Climate change is a real threat to the environment and ourselves. Among climate change deniers, many are probably merely denying climate change because they are afraid of something else, such as feelings of loss of control in their daily lives. Inconvenient explanations also often lead to denial. Eco-anxiety does not affect everyone equally. It tends […]
Anxiety and the Environment: Eco-Anxiety Read More »
IntroductionClimate change is a source of global concern that has both direct and general impacts on mental health. A recent study conducted following severe bushfires in Australia demonstrated relationships among nature connectedness, climate action, climate worry, and mental health; for example, nature connectedness was associated with climate worry, which in turn was associated with psychological distress.MethodsThe present study sought to replicate those findings while building on them in two important ways: on those findings in two ways: first, test similar relationships in a different geographical context that has been mostly spared from direct impacts by acute climate events; second, we take into consideration an additional factor, climate knowledge, which has been linked to relevant factors such as climate anxiety.ResultsThe results of a survey completed by 327 adults revealed a similar relationship between nature connectedness and climate anxiety, and between that and psychological distress. Further mirroring those previous findings, nature connectedness was associated with both individual and collective climate action, but the relationships between them and psychological distress differed.DiscussionThe proposed model was a better fit to the collected data among those with high levels of climate change knowledge than those with low levels, suggesting that such knowledge influences how the above factors relate to each other.
Climate Anxiety and Nature Connectedness Read More »
Survey shows being around nature has a positive effect on mental health.
Climate anxiety linked to lack of access to green space Read More »
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Ahead of Print. With the growing body of knowledge climate change stands out as one of the most important contemporary problems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms the urgent necessity to reduce greenhouse gases emission, as the window to address the problem is becoming narrow. Rising temperatures and bushfires, melting glaciers and droughts make the acceleration of climate change evident, and citizens around the globe are increasingly worried about the magnitude of the problem. In this article, we propose an existential perspective on climate change-related concerns. Although environmental worries are legitimate, they sometimes cause severe anxiety and distress so aggravated as to be discussed within the framework of psychotherapy. In the course of this research, we examine the experiences of 10 Swedish psychotherapy clients addressing their climate concerns within treatment. We engage them into in-depth conversations about the experience of climate anxiety and inquire about the individual pathways toward recovery. Moreover, we propose the existential perspective as a tool to understand such experiences. We aim to address all existential concerns, as described in Ernesto Spinelli’s themes of existence framework: death anxiety, spatiality, temporality, meaning, relatedness, authenticity, freedom, and responsibility. All of the above are present in participants’ reports of climate anxiety. In conclusion, we emphasize the value of introducing existential perspective to practitioners working with clients experiencing climate distress.
This cohort study investigates the association of long-term exposure to multiple air pollutants and incident depression and anxiety.
