What is climate anxiety and how do you recognise eco-anxiety? Learn ways to cope with worry when faced with news of heatwaves, wildfires and drought.
Do you ever feel a pang in your chest as you watch news of forest fires in the summer, wonder "What kind of world will our children live in?" after a report on drought, or feel a deep helplessness about the future on stifling hot days? In recent years in Turkey too, heatwaves, forest fires, drought and flash floods have become an important part of the news agenda. Climate anxiety, also known as eco-anxiety, describes the intense worry, sadness and helplessness felt in the face of climate change and environmental destruction. In this article we look at what climate anxiety is, who experiences it more often, and ways of turning this feeling from something paralysing into a meaningful direction.
What Is Climate Anxiety?
Climate anxiety is a state of ongoing worry about the threats created by climate change and environmental problems. It is not a mental disorder or the name of a diagnosis. Indeed, many specialists see climate anxiety as an understandable and, to some extent, healthy response to a real problem. Caring about the future of the planet points to your values and your sense of responsibility.
This anxiety is not a single feeling; it is usually a mixture of several:
- Worry: Uncertainty and fear about what will happen in the future
- Grief and sadness: Sorrow felt for vanishing forests, drying lakes and changing seasons
- Anger and frustration: The feeling that the problem is not being taken seriously enough
- Guilt: The thought that your own consumption habits harm the environment
- Helplessness: The feeling of "Whatever I do is pointless, I can't make a difference to a problem this big"
What matters here is how far these feelings affect you. Being sensitive to environmental problems and worrying from time to time is normal. But if the anxiety has begun to clearly affect your sleep, your relationships, or your work or school life, working with these feelings can be helpful.
What Are the Signs of Climate Anxiety?
Climate anxiety appears in different ways in different people. The signs below may indicate that the anxiety is intensifying. We would like to remind you that these signs on their own do not mean a diagnosis.
Thought and emotional signs
- Being unable to stop thinking about climate and environmental news
- Pessimistic scenarios about the future coming to mind often
- Long-lasting sadness or anger after news about natural events
- Finding it hard to make long-term plans because of the thought "There is no future"
- Intense guilt about your own lifestyle
Physical signs
- Restlessness and palpitations that increase with the news or with hot days
- Sleep problems, difficulty falling asleep
- Tension, fatigue, headaches
Behavioural signs
- Constantly following climate news, reports and images of disasters
- Or the opposite: ignoring the subject completely, avoiding the news
- Frequent arguments with relatives who behave in ways that are not eco-friendly
- Putting off big decisions such as having children or buying a home
Say you watched images of a forest fire on the news one summer evening. Even after switching off the screen, your mind stays on the images, you scroll through posts about it on social media for hours, and in the end you feel both exhausted and angry. The next day you find it hard to focus on your work. This cycle shows that the anxiety is wearing you out rather than moving you to act.
Why Does Climate Anxiety Happen and Who Does It Affect More?
Several factors underlie climate anxiety.
A real and big problem: In many anxieties, the threat is exaggerated or has a low probability. Climate change, however, is a real problem that is widely accepted by scientists. This is why reassurances such as "Don't worry, nothing will happen" do not work.
Uncontrollability: The scale of the problem exceeds the power of the individual. Knowing that you cannot solve a global-scale problem on your own increases the sense of helplessness.
Concrete experiences: Dry summers, water cuts, and fires or floods in the area where you live turn an abstract subject into a personal threat. Having lived through a natural disaster directly can markedly increase anxiety.
A heavy media flow: Images of disasters spread quickly on social media. Constantly seeing negative content pulls one's perception of the world in a pessimistic direction.
Values and sensitivity: People who feel a strong sense of responsibility towards nature, animals and future generations may experience more intense feelings.
Climate anxiety can be seen at any age; however, it is talked about more often among young people and young adults. For young people who think they will spend most of their lives with the effects of climate change, this subject can become entangled with a more general anxiety about the future. Farmers, livestock keepers and people whose livelihoods depend directly on nature may also feel the effects of climate change intensely, both economically and emotionally.
Climate anxiety in Turkey: heat, fires and drought
In Turkey, climate anxiety often stops being an abstract subject and enters everyday life. Long hot spells in the summer months make life difficult in big cities; the physical and mental burden increases especially for older people, small children and people who work outdoors. News of forest fires and images of holiday resorts and villages create deep sadness and helplessness in many people. News about water levels in reservoirs and warnings of water cuts can also feed anxiety about the future.
An interesting situation is seen in this process: some people overreact while others ignore the subject altogether. Both responses are in fact different ways of coping with anxiety. One tries to gain a sense of control by following constantly, the other protects themselves by avoiding. When these two different attitudes come together in a family, for example when a parent plays the subject down while a young adult child carries intense worry, a sense of mutual misunderstanding can emerge.
Practical Tips for Coping with Climate Anxiety
When working with climate anxiety, the aim is not to eliminate the anxiety completely or to ignore the problem. The aim is to turn this feeling into meaningful action rather than exhaustion.
1. Recognise and name your feelings
Climate anxiety is often not a single feeling. Ask yourself: is what I am feeling now fear, sadness, anger or guilt? Naming the feeling is the first step in reducing its intensity. By keeping a journal, you can note which news and situations trigger which feelings.
