Feeling anxious about climate change? Here are some ways to cope

It's hard to hear about the latest news in the climate crisis and not feel some anxiety.

Allegra Netten, a doctoral student at the University of Prince Edward Island, has found it's not only she and her friends who are feeling that way.

The third-year student in clinical psychology is doing research to develop a scale to measure anxiety about climate change. In January, she put out a survey and initially received more than 600 responses from across Canada.

"We certainly did see high levels of people having knowledge about climate change, worry about climate change," she said.

The scale is a 35-item questionnaire, and participants can rate each item on a scale from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree).

How to cope with climate anxiety

While doing research to develop the scale, Netten has also looked at ways to deal with stress around the climate crisis.

"One of the big things that people can do to help manage anxiety is to think about what kinds of actions they can take to mitigate climate change or adapt to climate change," she said.

These actions can include eating less meat or animal products, flying less, or engaging in some kind of activism or advocacy, Netten said.

"Those kinds of activities — if not totally eliminating the anxiety — can help someone to feel less hopeless or less powerless, and feel as though they're able to take more action to make change in the area that's concerning them," she said.

Connecting to the natural world can also be useful in easing climate anxiety, Netten said.

"Doing things that help you feel more connected to nature — whether it's going hiking or growing your own foods, getting more involved in the environment — seems to be something that is helpful for people."

Netten noted, though, that feeling stressed when thinking about the climate crisis is a reasonable response.

"It's really important for us to note that some level of anxiety in response to knowing about climate change is completely normal and, in fact, expected, and might motivate people to engage in more pro-environmental action," she said.

"But there can be times when the anxiety becomes concerning where it's really distressing, or it's getting in the way of important areas of life or functioning."

For those experiencing that kind of severe climate anxiety, therapeutic approaches could be helpful, Netten said.

"It might be useful to go work with a therapist, whether it's a psychologist or social worker or counsellor, and maybe work through some of the different thoughts and emotions that are coming up for you when you're thinking about climate change and its potential effects on your life."

The next step

Netten said she will continue the study through the spring and summer. Once that's finished, she's hoping to make the scale available to the public.

She plans to conduct more research around climate change and mental health and further develop the scale, which can help other clinical psychologists, mental health professionals and the public to identify the presence of eco-anxiety.

"A really big extension of this research for me is how can we use this assessment tool to then help people get better or help them manage their anxiety related to climate change in more effective ways," Netten said.

"So that's a next step, research-wise ... and practice-wise, is to kind of figure out what kinds of therapy techniques might be helpful for someone experiencing climate change anxiety."