Fires, floods, storms… While natural disasters have followed one another this summer, more and more young people say they suffer from a new ailment: eco-anxiety.
- Eco-anxiety is a form of anxiety related to the stress of global warming.
- Anxiety can, when it is strong, become a true psychiatric pathology.
According to an international study published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Healthone in two young people report suffering from eco-anxiety.
To achieve this result, scientists from British, American and Finnish universities surveyed 10,000 young people aged 16 to 25 without telling them what the study was about. They lived in a dozen different countries (including France), more or less poor and more or less subject to natural disasters.
A frightening future
Conclusion: 45% of them declare that their “eco-anxiety” manifests itself in the ability to apprehend their everyday life, and 75% judge the future “frightening”. 55% of young people also believe that they will have fewer opportunities than their parents, and 52% of respondents are afraid for their family.
These ruminations impact mental health, since 50% of young people surveyed feel sad, anxious, angry, helpless or guilty in the face of the climate crisis. “These psychological stressors threaten health and well-being, and can be seen as morally damaging and unfair.” write the researchers, very worried.
Individualization of the climate problem
“Young people individualize the climate problem. They think it is their responsibility. This is particularly due to the narrative around the climate crisis: it would be a matter of personal decisions”, still analyzes in Le Parisien Xavier Briffault, sociologist of mental health at the CNRS.
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