How did you specialize in treating climate anxiety?
Because I observed it for years in children and teenagers in the consultation every day...
What was he observing?
To the usual anxieties at their age, they added the climate, and then there were many who began to mention it when treating them. But I have to tell you that I am not entirely comfortable with this designation.
Because?
Because it is not comparable to other types of anxiety, such as the fear of flying or other fears to which we overreact.
How would you say it?
In reality, it is more about logical horror because of the true and obvious risk that our ecosystem is in danger.
But there have been other global crises: that of the missiles in Cuba or nuclear terror...
This one is different and therefore causes a different fear, because those previous crises had a solution, there were agreements...
I don't know if the atomic war broke out where we could hide.
...Mentally speaking, it does not close all possibilities of escape: perhaps distant islands, nuclear shelters... On the other hand, eco-anxiety exists, because there is no possible escape if life on the planet ends.
Elon Musk believes we will escape in time – at least he does – to a planet B.
But in eco-anxiety we are talking about rational terror that life on Earth will end: there is no escape that a sane mind can imagine.
Doesn't the hope that we can still slow the warming serve to calm it down?
But before hope comes the real danger: we feel it in our bodies every time temperatures soar to unprecedented levels.
It also seemed to us in the eighties that the nuclear holocaust was inevitable.
The truth is that, faced with these kinds of arguments, I find myself with an ethical dilemma: if I reassure everyone by telling them that we still have time to avoid the worst...am I not encouraging inaction?
And if he tells them the truth?
This is exactly how I solve the dilemma; but that truth is also, I'm afraid, not at all reassuring, because the truth is that we are not acting either on a global scale or in my country, the United Kingdom, with the promptness and efficiency that is essential to curb climate change. And that's why children are demonstrating here, like Greta Thunberg.
Is it a teenage syndrome?
It is, and it makes perfect sense that the most affected are children and teenagers, because they are young, but not stupid; and they know that the clock is ticking, approaching the end of our species.
Does climate anxiety syndrome have any precedent in history?
After the First World War, the disillusionment syndrome of hundreds of veterans, with post-traumatic stress, and many invalids, was accurately described, compounded by evidence that their generals had lied to them.
And how are they similar?
In which we are giving young people a greenwash narrative, of washing an ecological image for companies and manufacturers of products and energy, which degrade our ecosystem, and, again, young people are not stupid: they feel deceived.
How do you characterize the symptoms of this syndrome? What do you notice in them?
Not all those affected react in the same way, but they all mention the same climatic cause and their powerlessness in the face of this cause as the first reason for their discomfort.
What do you recommend?
action Let them do something to feel that at least they are acting to save their future. I advise them to recycle; that they influence as much as they can to curb the waste of fossil energy; that they also convince their parents so that they act responsibly... Let them speak out.
What are the patients who suffer from this syndrome, in addition to young people?
I have dealt with them in the Maldives, where they know their country will be denied by rising waters; and in Egypt, where I also practiced. When I became known on the networks around the world, I was asked for help in the USA, Canada, Alaska and Brazil, where there were many cases in teenagers.
Were there serious cases?
I have dealt with suicide attempts, hunger strikes in groups of teenagers...
The truth is that I haven't seen any.
Few reach this extreme, but he has certainly seen some manifestation.
Yes, I remember seeing one.
It's about at least listening to them and giving them reason, because they have one, and trying to act with them. The best thing that ever happened to me was an email I received from a patient thanking me because, finally, someone had listened.
