What is Climate Anxiety And Angst?
As new phenomena emerge, so can new forms of anxiety. We’ve seen this with the COVID 19 crisis and climate anxiety. But can we care for the climate and prevent climate anxiety at the same time? Here are five good tips from a psychologist.
Recently, the COVID-19 crisis has dominated media attention. But for some time now, we’ve been used to being bombarded daily with images of multiple climate changes and alarming headlines resembling apocalyptic predictions.
Seventeen-year-old Amanda was so overwhelmed by all the news about climate change – and how bleak the outlook looked – that she eventually developed climate anxiety and depression, to the extent that she had to take a sick leave from high school and couldn’t join her classmates in grade 12. At her worst, she considered taking her own life because it all seemed pointless.
Amanda is a typical example of a young person with climate anxiety and angst. Are we raising a whole generation of young people who are climate anxious? And how can we look after our planet while taking good care of ourselves and our mental health?
Here we have gathered information on climate anxiety and five good tips that we hope will enlighten you about the phenomenon and what can be done.
Anxiety and Angst In Children And Young People
Climate Anxiety In A Nutshell
Although climate anxiety is a relatively new phenomenon and is not (yet) part of our diagnostic system for mental disorders, it is widely discussed and written about, both in the media and in surveys of psychologists.
Climate change anxiety is an anxiety disorder in which a person worries and fears climate change to the extent that it takes up most of their attention in daily life. Like other anxiety disorders, it presents in varying degrees, but what it has in common is that it spills over into thoughts, attention and behaviour.
A person with climate anxiety spends several hours a day worrying about the climate, spends a lot of time researching, reading and talking about it, and much of their behaviour and priorities revolve around climate change anxiety. In addition, the person with climate anxiety is so distressed that it interferes with the fulfilment and quality of their life.
Who Develops Climate Anxiety?
Like other anxiety disorders, there can be a number of different reasons for developing anxiety. Some people have an innate alarm system that triggers more quickly than others, making them more prone to developing an anxiety disorder. Others have had an unstable upbringing or have been exposed to difficult, stressful life situations – both of which can predispose them to anxiety problems.
At the same time, the widespread media attention on climate change also contributes to an increased tendency towards climate anxiety. The topic has received a lot of attention and focus in various media in recent years. And reports have been gloomy and have raised concerns in most people. If significant negative focus on climate change is combined with either innate or acquired heightened anxiety, the conditions for the development of climate anxiety are present.
If climate anxiety has become part of your daily life, what can you do about it? Here are five good tips.
1: We Adults Need To Take Responsibility
If we think something is hopeless and cannot be solved – it can lead to apathy and discouragement. After all, there’s no point in trying, so why bother? If hopelessness hits us, it can increase our anxiety and paralyse us, making it scary to tackle the challenges of climate change. If we close our eyes to the real challenges and simply ignore the warning signs – well, then the problems just get bigger.
As adults, we have a responsibility to come up with solutions to climate change and a responsibility to make things happen. As a society, we need to make decisions for our planet, and as a society, we need to commit to forward-looking solutions. We need to show action, while inspiring hope in our young people. We must not burden our children and young people with responsibility for the climate – or for other world challenges. Of course, we need to educate our children and young people to take good care of the planet, but they should not carry adult responsibility on their shoulders. We must remember to tell them that.
2: Good News Must Get Out
Try searching the internet for positive climate initiatives. You’ll find quite a lot of useful information. Information that is easily drowned out by the disaster news that often dominates our news feeds. Partly because we humans naturally pay more attention to scary news than reliable news. It’s encoded in our DNA to ensure our survival. But also because the media is an industry that needs to make a living – and news about disasters only gets more ‘clicks’ and viewers.
It is important to share good news about climate initiatives. The media also has a responsibility to focus on the positive, but we as users also have a responsibility to seek out and share good news. All the climate improvements that are being worked on, and those that are actually succeeding, need to be highlighted. This will make the debate more nuanced, raise hope and thus generate more momentum and new initiatives. Otherwise, the danger is that news about catastrophic scenarios will only create apathy or despair and anxiety – and it will not solve anyone’s situation.
What is Anxiety?
3: Worry Can Create More Worry
Worrying in itself is not a problem. It’s fairly common, and most of us do it regularly. It only becomes a problem when the time spent worrying increases in scope and intensity – and becomes difficult to control. Then it can become a problem – even if there is something to worry about.
Worrying is a thinking strategy in which a person repeatedly goes through the same negative thoughts. Different negative scenarios are explored, and often the theme is cyclical. If worry is allowed to take up a lot of time and space and become endless, the person pays a price mentally and emotionally in terms of reduced resilience and probably increased anxiety.
When Amanda sits in her high school math class, there is no point in giving attention to worrying thoughts about the climate. It will only increase Amanda’s anxiety, weighing on her mood while causing her to miss math class. And she has not emitted less carbon dioxide because she is worried.
Worrying is a normal phenomenon. And in small amounts, it is perfectly harmless to us. It is also perfectly normal to give a problem attention in order to find a solution. Worry becomes a challenge to us if it is allowed to take up a lot of our time on a daily basis – hours at a time. That is when people tend to pay a price in terms of mental well-being.
Unfortunately, people can have assumptions that worrying is a good thing. Such an assumption can sound like, “If I just worry enough, I’ll find a solution.” Such an assumption can lead to not allowing oneself to let go of thoughts about the climate. Conversely, feelings of guilt can also convince people that if I don’t worry, I don’t care about the climate. If I don’t worry, I’m contributing to climate degradation. This too can lead to never letting go of worries, and greatly facilitates potential climate anxiety.
4: Let The Worries Go
If you tend to worry a lot about the climate, it can feel a lot easier said than done to let go of your worries. Maybe you feel like your worries are out of control? Here’s some good advice: don’t try to control your thoughts – we can’t control what thoughts come to mind and how often. So you won’t succeed. Instead, try to gain more control over your mindfulness.
Think of your thoughts as trains arriving at the platform. We have thousands of thoughts coming and going every day. When the train of concern with climate anxiety arrives, you don’t actually have to get on it and have a dialogue with all the passengers. Just notice the train and simply let it be, but refocus your attention back to the present situation and what you were doing.
5: Make Room For The Unpredictable
Life is full of suffering from time to time. It is an existential condition for us humans. At the same time, it is a universal human condition that we all have to die at some point, and we usually don’t know when or how. There have always been disasters – international, national and individual. This is not to create a pessimistic atmosphere, but we need to remember that life is like that.
But, fortunately, life is much more than that. Life is also full of wonderful and beautiful things. Life is full of good experiences and good moments. And progress is constantly being made – both in the world and at home.
In terms of looking after yourself and your mental health, it’s good to think about how you deal with the difficult things in life. Should you give it all your attention? Should it become the focus of most of your life? One piece of advice is not to give all your attention to your worries.