Eco anxiety

What it is and why it matters as we live through ecological crises.

Eco anxiety or eco distress is the psychological responses to the environmental and climate crisis at hand, as one becomes more aware of its severe impact now and on future generations.

It describes a feeling of environmental catastrophe – having the associated feelings of grief, anger, hopelessness and loss in confronting the difficult truths of the ecological crisis.

Anxiety involves an overwhelming sense of worry, fear and dread towards (but not necessarily always) a perceived stressful situation. Eco-anxiety is all this but also very specifically rooted in valid concerns about the environment. Uncertainty is more difficult to sit with when we genuinely have less control of the outcome, which in the case of the climate crisis, is very true.

As published in the Yale Environment 360 magazine, the prevalence of eco-anxiety is seen to be more amongst young people (born between 1997 and 2012) as they encounter increasing negative data (melting ice caps, heat waves, torrential rains, forest fires) of the crisis through the news and social media. Eco anxiety is a very real concern amongst those who are more aware of the severity of environmental issues - people involved in ecological studies (such as conservationists, wildlifers and researchers) experience and study this change first-hand.

People experience a range of emotions in response to ecological crises. Some of them may be –

- Ecological grief and sadness that is felt in response to loss and anticipated losses in the natural world

- Helplessness and anger towards systemic inaction, large corporations and people denying the existence of climate change

- Anxiety, panic and existential dread 

These issues can be understood better if we look at how it might be affecting daily life –

Difficulty concentrating, social withdrawal, loss of interest in hobbies, sleep problems and mood changes.

If you’re experiencing eco anxiety, how to cope?

- If you’re saturated with information, consume less. 

This doesn’t mean ignore the news or stop being informed. But continuously engaging with negative data can feel more debilitating.

- Focus more on the things you can control and do.

Actions you can personally take, your choices that can help reduce your carbon footprint, your capacity to educate others.

- Make time for your emotions.

Acknowledge them, express however you can.

- Finding a community that shares your concerns can help you feel less lonely and overwhelmed. This is also a place where strength and resilience can be felt, to help bring hope and positive action towards a fight for change.

- Connect more with the natural world around you. It can feel comforting and empowering.

- Focus on the wins. 

Big or small, in your neighbourhoods, communities or wherever you see them. Allow yourself to experience hopefulness through this.

Seek additional support through professional help if you feel like you cannot cope anymore.

But ecological distress or eco anxiety is not the problem. It isn’t something that can be classified as a mental health issue that can be treated or solved. People experience this is in response to a very real threat. And perhaps the anxiety can be helpful in this case to motivate us to respond to the threat, to act.

Because dealing with eco anxiety also extends to taking climate action. This starts individually but the power to change is in a collective response.

If you’ve just started to try and understand the crisis, perhaps starting with educating yourself on its impacts worldwide can help. The experience of eco distress needs to be understood through multiple lenses because the climate crisis affects communities disproportionately. Try and use compassion to understand the unique struggles people/everything in the natural world may be facing because of this global crisis.

Experiencing eco distress can feel debilitating. Anxiety in this case is not irrational.