What Is Eco-Anxiety? A Psychological Perspective
Eco-anxiety is characterized as a relentless fear of environmental doom, often linked to witnessing the effects of climate change, hearing scientific reports and predictions, or living through climate-related disasters (Usher et al., 2019).
It blends elements of environmental psychology, climate change psychology, existential anxiety, and anticipatory grief (Ágoston et al., 2022).
It has not formally been classified as a mental disorder in the DSM-5, but mental health professionals are increasingly recognizing it as a serious form of mental distress (Cosh et al., 2024).
From a psychology perspective, you may find that your clients experience eco-anxiety when there’s a disparity between the scale of the environmental threat and their ability to influence it (Pihkala, 2020).
This feeling of powerlessness can intensify their distress, leading to eco-guilt, which is characterized by feeling personally responsible for environmental harm, and anticipatory grief, which is mourning for losses yet to come (Ágoston et al., 2022).
How is it different from general anxiety?
Although eco-anxiety shares symptoms with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), such as restlessness, worry, and difficulty concentrating, the trigger and context of your clients with eco-anxiety will be unique (Hogg et al., 2021).
More specifically, you can differentiate eco-anxiety through:
- Source of distress
Where GAD can result from multiple life domains, eco-anxiety stems from environmental concerns, often backed by scientific evidence (Pihkala, 2020).
- Time frame
Eco-anxiety usually involves both present and future-oriented fears regarding climate distress and what the planet will look like for future generations (Orrù et al., 2024).
- Moral and existential elements
Unlike GAD, eco-anxiety is often tied to a sense of moral and ethical responsibility regarding environmental distress and human impact (Banwell & Eggert, 2023).
In short, eco-anxiety is distinct from GAD in several ways, and it is not an irrational fear but rather a response to a very real and pressing global challenge.
What is the difference between eco-anxiety and climate grief?
While they may be related, eco-anxiety and climate grief differ in their emotional foundation (Pihkala, 2022). Eco-anxiety is characterized by fear, uncertainty, and worry about environmental degradation (Hogg et al., 2021).
Climate grief, on the other hand, is the sadness or mourning in response to the ecological loss of species, landscapes, or cultural heritage tied to the environment (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018).
You may find that in your clients they overlap, especially if anticipatory grief emerges in the form of grieving environmental losses that have not yet happened but seem inevitable.
Who experiences it most?
Eco-anxiety can affect anyone, but research indicates that certain groups are more vulnerable (Boluda-Verdú et al., 2022).
- Women have been found to experience higher levels of eco-anxiety than men, based on binary survey data (Niedzwiedz & Katikireddi, 2023).
- Many studies have found higher rates of eco-anxiety among adolescents and young adults (Hickman, 2020).
- Indigenous people and communities such as farmers, whose cultural identities are deeply connected to the land, water, and ecosystems, may experience more eco-anxiety (Coffey et al., 2021).
- Scientists and climate activists who are more readily exposed to climate data or engaged in eco-activism can experience anxiety and distress leading to potential burnout (Jarrett et al., 2024).
4 Reasons Eco-Anxiety Is on the Rise
Eco-anxiety is not just about personal worry; it reflects broader political, social, and ecological realities related to climate change, which helps explain its rapid rise (Kankawale & Niedzwiedz, 2023).
Here are some of the reasons you may be seeing more cases of eco-anxiety in your practice:
- Increased media and social media coverage
Constant exposure to headlines about forest fires, floods, and pollution makes climate threats feel unavoidably pervasive (Shao & Yu, 2023).
- Scientific reports
Worrying research findings emphasize the severe risks, and this can fuel anticipatory fear (Pihkala, 2020).
- Personal experience
Communities that live through fires, droughts, increasing storm frequencies and intensities, or rising sea levels are more likely to feel the immediate psychological impact of climate change (Makeda, 2024).
- Government inaction
When governments delay or downplay climate action, it can cause many people to experience frustration, helplessness, and hopelessness (Kankawale & Niedzwiedz, 2023).
Acknowledging these drivers with your clients may be the first step toward building their resilience and transforming their fear into constructive action (Baudon & Jachens, 2021).
5 risk factors
Eco-anxiety is not going to affect everyone equally. In your practice, you may find that your clients experience different intensities and characteristics of eco-anxiety (Jalin et al., 2024).
This will be influenced by personal, social, emotional, and physical factors that can make some people more vulnerable to developing climate-related distress (Jarrett et al., 2024). Understanding these risk factors makes it easier to explain heightened anxiety to clients.
Let’s look at some of these in a little more detail.
- If your clients have a personal connection to or live in climate-sensitive regions, such as farming areas dependent on rainfall or coastal communities facing overfishing and rising seas, they may feel the threat more directly and personally (Boyd et al., 2024).
- Being well informed about climate science, or climate literate, can intensify your clients’ eco-anxiety if their knowledge isn’t balanced with tools for resilience and constructive action (Sims et al., 2020).
- Clients with a history of trauma or mental health challenges may be more prone to experiencing overwhelming climate-related stress (Liu et al., 2025).
- If your clients are constantly immersed in media coverage of disasters or political debates about climate change, their feelings of helplessness and fear may be magnified (Shao & Yu, 2023).
- Clients who are socially isolated and do not have adequate supportive communities to validate and share climate concerns with may feel alienated, compounding their distress (Brophy et al., 2022).
Are more of your clients distressed about the future of the planet — and do you know how best to support them?
Positive psychology encourages people to draw on their strengths, cultivate gratitude, and identify sources of meaning that can guide healthier action focused on wellbeing and thriving (Seligman, 2010).
