Beyond eco-anxiety: How climate change affects your mental health

The climate crisis is arguably the greatest threat to life on our planet. It is a threat that we have met with astonishingly inadequate action. Climate change is a perfect storm – because it is often invisible and seen as a future problem, our psychological reaction often doesn’t match the urgency of the crisis.

Social scientists have termed climate change a “wicked issue” for its tendency to result in people avoiding concrete action because it appears distant to so many of us, predominantly in nations in the Global North which have been least impacted from the most direct impacts of climate change so far. There is no denying that the climate crisis is a highly complex issue, and this is reflected in the diverse ways in which we must respond to it.

Our physical and psychological reactions to climate change are rooted in our very biological make-up: whenever we perceive a threat we exhibit a fight, flight or freeze response. These reactions developed as a survival mechanism when we still had to face predators, but have persisted because evolution moves at a much slower pace than human civilisations. Someone who is predisposed to a flight response may be a climate denier or refuse to engage with the topic, while a fight response can manifest as activism to the point of burnout. The freeze response to the climate crisis is often termed eco-paralysis, which can lead to a variety of outcomes – avoidance of the issue, but also depression and despair.

In experiencing climate-related mental health issues, the first step is to recognise that they are a healthy response to the crisis we find ourselves in. The highly dysfunctional systems of racial capitalism, oppression and extractivism that permeate most aspects of our lives have rendered many of us numb to the reality of human and ecological devastation. We must actively seek to regain our agency as empathetic, ecological beings. The first step towards doing this is acknowledging our very much justified emotions concerning climate change.

Eco-anxiety can be broadly described as a form of existential dread, which results in often continuous feelings of negativity, stress, or even panic. It can be triggered in a variety of ways and relate to both experienced or observed impacts of climate change, as well as anticipated events. In extreme cases, anxiety can lead to physical illness through over-exposure to stress chemicals. 

Eco-anxiety must be taken seriously. At a climate protest a few years ago, I met someone who had tragically lost their child to suicide after grappling with debilitating eco-anxiety for months. The current state of the world can be all-consuming, and it is important to recognise when professional or even medical support is needed – with organisations such as Climate Psychology Alliance leading the way in addressing climate-related mental health issues.

Eco-anxiety is a global phenomenon affecting many people, including young people. Accounts of eco-anxiety that we hear about in the UK have predominantly stemmed from the Global North, with a focus on observed rather than experienced events, and anticipated rather than experienced environmental degradation and catastrophe. It is, however, anything but a phenomenon solely of the Global North; anxiety rooted in environmental damage has been experienced in Indigenous and Global South populations for many years, with academics such as Ashlee Cunsolo having established a global perspective on the topic. For Indigenous populations, both eco-anxiety and climate grief are the result of painfully real, physical losses felt by those at the frontline of climate impacts, which lead to the loss of traditional knowledge and place-based identity. It is essential, therefore, that we make our advocacy around eco-anxiety intersectional.

Another phenomenon growing in significance globally is solastalgia – the distress of seeing our home environment degraded or destroyed, or anticipating further damage. It is a homesickness that is felt without leaving one’s doorstep, an amalgamation of complicated place-based grief and nostalgia. The growing school of Ecopsychology, which recognises the interconnectedness of people and their surrounding ecosystems, is a much-needed criticism of Western psychology’s inability to explain mental health phenomena outside the context of our urban-industrial society. Environmental change affects us, on a very visceral level. The causal relationships between access to nature and mental and physical health are well-established and should not be ignored.

My experience with solastalgia is a very personal one. I grew up in a bleak tower block in a largely undeveloped area, surrounded by wetlands. Those natural habitats were a lifeline for me – for many hours each day, I would roam the fields, collecting nature memorabilia, identifying species, and playing with my friends. We were economically poor, but as long as we were outside, we were happy. Over the years, more and more of the wetland was drained and built up to create housing for the emerging middle class – most of them employed in the local chemical industry. My friends and I found ourselves more and more confined to indoor spaces, watching our beloved playing fields being chipped away at, bit by bit. My sister, who is ten years younger, never experienced those wetlands. There are times when I wonder how many generations we have left before natural spaces completely disappear from our childhoods.

