Thunberg, exemplifies the potential impact of climate anxiety on individual mental health and the benefits of political activism in overcoming personal distress. She first heard about global warming when she was eight years old, and could not understand why so little was being done about it. Her mother says that in response to her anxiety about global warming, Greta "was slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness. She stopped playing the piano. She stopped laughing. She stopped talking. And she stopped eating.” She was subsequently diagnosed with high functioning autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, selective mutism and an eating disorder.[43]

At age 15, she began demonstrating outside the Swedish parliament and in the space of 12 months became the 'face' of the fight against climate change.[44] In an interview with the BBC in December 2019, her father said "Greta has 'changed' and become 'very happy' as a result of her activism".[15] Her mother says her activism also helped her overcome her eating disorder.[45]

On climate scientists

In 2014, Joe Duggan, a science communicator at Australian National University set up a website asking leading climate scientists to write to him answering this question: "How does climate change make you feel?" More than 40 scientists responded. Duggan says the letters, which he posted on his website - Is This How You Feel? - are "emotional outpourings of despair, hope, fear and determination in the age of the climate crisis, from the people helping the world understand its impacts."[46] Some have started support groups at their institutions or online, looking for opportunities to share their feelings of grief and concerns about the future.[47]

On indigenous communities

On women
Main article: Climate change and gender

Seventy per cent of the 1.3 billion people in the developing world living below the threshold of poverty are women.[48] In under-developed and developing countries, women seem to suffer more negative impacts from climate change because of social and cultural norms regarding gender roles and their lack of access to and control of assets dominated by men. One reason is that men are generally more mobile and more likely to migrate to areas unaffected by climate events in search of employment, whereas women are more likely to stay in the affected area to care for the family and household. [49]

A study in 2017 found that having one fewer child is by far the most effective step a person in a developed country can take to reduce their carbon footprint - potentially saving up to 58 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This concern, combined with the fear that climate change may create a bleak future for their offspring, has led some women to decide not to have children.[50] Caroline Hickman, a researcher at the University of Bath, has counselled parents who fantasise about killing their children, out of fear of the climate-ravaged future. [51]

BirthStrike is one of a number of groups around the world questioning the ethics of having children in a warming world. It is a voluntary organisation for women who have decided not to have children in response to what they perceive as the impending “climate breakdown and civilisation collapse”. Birthstrike organisers say its aim is not to discourage people from having children, or condemn those who have them already, but to communicate the urgency of the crisis.[52] As at September 2019, over 330 people have joined, of whom approximately 80% are women.[53]

Prevalence of concern

In 2018, the Pew Research Centre conducted a survey of 26 countries to see how concerned people were about climate change. In 23 of those countries, over 50% of those surveyed say "global climate change is a major threat to their nation". In 13 of those countries, it is seen as "the top threat". The survey found that the more educated participants were, the more concerned they were likely to be. In some countries, women and younger people are generally more concerned.[54] However, this survey measured 'levels of concern' which is not necessarily a measure of anxiety per se.

In surveys in the United States in 2018, between 21%[55] and 29%[56] of Americans said they were “very” worried about the climate, double the rate of a similar study in 2015. Between 62% and 69% said they were “somewhat” worried - but only 6% said humans can and will reduce global warming. In the United States, among American adults, concern is closely aligned with political affiliation. Roughly a quarter (27%) of Republicans say climate change is a major threat, compared with more than three-quarters of Democrats (83%) – a 56% point difference.[57]

A Finnish survey in 2019 which actually measured anxiety found that 25% to 33% of people in Finland acknowldged such feelings in relation to climate change.[58]

Treatment & responses

Professor Craig Chalquist says the first step for therapists in treating eco-anxiety is realizing that a fearful response to a real condition isn’t pathological. He says eco-fear is a completely normal response even if the client finds it profoundly disturbing. He argues that therapists need to take clients fears about the situation seriously and "not assume they’re a dysfunctional mental health problem or that a person suffering from eco-anxiety is somehow ill." However, he acknowledges that fear and anxiety about global warming may exacerbate pre-existing, mental health conditions.[59] Melissa Pickett, an eco-therapist practicing in Santa Fe, claims she treats between forty to eighty eco-anxious patients a month.[60] Symptoms include irritability, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, bouts of weakness, panic attacks, and twitching. In terms of treatment, Chalquist notes that individualistic models of mental health are "not designed to deal with collective trauma on a planetary scale".[61]

In general, psychotherapists say that when individuals take action, either by changing their lifestyle to reduce carbon emissions or by getting involved in social activism, this reduces anxiety levels by bringing a sense of personal empowerment and feelings of connection with others in the community.[62][63] Many psychologists emphasize that in addition to action, there is a need to build emotional resilience in order to avoid burnout.[64][65][66][67]

