In 2005, the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term “solastalgia”, which could be defined as “the homesickness someone has, despite being at home, because their own land has become unrecognizable”. The registered increase in cases of anguish and discouragement in the world since the outbreak of the pandemic only multiplied the cases of a pathology that has not stopped spreading in recent years.
To all the concerns that these anxious pictures cause, one has been added in recent years: eco-anxiety. Or what is the same, the exaggerated fear of the destruction of the environment caused by climate change. “In my case, the symptoms began after living four years in Siargao -Philippines- and seeing day after day the enormous amount of waste that was piling up in the streets and floating in the water of all the beaches on the island,” says Olga C. .
According to the report “The Future is Climate”, presented in autumn 2022 in the Congress of Deputies, 82.1% of the young people surveyed stated that they had suffered eco-anxiety at some point in their lives. One in four also stated that it is a “recurring” phenomenon that is sustained over time. According to Caroline Hickman, a climate psychotherapist at the University of Bath (United Kingdom), during the celebration of the “XI Environmental Day” at the UB last June, “we must understand and face this anxiety, which above all affects to the youngest, to combat the feeling of lack of future”.
Like Olga, there are more and more people who feel deeply affected by the consequences of the consumer society and the lack of care for planet Earth as a whole. The term “eco-anxiety”, despite being coined relatively recently, has taken on an unfortunate role in recent times. In 2017, the American Psychological Association (APA) already defined this term as a “chronic fear of environmental disaster”. The word was even one of the candidates for word of the year by the FundéuRAE -a foundation promoted by the EFE Agency and the Royal Spanish Academy- in 2021, and this terrible irruption can end up having very serious consequences at the level of mental health.
“We cannot normalize the eco-anxiety that our society is experiencing”, highlights Viriginia Krieger, a doctor in clinical psychology and psychobiology from the University of Barcelona (UB). She relativizes, yes, the “pathological” definition that has been given to her by institutions such as the APA itself. “These are symptoms that occur at a cognitive, emotional and behavioral level, but it is not a disorder itself.”
Along the same lines is Manuel Martín Carrasco, psychiatrist and president of the Spanish Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health (SEPSM). “It is not a disorder, but a name that encompasses people who have some kind of mental suffering related to climate change or the environmental situation. And they react with extreme concern to phenomena such as heat waves, fires or cyclones”. It is, yes, a condition that can lead to a picture of anxiety, “which is indeed a clinical disorder.”
The WHO, for its part, states that about 4% of the world population suffers from some type of anxiety disorder. Of course: despite being a specific clinical picture, there are an infinite number of factors that can trigger it. The fear of a natural catastrophe, for example, is one of them. And it is a trigger that is becoming more and more common. According to a survey conducted by the APA in 2020, 56% of American citizens stated that climate change is the most difficult challenge they face today. 68% of the adults surveyed said they had at least some anxiety or concern about climate change and its effects.
Martín Carrasco points out that within what is now called eco-anxiety there are two profiles of people: those who have suffered the consequences of a catastrophic phenomenon and those who have not. “To my consultation, for example, two affected by one of the fires last year in Navarra came. They lost their house and everything they had, and their fear of fire was terrible,” Martín told LA VANGUARDIA.
According to some experts, the simple fact of thinking that others may find themselves in terrifying situations because of the environmental disaster can lead to a concern that may get out of control. This is the case of Amy Lykins, an American clinical psychologist who works in Australia and the South Pacific Islands, who declared in a conversation collected by the APA Monitor on Psychology that eco-anxiety can be understood as an “existential fear that many of us face.” we who have not necessarily been directly affected by floods or wildfires to save our lives, but who are aware of what is happening in the world.”
“The fact that it is palpable, that it is a phenomenon that we see in our daily lives, like the melting of glaciers, affects us a lot,” says Krieger, who spends part of the year in the city of Grenoble and has experienced in first person the setback of one of them. To alleviate the effects of eco-anxiety, it is important, says the expert in clinical psychology from the University of Barcelona, ??to know the tools that we have at our disposal. The reason she alludes to is clear: “climate change is going to continue to happen, whether we like it or not, so we must make a decision about it.”
To get out of its fatal consequences, it is important to suffer a little: suffering a certain degree of anxiety makes us act to generate a change in society. “It can generate change and sustainable behaviors in us, especially in children and adolescents. For example: instilling recycling behaviors helps to manage concern for the planet”. “The more we know ourselves and are aware of our responsibility, the more we are with our planet and the duty we have to care for and protect it,” concludes Krieger.
