What is eco-anxiety and what can you do about it?
Updated: Apr 19, 2022
With the way knowledge and information are becoming more and more accessible as a result of technology, people are becoming more and more aware of global warming and its various effects on the earth, on animals, and humans. At first, threats such as excessive flooding and a rise in sea levels were far away consequences, but as time goes by, we are starting to see more and more changes around us as a result of pollution and global warming and these events have started gaining worldwide news coverage. Although that is important for the sake of informing and bringing awareness about these issues, the knowledge of these perils and disaster, has started to spark a form of distress and fear in the minds of people. This is known as Eco-anxiety and it is more common than people think.
What is Eco-anxiety exactly?
Eco-anxiety is anxiety and distress caused by an insistent worry about the earth’s future and its inhabitants. It happens when your body responds to perceived threats with its fight-flight-freeze survival instinct. Generally, anxiety-related issues are born from irrational fears, but climate change is a very real threat, and some people consider that in this case, anxiety is working the way it should. It pushes humankind into taking action and searching for solutions against climate change for the sake of its survival.