Several psychological organizations have been founded around climate psychology.[68][69][70] Scholars have pointed out that there is a need for a systemic approach in order to provide various resources for people in relation to the mental health impacts of ecological problems and climate change.[32][71]

See also

References
  1. Terrified of Climate Change? You Might Have Eco-Anxiety, Time, 21 November 2019
  2. Pihkala, Panu (2018). "Eco-Anxiety, Tragedy, and Hope: Psychological and Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change". Zygon. 53 (2): 545–569. doi:10.1111/zygo.12407. hdl:10138/314873. ISSN 1467-9744.
  3. Gillespie, Sally. (2020). Climate crisis and consciousness : re-imagining our world and ourselves. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-36534-9. OCLC 1107329402.
  4. What to know about eco-anxiety, Medical News Today, 19 December 2019
  5. Clayton, Susan; Manning, Christie; Krygsman, Kirra; Speiser, Meighen (March 2017), Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance (PDF), American Psychological Association
  6. Fawbert, Dave (27 March 2019), 'Eco-anxiety': how to spot it and what to do about it, BBC
  7. Ro, Christine (20 June 2018), How to cure the eco-anxious, Wellcome Collection
  8. Smith, Andrew; Hughes, William (2013). Ecogothic. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780719086571.
  9. Bodnar, Susan (2008-08-14). "Wasted and Bombed: Clinical Enactments of a Changing Relationship to the Earth". Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 18 (4): 484–512. doi:10.1080/10481880802198319. ISSN 1048-1885.
  10. Hyl, Véronique (2019-06-06). "If Climate Change Doesn't Kill Me, My Anxiety About It Will". ELLE. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  11. Kaplan, Rachel; Blume, K. Ruby (2011). Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living. New York: Skyhorse Publishing Inc. p. 255. ISBN 9781616080549.
  12. The Existential Dread of Climate Change, Psychology Today, 13 October 2017
  13. Jon Queally (19 December 2018). "Depressed and Then Diagnosed With Autism". Common Dreams. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  14. Jonathan Watts (11 March 2019). "Greta Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  15. Greta Thunberg's father: 'She is happy, but I worry', BBC 30 December 2019
  16. Randall, Rosemary (2019). "Climate anxiety or climate distress? Coping with the pain of the climate emergency". www.rorandall.org.
  17. Zhiwa Woodbury."Climate Trauma: Towards a New Taxonomy of Trauma," Ecopsychology.Mar 2019.1-8.http://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2018.0021
  18. It’s Not Eco-Anxiety – It’s Eco-Fear! A Survey of the Eco-Emotions, Craig Chalquist, 23 September 2019
  19. Warsini, Sri; Mills, Jane; Usher, Kim (2014). "Solastalgia: Living with the Environmental Damage Caused by Natural Disasters". Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. 29: 87–90. doi:10.1017/S1049023X13009266. PMID 24438454.
  20. Albrecht, Glenn (2011), Weissbecker, Inka (ed.), "Chronic Environmental Change: Emerging 'Psychoterratic' Syndromes", Climate change and human well-being: Global challenges and opportunities, International and Cultural Psychology, Springer New York, pp. 43–56, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9742-5_3, ISBN 978-1-4419-9741-8
  21. David Pollack, Climate Change and Its Impacts on Mental Health, Psychiatric Times, 12 October 2018
  22. The Age of Eco-Angst, Daniel Goleman, The New York Times, 27 September 2009
  23. Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss, Nature Climate Change, Vol 8 April 2018
  24. Pihkala, Panu (2018). "Eco-Anxiety, Tragedy, and Hope: Psychological and Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change". Zygon. 53 (2): 545–569. doi:10.1111/zygo.12407. hdl:10138/314873.
  25. The Environmental Burden of Generation Z, Washington Post, 3 February 2020
  26. New Report Suggests ‘High Likelihood of Human Civilisation Coming to an End’ in 2050, Vice, 4 June 2019
  27. The Environmental Burden of Generation Z, Washington Post, 3 February 2020
  28. Fritze, Jessica G; Blashki, Grant A; Burke, Susie; Wiseman, John (2008). "Hope, despair and transformation: climate change and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing". International Journal of Mental Health Systems. 2 (1): 13. doi:10.1186/1752-4458-2-13. ISSN 1752-4458. PMC 2556310. PMID 18799005.
  29. Davies, Jonathan (2019). "Suffering From Eco-anxiety? Embrace it! Here is Why…". eco-.
  30. Dealing with burnout, the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
  31. Obradovich, Nick; Migliorini, Robyn; Paulus, Martin P.; Rahwan, Iyad (2018-10-08). "Empirical evidence of mental health risks posed by climate change". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (43): 10953–10958. doi:10.1073/pnas.1801528115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6205461. PMID 30297424.
