Climate anxiety is not a mental health problem. But we should still treat it as one
Anne M. van Valkengoed
Abstract
Climate anxiety refers to pervasive worry and apprehension about climate change.Scholars have stressed that climate anxiety is a normal and healthy response to climate change that can motivate climate action and should therefore not be medicalized.This article considers the inadvertent consequences associated with not treating climate anxiety as a mental health problem.
Topics & Concepts
WorryAnxietyMental healthApprehensionClimate changePsychologyAction (physics)Social psychologyPsychiatryCognitive psychologyEcologyQuantum mechanicsBiologyPhysicsClimate Change and Health ImpactsClimate Change Communication and PerceptionEnvironmental Education and Sustainability