Updated and reviewed September 2026
So, it’s fire season. Again.
You’re glued to the air-quality app, making sure the filters are running and the windows are closed. And you’re doing the risk-management calculation: Is it okay to take the kids outside, even briefly?
Meanwhile, everyone has been stuck inside long enough that the walls are closing in. The kids are unhappy. You’re getting irritable with them for being unhappy, which is obviously improving the situation tremendously.
You check the air quality again.
How bad is it now? What will it be this afternoon? Is that little patch of yellow on the map coming our way?
Some of this is simply sensible. Wildfire smoke is a real health concern, particularly for children, and checking the AQI and reducing exposure when air quality is poor are exactly the kinds of things the EPA recommends during wildfire smoke events.
But there can also be a point where staying informed turns into something else.
You already know the windows are closed. The filters are running. You know what today’s air quality is.
And still, you check again.
What Is Eco-Anxiety?
Eco-anxiety is a term used to describe worry, fear, grief, anger, or distress related to climate change and what is happening to the environment.
It isn’t a mental health diagnosis. And that distinction matters.
If the air outside is unhealthy because of wildfire smoke, worrying about whether your children should be playing outside isn’t irrational anxiety. There is an actual problem to respond to.
The harder question is what happens when the worry follows you after you’ve done what you reasonably can.
Maybe you’ve checked the air quality, changed your plans, closed the windows, and turned on the filters. There may not be anything else you need to do right now — but your mind is still working on the problem.
A 2024 systematic review of 35 studies involving more than 45,000 adults found that greater eco-anxiety was associated with greater psychological distress and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.
That doesn’t mean climate concern itself is a disorder. Much of the research is correlational, and researchers are still working out how best to define and measure eco-anxiety.
For me, the more useful question is:
How much space is this worry taking up in my life?
Why Do Some Women Experience Eco-Anxiety More Intensely?
We don’t all experience climate change from the same place.
A woman who has evacuated because of a wildfire may respond very differently to a smoky sky than someone who has never had to leave home because of one. A mother deciding whether it is safe for her child to play outside has a different set of concerns than someone making that decision only for herself.
Where you live matters. Your previous experiences matter. Your financial resources matter. And how much responsibility you feel for protecting other people can matter too.
Eco-anxiety may be particularly difficult for women who have experienced wildfires, floods, extreme heat, or other climate-related events; women whose work keeps them closely connected to environmental issues; and women living in communities that experience greater environmental risk with fewer resources to respond.
One thing I’ve noticed in my work is that eco-anxiety often comes not just from fear, but from care.
You care about your children. You care about the environment. You care about other people and what kind of world we are leaving behind.
I don’t want to turn that caring into a symptom.
The problem is when caring starts requiring you to be on alert all the time.
What Does Eco-Anxiety Feel Like?
Eco-anxiety doesn’t look the same in every woman.
You might notice that you’re more on edge during fire season. You check the air quality before you get out of bed. You’re more irritable when the kids complain about being stuck inside, even though you know they’re tired of it too. Everyone is getting restless, and you’re the one trying to decide when it’s safe to open the door and let them out.
A news story about another wildfire stays with you for the rest of the day. Or your mind goes much further ahead:
What will summers be like when my children are adults? What kind of world are they going to inherit?
Some women notice:
- Trouble sleeping or difficulty concentrating
- Sadness, anger, grief, or helplessness
- Guilt about choices such as flying, driving, plastic use, or food
- Difficulty stepping away from climate news
- Repeatedly checking fire maps, weather forecasts, or air-quality reports
- Increased anxiety during wildfire season or extreme-weather events
- Conflict with family or friends who don’t seem as concerned
None of these things by themselves mean you have an anxiety disorder. Context matters.
There is good evidence that climate worry is common among younger people. In a large 2021 Lancet Planetary Health study of 10,000 people ages 16–25 across ten countries, 59% said they were very or extremely worried about climate change, and more than 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.
But those numbers need some perspective.
A 2026 systematic review by Furman and colleagues examined 40 cross-sectional studies of young people. Climate anxiety was widely reported, but average symptom severity on validated measures was relatively low. The researchers also found substantial differences in how climate anxiety was defined and measured, and most included studies were rated at moderate risk of bias.
In other words, caring deeply about climate change is not the same thing as having clinically significant anxiety.
What I’m more interested in is what happens after the worry shows up.
Can you get the information you need, make whatever decision needs to be made, and return to your day?
Or does your mind keep pulling you back to the problem when there is nothing more you can reasonably do right now?
And Sometimes It Is More
Eco-anxiety and generalized anxiety can overlap.
You may start by worrying about something very specific: the smoke outside, whether the kids should go to camp, or what another summer of wildfires might bring.
But sometimes you begin to notice that anxiety isn’t staying there.
You’re worrying about your children, work, money, your health, something you said yesterday, and what might happen next month.
You settle one worry, and your mind helpfully produces the next one.
