Does reading all the headlines about park ranger layoffs and the L.A. wildfires make you feel a weird, overwhelming sense of dread? All the crazy weather events of the last few years make it feel like the climate crisis is affecting everyone now, and as more and more policies put in place to protect the environment are stripped away, well, it doesn’t help that all-consuming doom feeling, that’s for sure.
Climate anxiety is a real thing, and it’s becoming more and more common as the current administration makes changes. Here’s how to tell if it’s affecting you more than it should, and what you can reasonably do about it.
What is climate anxiety, exactly?
First things first: Climate anxiety is not a mental health condition you can be diagnosed with, but a “rational response to the deeply irrational circumstances that we find ourselves in collectively,” says Parker Bowling, LCSW, MSSW, a psychotherapist who specializes in climate change’s impact on mental health. “A lot of people are feeling rage and anger — rightfully so — around what’s happening. Climate anxiety can’t be separated from gutting federal workplaces to getting rid of public health to USAID. People are feeling emotional responses to what’s going on. And so it is definitely becoming more common,” he says.
The term climate anxiety is usually used to refer to people who might feel dread about the future of the environment but aren’t feeling the immediate effects of climate change, Bowling says. Countless people were affected by Hurricane Helene toward the end of 2024, and the L.A. fires earlier this year. But Bowling clarifies that’s a whole separate level of distress.
Historically, climate anxiety has been a bit of a controversial term, he says — there are millions of people around the world already going through the climate crisis that many folks in the U.S. believe to be a future problem, he notes. Bowling also points out that many of his clients are so focused on keeping their jobs, putting food on the table for their families, and affording insurance that climate anxiety doesn’t qualify to get a seat at their mental table.
“Statistics show the wide majority of Americans are [worried about climate change], but a lot of those folks don’t have the privilege to even sit down and feel these anxieties,” Bowling says. So, if all the environment-related headlines lately stress you out but you feel like you just can’t deal because you have so much else going on, you’re not alone — and you’re definitely not a bad person.
What are the “symptoms” of climate anxiety?
There aren’t really symptoms for something that isn’t a true disorder, and it’s hard to put forth a universal list anyway — everyone’s dread about the environment will probably manifest in ways specific to them, Bowling says.
“For example, parents might read some statistic or prediction of what the future will look like in 2050 and immediately do the math of how old their children will be or what their children’s lives or their children’s lives will look like. It can be a lot of intrusive images. It could be worrying about the future.”
If your anxiety about the future begins to impair your day-to-day functioning at work or school or with your family, that’s when you should reach out for some support, Bowling says. It can intersect with mental health conditions like generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, and depression, he notes, and they can all exacerbate one another.
How do you calm climate anxiety?
You can’t un-know everything you know about the climate now, unfortunately. As Bowling put it, the cat’s out of the bag. But step one to not feeling overwhelmed is to hone your sense of how much you can stay informed without it becoming all-consuming.
“It’s very common, actually, when people start to experience climate anxiety, that they seek out more and more information about the climate crisis. It can feel like reading more news and becoming more informed is taking action, but it can just lead us to spiral out without ever taking any meaningful action,” says Bowling.
In order to truly feel better, Bowling says even seeking individual therapy isn’t the best solution. “The antidote, if there is one, is to take meaningful action, particularly collective action at some type of systemic level, like getting involved in organizing or politics,” Bowling says. “How do you replace the time you’re spending with the news, take that time, and do something more meaningful with it? There are communities that have already been affected by the climate crisis or previous ecological destructions throughout history. Just staying in our minds and being afraid of these things can make things worse. It’s individualizing a problem that is inherently collective.”
As for what kind of action he recommends, Bowling says finding community organizations and peer-led support groups will be more than enough for most people to feel more positive about the future of the climate, or at least their part in it. Finding community is key.
“It can feel like — especially in the U.S. with so much stuff happening right now — that no one else feels this way, no one else cares about these things. Find that validation amongst other people, whether it’s a therapist, friends, other parents. I think anyone who’s aware of what’s happening is feeling similarly at this point.”
