Stressed out about climate change? You are not alone. Mental health experts brace for eco-anxiety

Record ID: 1438149

  • Title: Stressed out about climate change? You are not alone. Mental health experts brace for eco-anxiety
  • Date: 23rd October 2019
  • Summary: MALIBU, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE - NOVEMBER 9, 2018) (REUTERS) CAMERAMAN SAYING "I'M SURROUNDED BY FIRE" WHILE FILMING WILDFIRE HOME ENGULFED IN FIRE MARSH HARBOUR, ABACO, THE BAHAMAS (FILE - SEPTEMBER 1, 2019) (REUTERS) WIND AND RAIN FROM HURRICANE DORIAN
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2019 13:37
  • Keywords: eco-anxiety Judy Kramer Greta Thunberg Alexandra Villasenior climate grief Elizabeth Allured David Frette Good Grief Network Climate Psychology Alliance climate change
  • Location: MALIBU, CALIFORNIA + NEW YORK AND PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, RUMSON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES / MARSH HARBOUR, THE BAHAMAS / IN SPACE / ARCTIC OCEAN / BEIJING, CHINA / INTERNET
  • City: MALIBU, CALIFORNIA + NEW YORK AND PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, RUMSON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES / MARSH HARBOUR, THE BAHAMAS / IN SPACE / ARCTIC OCEAN / BEIJING, CHINA / INTERNET
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Environment,Climate Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001B2BGDON
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and catastrophic natural disasters spawned by climate change are giving rise to a mental health issue called 'eco-anxiety.'
    In the United States, the number of Americans who are worried about climate change has tripled since 2011, with seven in 10 Americans believing that climate change is real, according to a 2018 report called "Climate Change in the American Mind."
    Sixteen-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg has admitted feeling depressed about climate change at the age of 11.
    "I found out about this issue when I was maybe 7, 8 or 9 years old," Thunberg said shortly after sailing from Europe to the U.S. in August. "And then I realized that 'oh this is actually very bad' and started to read about it more and more. And when I became maybe 11, I became depressed and the climate crisis was a huge cause of that because I felt everything is hopeless and there's nothing we can do and no one is doing anything."
    She added, "But then I sort of got out of that depression by promising myself that I am going to do everything I can to change things. And that is what I tried to do."
    Fellow environmental activist 14-year-old Alexandra Villasenior said, "Being upset and dealing with climate anxiety and eco-grief, really I didn't know how to handle it until I started my climate strike. And so when I started striking every Friday, it really made me feel so much better."
    "I can't vote and so striking is one of the best ways for me to make my voice heard about the future I am being given," she added.
    Although the American Psychiatric Association does not classify "climate anxiety" as a mental disorder, mental health experts are taking it seriously.
    "Well I call it eco-anxiety" said Elizabeth Allured, a psychologist and psychoanalyst specializing in climate psychology.
    "It's a huge problem. It's not like having a fear of going over bridges where you can just avoid going over the bridges," she said. "And it's not like we can pretend that it's only going to affect other people. It's affecting people everywhere in some way or another. So those kind of global problems are harder to feel effective in solving and it's much easier to feel insignificant... and our contribution is not going to make a difference or matter."
    Allured, who co-founded the Climate Psychology Alliance North America, said eco-anxiety can cause sleeping and eating problems as well as depression and "thoughts of apocalyptic scenes."
    Allured also warned eco-anxiety "can turn into some kind of anger and frustration that we don't recognize where it's coming from. But it's actually coming from this issue that's not being addressed adequately."
    Anger, frustration and despair were the shared feelings at a climate anxiety support group in New Jersey recently.
    "What causes me the anxiety is that so few people even recognize the problem," said group member David Frette. "(It) just puts you in this lonely spot of trying to deal with it."
    Frette, a father of two, added, "When you have scientists saying we have 10 years to enact political measures, how do you think about saving for your daughter's college fund or what their prom dress is going to be in the future?"
    He added, "You can't think about those two things simultaneously."
    The support group uses a program developed by the Good Grief Network that was modeled after the Alcoholics Anonymous 10-step program. The steps include accepting the problem, developing awareness about brain patterns and reinvesting your time into meaningful efforts.
    The founders of the Good Grief Network created the program in 2016 to create a community for people suffering from anxiety over climate change. The support groups do not provide counseling, only a venue where peers can listen and lean on each other.
    Meantime medical professionals are working to increase awareness about eco-anxiety and develop treatments.
    The Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Psychiatry Alliance are two professional groups working to improve climate-specific mental healthcare and are pushing to include climate training in medical school curricula.
    (Production: Angela Moore, Gabriella Borter, Nelson Villarreal, Andrew Hofstetter)
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