A lot of my academic work focuses on the relationship between people and nature, and their inextricable interdependence. Climate grief is a stark example of this connection. Similar to the loss of a loved one, people can grieve for the loss of natural habitats, whether they are present in their own lives or not. In my own research on the topic, I interviewed climate activists from around the world experiencing climate grief (also called ecological or environmental grief). The results were surprising. People could be immensely affected by witnessing destruction with their own eyes, but also by watching a news piece on bushfires in Australia for example, or the destruction of the Amazon rainforest – a phenomenon called vicarious trauma. After an initial period of shock and outrage following the realisation of the extent of the climate crisis, many would fall into a state of depression, with little to no capacity for action. This is followed by acceptance, from which constructive action could follow. 

Rather than denying our feelings, climate grief can be tackled by embracing difficult emotions. As Leslie Davenport writes in Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change, “as we begin to express our thoughts, feelings and behaviour in alignment with our deepest values, we build tremendous strength and resiliency.” Observing our ‘emotional visitors’ without judgement is an essential part of that, she stresses and is the first step towards conscious adaptation to our lived realities. Rather than letting our grief become despair, we can use it as a tool to push for change.

While the above serves as a brief introduction to different (environ)mental health phenomena, I want to stress that it is impossible to put these into strict categories. Many experiences of eco-anxiety, solastalgia, climate grief and eco-paralysis overlap, and the lines between them are often blurred. Insisting on strict definitions and categorisations would not do justice to the diversity of human experience with regard to the climate crisis, and would make a cross-cultural, intersectional approach to the topic impossible. The boon and bane of eco-anxiety and Co are that they do not fit into our institutionalised models of mental health – which on the one hand complicates access to professional services, but on the other hand, transcends the binary lens through which Western academia views mental health.

On an individual level, the first step is to actively cherish what we still have. Time in nature is a powerful antidote to negative emotions. Research has found that spending just 120 minutes a week in nature can seriously improve our mental health. 

However, to truly fight the intersecting crises of climate and mental health, we need other people. My own research showed that people drew the most strength from being in the community and realising that they’re not alone with their feelings. Community is where the spark of resistance is born, where movements are built. As someone who has experienced depression and anxiety from the state of the world, activism has often been a lifeline for me – given that it is balanced with periods of rest, regeneration and active joy. 

The intimate relationship between climate and mental health highlights the interdependence of all things, where one action influences all others. To quote Sarah Jaquette Ray in A field guide to climate anxiety, “in our Western culture, which prioritises reason over feeling, emotional intelligence is a radical concept.” It is time to reclaim that awareness and take action rooted in radical acceptance of our hurt, anger, fear and fierce love for the planet. And we must reclaim it collectively. Because politics won’t save us – only our communities can.

Jessica Kleczka is a climate activist, social scientist and writer. With a background in Psychology and Environmental Science, she currently works in climate policy and as a freelance journalist, with a focus on amplifying grassroots movements around the world. She is passionate about mental health awareness and advocates for a just transition away from fossil fuels. Learn more about Jessica’s work on her website.

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A note from Ecologi

In facing the climate crisis, we need all of us to be resilient. Resilience doesn’t mean never feeling sad or angry about climate change – it means taking steps to securing long term wellbeing and agency in the face of the challenges we face.

If you are feeling burned out, overwhelmed, or in despair, we’ve collected some resources from organisations doing amazing work on eco-anxiety, which we hope might help.

• The All We Can Save Project is an amazing resource for community building and sharing deeper dialogue about the climate crisis. There’s a book, All We Can Save, to read – or you could start an All We Can Save Circle which you could start with your friends or in your workplace. The Project also lists resources for working with climate emotions.
• Force of Nature runs a thought-provoking podcast centred around eco-anxiety and how to turn eco-anxiety into agency, as well as a media platform called The Bloom for young voices to express their feelings, thoughts and actions in the face of the climate crisis.
• The Resilience Project trains young people to run peer-to-peer support circles based on the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience to build a resilient generation of youth.

The Climate Psychology Alliance holds regular online ‘Climate Cafes’ which you can attend to discuss fears & uncertainties about our climate & ecological crisis, all while in a safe and empathetic space with others who feel the same.