  32. Berry, Helen L.; Waite, Thomas D.; Dear, Keith B. G.; Capon, Anthony G.; Murray, Virginia (2018). "The case for systems thinking about climate change and mental health". Nature Climate Change. 8 (4): 282–290. Bibcode:2018NatCC...8..282B. doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0102-4. ISSN 1758-678X.
  33. Searle, Kristina; Gow, Kathryn (2010-11-09). "Do concerns about climate change lead to distress?". International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management. 2 (4): 362–379. doi:10.1108/17568691011089891. ISSN 1756-8692.
  34. Ecological grief: I mourn the loss of nature – it saved me from addiction, The Guardian 25 February 2020
  35. Why Lost Ice Means Lost Hope for an Inuit Village, New York Times 25 November 2017
  36. Cunsolo, Ashlee; Ellis, Neville R. (2018). "Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss". Nature Climate Change. 8 (4): 275–281. Bibcode:2018NatCC...8..275C. doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2.
  37. The rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: climate change affects our mental health, The Conversation, 17 December 2019
  38. 'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change, NBC News
  39. Suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers linked to climate change, study claims, The Guardian 31 July 2017
  40. Empirical evidence of mental health risks posed by climate change, PNAS, 23 October 2018
  41. ‘Overwhelming and terrifying’: the rise of climate anxiety, The Guardian, 10 February 2020
  42. Climate change poses mental health risks to children and teens, Science News for Students, 2 May 2019
  43. Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Arrives In New York After Sailing The Atlantic, NPR, 28 August 2019
  44. Greta Thunberg turns 17 today. Here's how she started a global climate movement in just 18 months, Business Insider, 20 September 2019
  45. Greta Thunberg’s mother reveals teenager’s troubled childhood, The Guardian, 22 february, 2020
  46. 'I'm profoundly sad, I feel guilty': scientists reveal personal fears about the climate crisis, The Guardian, 7 March 2020
  47. How scientists are coping with ‘ecological grief’Expand, The Guardian, 12 January 2020
  48. Climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation: Why does gender matter? Journal of Gender & Development, Volume 10, 2002 - Issue 2: Climate Change
  49. A literature review of the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change on women’s and men’s assets and well-being in developing countries, Capri, September 2012
  50. A new 'climate strike': Opting for no children as climate fears grow, Reuters 13 May 2019
  51. The harm from worrying about climate change, BBC 11 October 2019
  52. BirthStrikers: meet the women who refuse to have children until climate change ends, The Guardian, 12 March 2019
  53. BirthStrike: The people refusing to have kids, because of 'the ecological crisis', CNN 26 June 2019
  54. A look at how people around the world view climate change, Pew Research Centre, 18 April 2019
  55. 'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change NBC News, 24 December 2018
  56. Climate Change in the American Mind: December 2018, Climate Change Communication
  57. A look at how people around the world view climate change, Pew Research Centre, 18 April 2019
  58. Hyry, Jaakko (2019). Kansalaiskysely ilmastonmuutoksen herättämistä tunteista ja niiden vaikutuksista kestäviin elämäntapoihin [Survey on climate change and emotions] (PDF). Helsinki: Sitra Finnish Innovation Fund.
  59. Buzzell, Linda; Chalquist, Craig (2019). It's Not Eco-Anxiety – It's Eco-Fear! A Survey of the Eco-Emotions. www.chalquist.com.
  60. Nobel, Justin. "Eco-anxiety: Something else to worry about". inquirer.com. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  61. Buzzell, Linda; Chalquist, Craig (2019). It's Not Eco-Anxiety – It's Eco-Fear! A Survey of the Eco-Emotions. www.chalquist.com.
  62. Terrified of Climate Change? You Might Have Eco-Anxiety, Time, 21 November 2019
  63. Cossman, Brenda (2013). "Anxiety Governance". Law & Social Inquiry. 38 (4): 892–919. doi:10.1111/lsi.12027. ISSN 0897-6546. JSTOR 24545848.
  64. Davenport, Leslie. (2017). Emotional resiliency in the era of climate change - a clinicians guide. ISBN 978-1-78592-719-5. OCLC 1023251552.
  65. Pihkala, Panu (2019). Climate anxiety. Helsinki: Finnish mental health society.
  66. "Climate change and dealing with burnout | APS". www.psychology.org.au. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  67. "How climate activists avoid burn out". The Ecologist. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  68. "Psychology for a Safe Climate". psc-website. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  69. "Climate Psychology Alliance - Home". Climate Psychology Alliance. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  70. "Climate Psychiatry Alliance". Climate Psychiatry Alliance. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  71. "Coping with climate change distress | APS". www.psychology.org.au. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.