In our series Eco HomeLife Explains we aim to explain terms and concepts around sustainability and eco-friendliness in an easy-to-understand way and based in scientific research. This edition deals with climate change and eco-anxiety.
Climate change has a huge impact on us humans, not just physically but also mentally. The uncertainty about the future of our planet can cause a range of emotions that can lead to mental health problems.
The terms associated with these problems are climate change anxiety, climate anxiety, or eco-anxiety.
In this edition of Eco HomeLife Explains we delve into these terms and explain what they mean and what you can do if you are affected by them.
The Facts About Climate Change And Eco-Anxiety
While climate anxiety is a complex topic, here are the facts at a glance:
- Eco-anxiety is defined as a fear of the impacts of global warming and climate change
- It can range from mild to severe, where it impedes a person’s everyday life
- Young people are more likely to experience climate anxiety
- Women are more likely to suffer from climate anxiety than men
- It can be triggered by indirect or direct awareness – reading about it in the news or experience a consequence such as extreme weather
How Climate/Eco-Anxiety Is Defined
Eco-anxiety is defined as a “chronic fear of environmental doom”. However, the term, together with climate anxiety, is used to encompass other emotions connected with the climate crisis such as anger and sadness. (Sheate, 2025)
Therefore, Sheate suggests to use the term eco-distress instead, as it covers all emotions that might occur when people worry about climate change and its impacts.
And while it’s often seen as mental illness, at its core climate anxiety is a rational emotion, that alerts us to dangers. An expert from Yale University says that to worry about climate change is a good thing, because it spurs us on to take action.
However, it can become a real problem, if a person gets overwhelmed by their emotions and they stop them from living their life. At this point, the expert from Yale suggests that it becomes a mental illness.
Young People And Females Are More Likely To Be Affected
While anyone can experience climate anxiety, children and young people, as well as females are more likely to be affected.
A meta study of 69 eligible studies showed consistently that young people are more likely to experience eco-anxiety than older ones. They also found that women are more likely to experience it than men. (Gallè et al., 2025)
That younger people are more likely to be affected isn’t surprising, after all, they will have to deal with the consequences. And the impact the climate crisis has on young people’s mental health across the world is considerate.
A study from 2021 surveyed young people between the ages of 16 and 25 from several countries, including the UK, about this topic. 59% of the respondents reported to be “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change. And 45% said that their feelings impacted on their daily lives, for the UK it was 26% of respondents. (Hickman et al., 2021)
However, Gallè et al. point out that the link between age and climate change-related mental health issues isn’t as strong as some studies suggest. Other factors, such as education levels, might play a bigger part than age.
But why are women and girls more likely to be affected? Gallè et al. suggest that this is down to the fact that females are more likely to suffer from anxiety and related disorder in general.
Indirect And Direct Triggers For Climate Change Anxiety
Like with any other types of anxiety, climate change and eco-anxiety has a cause, and it lies in the awareness of global warming and climate change, or an impeding climate crisis.
The way this awareness occurs can be direct or indirect. People who experience the consequences of climate change directly, such as extreme flooding, heat weaves, wildfires, and similar climate-related disasters will mostly experience eco-anxiety as grief along other emotions. (Sheate, 2025)
Indirect awareness comes from reading news and seeing stories about climate change on social media. In these cases, people are more likely to experience fear and anxiety about the future, as well as anger about the lack of decisive climate action. (Sheate, 2025)
This means that climate anxiety can affect anyone, not just people who directly feel the impacts.
Coping With Eco-Anxiety
We have already said that while climate anxiety is often seen as a mental illness, it’s actually not a diagnosable condition. That’s because anxiety about climate change and an impeding climate crisis is a rational emotion.
It’s a normal and healthy response to a real danger that requires collective action. By understanding it as a mental illness or solely as a symptom of a mental disorder ignores the fact that the feelings are legitimate and are needed as a motivation for individual and collective action. (Cianconi et al., 2023)
So keeping this in mind, here are things you can do if you are experiencing climate emotions of any kind.
1. Acknowledge Your Feelings As Valid
Because it’s normal to worry and be concerned, even afraid, in the face of the climate emergency we are facing, the first step is to acknowledge these emotions as valid.
