杏吧原创

LAST week I had a sobering conversation with an editor from one of the BBC鈥檚 flagship science programmes. He had been reading my column and wanted to pick my brains about emerging environmental issues. After half an hour chewing over the dire state of the climate and biodiversity, he asked me: how do you cope? How do you sleep at night knowing all of this?

I admit that I sometimes lose sleep, usually when I鈥檓 working on a story that brings me face to face with the realities of climate breakdown or biodiversity loss. I worry for my sons鈥� future and I feel a profound sense of loss, guilt, anger and helplessness.

Recently I have come to suspect that I have eco-anxiety. In fact, a psychotherapist has told me I almost certainly do. But I鈥檓 not seeking help and I鈥檓 not worried about it, because I know there is no such condition 鈥� although not for the reason you might think.

The concept of eco-anxiety has been discussed in academic circles for years but burst into the wider world last month when sections of the UK media reported a 鈥渢sunami鈥� of eco-anxiety in children. Apparently, they are increasingly asking doctors, therapists and teachers for help coping with their fears. Some are even being prescribed psychiatric drugs.

The response to this story was predictable. Many commentators saw the opportunity for an anti-green pile-on. Instead of calling for action on climate change, they shot the messengers. Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion, the youth climate strikes and the teachers who encourage them were accused of stoking panic. Take-home message: eco-anxiety is a made-up condition.

I have a shred of sympathy with the view that warnings of imminent catastrophe can be exaggerated. The oft-repeated 鈥渇act鈥� that we have 12 years (now 11) to save the planet 鈥� one of Thunberg鈥檚 go-to claims 鈥� is a subtle misrepresentation of the science. It makes it sound as if the climate will have collapsed by then. What the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said was that to avoid dangerous warming later this century, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2030.

I have less sympathy for the idea that children鈥檚 fears are being cynically stoked. We have more than 12 years but there is no doubt the natural world is in trouble. And although friends tell me that their kids have exaggerated fears of environmental disaster, children also have exaggerated fears about kidnap, fire, dogs and plane crashes. Just because they are overblown is no reason to dismiss them as baseless.

鈥淓co-anxiety is not an illness but a perfectly rational response to the enormity of our problems鈥�

Which brings us back to the supposed tsunami of eco-anxiety. I called the source of the story, Caroline Hickman at the University of Bath, UK, a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance. She confirmed that, in her experience as a researcher and psychotherapist, children and their parents are becoming more anxious about the state of the environment and increasingly asking for help. Health professionals are waking up too: this month, the UK Council for Psychotherapy will dedicate its annual meeting to the topic. Some children have indeed been put on medication.

But she absolutely denied there was an epidemic. Eco-anxiety is real, but it isn鈥檛 an illness. Quite the opposite, she said. The last thing the world needs is for it to be recognised and treated as a mental health problem 鈥� a nuance you may have missed from the media coverage of the findings.

I missed it, so let me spell it out. Eco-anxiety is not an illness but a perfectly rational response to the enormity of our problems. If it becomes pathologised, the forces of denial will have won, because normal feelings will officially be recognised as an abnormal state of mind. Putting kids on medication sounds drastic but only a tiny number have been prescribed drugs, says Hickman.

Hickman and her colleagues don鈥檛 even like the term 鈥渆co-anxiety鈥� because it insinuates mental illness and conceals that people also experience feelings including grief, depression, rage, despair and injustice. They prefer to call it what it is: eco-awareness. So that is what is wrong with me: I鈥檓 normal.

And forget the idea of a 鈥渃ure鈥�. People will need help dealing with their fears, including having them put into perspective, but they also need to know that they are legitimate, shared by a growing number of people, and, above all, rational. And look on the bright side: eco-anxiety could be a great motivator for action. What we are witnessing isn鈥檛 a tsunami of mental illness, but a long-overdue outbreak of sanity.