Who are the eco-anxious, what do they feel and how to cope?

Upon reading the latest report of the IPCC or articles reporting its findings, you may have felt helpless and the future seemed bleak and hopeless. Anxiety about the future that awaits humanity if nothing changes. This feeling is known aseco-anxiety. The term first appeared in press articles in France in 2018, and since the heat wave of 2019, the interest of editorial staff for this term is undeniable.

But what exactly is eco-anxiety? Charline Schmerber, psychologist specialist in the subjectexplain that ” eco-anxiety is not a disease, it is a normal adaptive reaction. People who have it are lucid and clairvoyant “. If eco-anxiety is not a mental illness, it still manifests itself through symptoms belonging to the spectrum anxiety disorders and emotions, or eco-emotions, since they are linked to the climate crisisand are beginning to interest scientists.

Insight from an eco-anxious

Who are the eco-anxious? Charline Schmerber, who receives them regularly in her Montpellier office, has led a testimonial survey online between September and October 2019, a year when the summer was particularly hot. The results of this survey are not representative of the general French population but echo the feelings of the participants, around 1,200, on eco-anxiety. They also allow you to get an idea of ​​the profiles most likely to feel this emotion. According to the survey, women, 26-45 year olds, high socio-professional categories and city dwellers are the most affected by the notion of eco-anxiety.

The climate crisis is a phenomenon with multiple consequences: rising temperatures, extreme climatic phenomena, loss of biodiversity, emergence illnesses and so many more. The participants reported a significant feeling of anxiety when faced with notions such as the loss of biodiversity, the depletion of water resources and the global warming to name only the three most important. All this is coupled with particularly dreaded risks eco-anxieties such as war, food and water shortages, violence, and economic and health crises.

How do you deal with this feeling? Charline Schmerber offers several areas of care for these patients: taking care of them, strengthening their relationship with others, or acting on a personal basis or in an environmental association. According to eco-anxious people, the best way to deal with this feeling is to discuss it with the close entourage (family, friends, or colleagues) and, to a lesser extent, with a therapist.

The climate crisis also generates positive emotions

The climate crisis does not only arouse negative feelings. Indeed, the participants in Charline Schmerber’s survey also provided information on emotions such as joy, motivation, hope or determination. Panu Pikhala from the University of Helsinki is one of irons spearheads research on eco-emotions, a discipline still in its infancy that focuses on people’s feelings but also how they influence reactions to climate change.

In an article published on January 14, 2022 in Frontiers in climate, Panu Pikhala offers an inventory of eco-emotions listed in the scientific literature, which are both positive and negative. For example, motivation, the need to act, and determination are related to people’s desire to do something useful. Pleasure, joy and pride appear when people adopt “pro-environment” behavior such as joining an association or starting an ecological transition at home. Others feel optimistic and hopeful in the face of a changing world. Finally, as paradoxical as it may seem, the climate crisis can bring out a feeling of love and compassion for the places and populations most affected.

In the English-speaking world, the psychology of weather Where climate psychology is a field much more developed than in France. Nevertheless, these notions are beginning to infuse in the university environment with, in particular the first theses psychology or sociology with the theme of eco-anxiety.