2. Set limits on your news consumption
Being informed is important, but constantly watching news of disasters feeds anxiety and reduces the wish to act. Follow the news once a day, from reliable sources and for a set length of time. Deliberately step away from feeds where images of disasters play automatically. Take care not to read climate news before going to bed.
3. Focus on what you can control
Instead of the big picture, which you cannot control, identify the areas you can:
- Saving water and energy at home
- Reducing food waste and choosing local produce
- Using public transport, a bicycle or walking more often
- Taking care over recycling and reuse
These steps do not solve the global problem on their own, but they reduce the sense of helplessness by letting you feel you are living in line with your values.
4. Move from individual to collective action
One of the strongest antidotes to helplessness is doing something together with others. Taking part in community activities such as tree-planting, volunteering for beach and forest clean-ups, local environmental associations, neighbourhood vegetable gardens or environment clubs at your school strengthens both a sense of meaning and social bonds.
5. Replace guilt with responsibility
Blaming yourself for every plastic bag or every car journey is not sustainable and wears you out. You don't have to be perfect. Instead of the thought "I must do everything right", adopt the approach "I am taking the reasonable steps I can." Guilt looks to the past; responsibility is about practical steps directed at the future.
6. Connect with nature
While worrying about environmental problems, we can forget to make contact with nature itself. Walking in a park, sitting under trees, growing a plant or watching birds both calms the nervous system and reminds you of what you want to protect.
7. Share your feelings
Many people who experience climate anxiety fear that those around them will find them exaggerated. Yet talking with people who share similar feelings reduces the sense of loneliness. Do not hesitate to talk about how you feel with trusted friends, with your family or with people in environmental groups.
Anxiety tells us that something we value is in danger. Listening to it rather than silencing it, and turning it into small steps in line with our values, is the strongest response to helplessness.
8. Nurture hope from a realistic place
Hope is not naive optimism that everything will turn out fine. Seeing that people are working to find solutions, that communities are standing together and that small steps can add up to create change is also part of hope. Try adding to your news feed not only the problems but also solution-focused news and local success stories.
9. Prepare your body for hot periods
Heatwaves affect not only the body but also mood; sleeplessness, irritability and fatigue can increase. On hot days, drink plenty of water, avoid work that needs heavy effort outdoors in the hottest hours of the day, try to keep your home cool and take care to protect your sleep routine. When your body is supported, your mind also copes with anxiety more easily.
How Do You Talk to Children and Young People About the Climate?
Children and young people come across a great deal of information about climate change at school, online and in the news. As a parent, you can:
- Listen first: Ask what they know and how they feel. Do not dismiss their fears.
- Give age-appropriate information: With small children, give simple and reassuring explanations instead of complicated scenarios.
- Act together: Setting up a recycling box at home, growing plants on the balcony or taking part in a tree-planting event gives the child a sense of control.
- Protect hope: Explain that people are working on this problem and that solutions are being developed.
In young people, climate anxiety can combine with uncertainty about education and career and turn into a more general worry. We covered this in detail in our article on anxiety about the future in young people.
When Should You Seek Professional Support?
Climate anxiety is often an understandable response; however, in the following situations support from a mental health professional can be helpful:
- If your anxiety clearly affects your sleep, work, school or relationships
- If you have been experiencing hopelessness, low mood or a deep sense of meaninglessness for weeks
- If you are having panic attacks or intense physical signs of anxiety
- If you cannot stop following the news and cannot get out of checking behaviours
- If you keep putting off important decisions about your life only because of anxiety
If the hopelessness has turned into thoughts of ending your life or harming yourself, please do not carry these thoughts alone; in an emergency, call 112 (emergency services).
If the symptoms of anxiety are making your daily life difficult, getting support in the area of anxiety and panic can help you manage this feeling.
How Is Climate Anxiety Addressed in Therapy?
In therapy, climate anxiety is not treated as a "wrong" or "exaggerated" thought. The problem is real; what is worked on is how the anxiety affects you and what kind of relationship you build with it.
Validating feelings: The first step of therapy is to accept that the worry and grief you feel are understandable. This acceptance plays an important role in reducing the intensity of anxiety.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT): All-or-nothing thoughts such as "The future is completely dark" and "There's no point doing anything" are noticed, and more balanced perspectives are developed. Work is done on checking behaviours such as excessive news-following.
Tolerating uncertainty: Learning to live with the fact that the future is uncertain is one of the basic skills for coping with anxiety.
Values-based approaches: Identifying sustainable actions that fit your values strengthens a sense of meaning in place of helplessness.
Working with grief: Space is made for expressing the sorrow felt for lost natural places and a changing world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is climate anxiety an illness?
No, climate anxiety is not a diagnosis. It is an understandable response to a real problem. However, if the anxiety has begun to clearly affect daily life, getting support to work with these feelings can be helpful.
Are eco-anxiety and climate anxiety the same thing?
The two terms are generally used interchangeably. Eco-anxiety, in a broader sense, describes worry about environmental destruction, while climate anxiety describes anxiety specifically about climate change.
Is not watching climate news at all the solution?
Avoiding it completely may bring relief in the short term, but may not reduce anxiety in the long term. What is healthier is to limit your news consumption, choose reliable sources and turn information into action.
My child is very frightened because of climate change. What should I do?
First listen to their fears and do not dismiss them. Give age-appropriate information, take small eco-friendly steps together and share examples that give hope. If the fear is affecting your child's sleep or school life, you can consult a specialist; it is always possible to get support in coping with these feelings.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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