As the danger is real, climate emotions are a normal reaction. One research paper I have read around this topic says that often if people present with climate distress the response of healthcare professionals is to treat it like other types of anxiety, which leads to treating the feelings as undesirable. (Kałwak and Weihgold, 2022)
The study authors say that this will lead to giving people coping strategies to deal with their feelings, which can only work if the seriousness of the threat – climate change – is diminished. It’ll also not solve the actual problem that triggers these feelings.
So it’s important not to lose sight of the real issue that causes these feelings and understand that being worried about it is the first step to taking action.
2. Take Climate Action
By getting rid of the issue that triggers your climate distress, you can get rid of the distress. Of course, this simplifies the issue to the extreme. There is no way that one person can solve climate change.
It’s a very complex issue, that isn’t easy to solve. And the only way to solve it is by a concerted effort from governments and industries around the world. But this isn’t going to help you dealing with your emotions.
Being aware of this might even make it worse, because it adds a dimension of lack of control and helplessness to it all. So why am I mentioning it here? Because it’s worth keeping it in mind to avoid feeling overwhelmed and pressure to solve climate change by yourself.
When it comes to taking action, there are three options:
- Adopting a sustainable lifestyle by making lifestyle changes – individual action
- Joining a group or community project that take collective action in some way – group action
- Actively work with others to make policy changes happen – activist action
Which of these actions you take will depend on your individual circumstances and the exact makeup of your distress.
You might feel ashamed or guilty, because you live in a country or society that has or still does heavily contribute to the climate crisis. In this case, individual actions could help reduce these feelings.
However, some people might find that individual action isn’t enough. Individual action is an isolated form of doing something and can feel like it’s pointless.
And while compared to a law or policy change, what one person does is on a much smaller scale, I honestly believe that every little change you implement makes a difference. Especially if we count all the individual actions together.
You might feel alone, but you aren’t. There are many people that make changes to live a more sustainable life.
But if lifestyle changes just aren’t enough to make you feel less worried, anxious or concerned, you might want to consider joining a group.
Whether you join regular litter picks, become part of a community garden project, or help with fundraising events for climate groups. Being part of a group that works together makes any action you take more meaningful.
Activist action, where you work with organisations to force policy changes, is probably the most impactful action when it comes to reducing eco-anxiety. That’s because you can see that big changes are achieved, such as new laws.
Whichever of these actions you choose, it’s important to sustain them. Going on one climate protest or one litter pick won’t reduce climate distress in the long-term.
The reason doing something, whatever it is, works, is because it gives you back control. The feeling of helplessness and being out of control can cause, or exacerbate anxiety.
But it’s equally important not to overdo it. You won’t help your mental health if you burn out and replace the eco-anxiety with stress.
3. Join Community Of Likeminded People
We have already said that taking action as part of a group or community can have a bigger impact than individual action. But even just to be part of group of likeminded people can help to reduce eco-distress.
Speaking to people who understand how you feel can improve your mental health and wellbeing. And there are many ways to find likeminded people.
Joining community groups that focus on climate action, attend Climate Cafés, volunteer with a climate organisation, etc.
There are also online groups on various social media platforms, which can provide you with a community of people that understand you. However, given the impact social media can have on your mental health, meeting people in person should be the preferred option.
4. Keep Informed But Avoid Doom Scrolling
One thing that can trigger climate change and eco-anxiety is consumption of news about the topic in the media. This doesn’t mean that you need to stop reading the news or come off social media.
Instead it means to have a healthy approach to reading about climate change in the news, on the internet, or social media. Keep yourself informed, but prevent doom scrolling, the Yale expert suggests.
In practice, this means to read one article from a reliable media outlet to get the information, but don’t read everything you can find about the topic, for example wildfires in Australia.
As this can lead to your eco-distress increasing. Social media can be especially bad for doom scrolling, because their algorithms will show you more of what you engage with to keep you on the platform.
So if you clicked on a post about a certain climate change issue, you’re likely to see more posts like it in your feed. The more you see, the more impact it will have on your mental health.
Personally, I have times when I reduce my consumption of news and social media. I read headlines on my news app, but don’t click to read the articles. This means I still feel like I know what’s going on but without delving too deep into it.
At the same time, I try to keep off social media as much as possible. After a few weeks my anxiety tends to reduce and I feel up to resuming my normal news consumption without worrying about my mental health.
Hopefully, this short article helps you to understand your eco-anxiety and gives you a way to cope with these feelings. The main thing to remember is that your emotions are valid and that action is the most impactful thing that can help.
