Climate anxiety: trigger or threat for mental disorders?

A recently published paper by Hickman and colleagues1Hickman C Marks E Pihkala P et al.Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey.Lancet Planet Health. 2021; 5: e863-e873Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (46) Google Scholar provides evidence supporting an idea that has been growing over the past few years in the scientific community: climate anxiety (anxiety relating to the global climate crisis) affects a substantial proportion of children and young people (aged 16–25 years) worldwide. Climate anxiety occurs mainly in lower-income countries located in areas that are more directly affected by climate change. Despite this concerning reality, climate anxiety is not yet considered a mental health disorder. Moreover, little is known about its potential short-term and long-term effects on mental health.2Wu J Snell G Samji H Climate anxiety in young people: a call to action.Lancet Planet Health. 2020; 4: e435-e436Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (34) Google Scholar Existing literature suggests that climate anxiety tends to occur particularly in younger people because they are more aware and concerned about climate change.3Hornsey MJ Harris EA Bain PG Fielding KS Meta-analyses of the determinants and outcomes of belief in climate change.Nat Clim Chang. 2016; 6: 622-626Crossref Scopus (509) Google Scholar Furthermore, Sheth and colleagues4Sheth C McGlade E Yurgelun-Todd D Chronic stress in adolescents and its neurobiological and psychopathological consequences: an RDoC perspective.Chronic Stress. 2017; 1 (2470547017715645)Crossref Scopus (40) Google Scholar suggest a strong association between chronic exposure to environmental stressors and psychopathology in young people, with stress being linked, for example, to anxiety and depressive disorders. In light of this evidence, and considering that young people are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues because they are at a crucial stage of their psychological development, there is an emergent need to determine whether climate anxiety is potentially a short-term or long-term risk factor for mental disorders. As usual, the chicken or the egg causality dilemma must be carefully considered. For example, climate anxiety might be a risk factor for generalised anxiety disorder, but a generalised anxiety disorder might also place people at risk of increasing climate anxiety over time. There might be a bidirectional association between both variables. Little is known about these potential cause-effect relationships; therefore, this topic seems to be a promising and extremely important direction for future research. For now, although the association between climate anxiety and mental disorders is still unknown, young people's mental health must be protected by providing therapeutic support to those who have climate anxiety. Thus, although governments and policy makers are directly responsible for developing policy-based actions against climate change,1Hickman C Marks E Pihkala P et al.Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey.Lancet Planet Health. 2021; 5: e863-e873Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (46) Google Scholar clinicians should also be aware of the evidence suggesting that engagement in pro-environmental behaviours and initiatives, especially in contexts of high collective and participative efficacy, are likely to be a helpful strategy for coping with climate anxiety.5Bamberg S Rees J Seebauer S Collective climate action: determinants of participation intention in community-based pro-environmental initiatives.J Environ Psychol. 2015; 43: 155-165Crossref Scopus (150) Google Scholar The preparation of this correspondence was supported by National Funds through the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, within Center for Health Technology and Services Research, Research and Development Unit (reference UIDB/4255/2020). We declare no competing interests. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global surveyClimate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress. There is an urgent need for further research into the emotional impact of climate change on children and young people and for governments to validate their distress by taking urgent action on climate change. Full-Text PDF Open AccessClimate anxiety does not need a diagnosis of a mental health disorderIn a recent Correspondence in The Lancet Planetary Health, Sampaio and Sequeria1 state that “climate anxiety is not yet considered a mental health disorder” and might be a risk factor for mental disorders, which is something that we contest. The authors further claim that “climate anxiety occurs mainly in lower-income countries located in areas that are more directly affected by climate change”,1 which we regard as doubly incorrect: first, there are no substantial differences in climate anxiety between countries with different average incomes,2 and second, it is misleading to aver that lower income countries are more directly affected by climate change.