How can we tell if our children are suffering from solastalgia or eco-anxiety?

Solastalgia manifests itself through a mixture of many feelings, among which there is a kind of chronic melancholy towards landscapes that will never be seen in the same way again due to the devastating effects of climate change.

Eco-anxiety is this distress suffered due to climate change , which is aggravated by the effects of pollution and natural disasters, without anyone being able to prevent it.

The lack of contact with nature

Children, like adults, feel the need to be in contact with nature, to leave the city and go to the mountains or the sea. But, unlike adults, children may not know how to express this need, and sometimes, if children haven't had much contact with nature, they don't even realize they need it.

We can observe some symptoms that denote this lack of contact with nature, such as:

• Lack of concentration
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Irritability
• Hyperactivity

What do we need to keep in mind?

To recognize if our children may be suffering from eco-anxiety or solastalgia, we must be attentive to various signs, including physical, emotional, and behavioral ones. Below are some typical signs that may appear in children or adolescents, almost always accompanied by concern for the future of the planet, a growing interest in news about climate change, and the actions being taken to try to reverse or minimize its consequences.

Physical signs:

• Headache or stomach ache for no apparent reason
• Difficulty falling asleep
• Frequent nightmares about catastrophes
• He appears distracted, apathetic, or restless.

Emotional signals:

• Sadness
• She is more sensitive than usual, especially regarding the weather.
• He shows recurring concern about the future
• He gets angrier than before.
• He feels fear of weather phenomena
• He gets frustrated more often than before, especially when there are environmental phenomena that cannot or will not be addressed.

Signs in their behavior:

• He asks much more often than before about climate change, or environmental or weather disasters.
• She has panic attacks.
• The first instances of substance abuse can appear in adolescents.
• They say they don't know why they are sad or feel bad
• Obsessive thoughts and repetitive behaviors.

Coping with anxiety: what can families do?

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What actions can we take as parents?

Families play a very important role in the education and emotional support of our children to cope with solastalgia, eco-anxiety, or the different emotional problems arising from the climate crisis.

• The first thing is to listen without making value judgments or giving our opinion.
• Speak to them honestly and clearly . But keep in mind that you must give the information gradually, objectively, and with appropriate vocabulary.
• Suggest they take tangible actions to lessen the effects of climate change. This could include: teaching them how to recycle properly, using recyclable products, reducing energy consumption, etc.
• Participate in collective climate awareness actions , guiding them towards action such as beach or mountain cleanups.
• Encourage children's contact with nature.
• Plant trees, flowers, or grow vegetables.

It is important to keep in mind that, although our actions as family members are intended to help reduce anxiety levels and negative thoughts about the climate crisis, if this is not achieved, the best course of action is to consult a specialist psychologist to help us with this task before the emotional situation worsens and could develop into a disorder.

This is an original article from the 13th FAROS Report The environment and its impact on maternal and child health: what are we facing.