Research does find a relationship between eco-anxiety and symptoms of anxiety, although we don’t have a reliable number for how many women experiencing eco-anxiety actually meet criteria for generalized anxiety disorder.
With generalized anxiety, worry tends to show up across different areas of life and can be difficult to control. It may also affect sleep, concentration, irritability, energy, and your ability to relax. The National Institute of Mental Health describes this broader, persistent pattern as an important feature of generalized anxiety disorder.
What matters is not just what you worry about, but what the worry does once it gets going.
Does it stay connected to the situation in front of you, or does worry show up across many parts of your life? Is it difficult to let go of, even when you’ve done what you reasonably can?
If worry is showing up across many areas of your life and is difficult to control, there may be more going on than eco-anxiety alone.
You can read more about Anxiety Therapy for Women and the different ways anxiety can show up in daily life.
Parenting in an Uncertain Climate
For mothers, climate anxiety can take on another layer. You aren’t only thinking about what is happening now. You’re thinking about what it might mean for your children.
Some of the questions are immediate:
Is the air okay for soccer practice? How long can they be outside? Do we cancel camp?
And then there are the bigger questions that don’t have such easy answers:
What will summers be like when they are adults? What kind of world are they going to inherit?
Your children may have questions too.
Why is the sky orange? Why can’t we go to the park? Are the animals okay? Is our house going to burn down?
It can be hard to know how much to say. You don’t want to scare them, but telling them there is nothing to worry about doesn’t feel right either.
Children don’t need us to have perfect answers. We can give them information that fits their age and answer the question they are actually asking.
Sometimes, “The smoke isn’t good for our lungs, so today we’re staying inside” is enough.
Your child may not consider this an acceptable answer.
This does not mean you need a better one.
An older child may want to know more about wildfires or climate change and what people are doing about it.
And children need experiences of the natural world that aren’t only about danger. Planting something together, watching for birds, going to the beach, hiking when the air is clear, or learning about an animal they love gives them another way to know the world around them.
You don’t have to convince your children that everything is going to be fine.
You can be concerned yourself and still help them feel safe right now.
For women whose anxiety is particularly connected to pregnancy, postpartum life, or motherhood, you can also read about Maternal Mental Health Therapy.
Acknowledging Access and Privilege
It is much easier to talk about environmentally responsible choices when you have choices.
Buying organic food costs more. An electric car is expensive. Not everyone can work from home when the air quality is bad. Not every family can afford an air purifier for every room, leave town during a smoke event, or take time off when school or childcare closes.
And some communities face greater environmental risks with fewer resources available to respond. The American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica report on climate change and mental health discusses these inequities as part of understanding the mental-health effects of climate change.
I think we need to be careful about turning concern for the environment into another arena in which women feel they are failing.
Maybe you fly to see family.
You forgot the reusable bags again and realize it as you’re standing at the checkout.
You bought the strawberries in the plastic container because those were the strawberries available.
None of this means you’ve personally ruined the planet.
You cannot personally carry responsibility for solving climate change.
There is a difference between making choices that reflect your values and believing you have to make every possible choice correctly.
You can care deeply about the environment without making yourself responsible for all of it.
If that last sentence feels surprisingly difficult, you may recognize some of the same patterns I write about in When You’re Tired of Carrying Everything: How to Stop Overfunctioning.
When It’s More Than Eco-Anxiety
Sometimes what looks like eco-anxiety is connected to something more.
If you have lived through a wildfire, had to evacuate your home, watched fire come close to your community, or genuinely feared for your safety or your family’s safety, you may be dealing with the effects of a traumatic experience as well as worry about climate change.
The smell of smoke, an orange sky, an evacuation alert, or even the beginning of another fire season can bring back pieces of what happened.
You might feel suddenly on edge, have trouble sleeping, avoid reminders, or find yourself much more frightened than you expected to be.
Worrying about a wildfire and surviving one are not the same experience.
A 2026 meta-analysis by Forresi and colleagues included 33 studies of wildfire-exposed adults and youth and found clinically significant levels of PTSD, depression, and anxiety following wildfire exposure, with symptoms persisting for some people over time.
That does not mean everyone who lives through a wildfire will develop PTSD. Many people won’t.
But it does mean we should be careful not to put every emotional response to climate events under the label of eco-anxiety.
Sometimes the question isn’t How do I worry less about climate change?
It’s What happened to me, and am I still responding to it?
You can learn more about how trauma can continue to affect women long after an event has passed on my Trauma Therapy for Women page.
Ways to Cope with Eco-Anxiety
Coping with eco-anxiety doesn’t require you to stop caring about climate change.
Trying to convince yourself that something doesn’t matter when it genuinely does probably isn’t going to get you very far.
What can help is figuring out where you actually have some influence — and where you don’t.
Focus on Actions That Matter to You
There may be things you want to do because they reflect your values: drive less when you can, waste less food, vote, support environmental organizations, plant something, or get involved locally.
Choose what matters to you and what realistically fits your life.
You do not have to personally solve every environmental problem for your choices to matter.
Connect With Other Women
Worry can become very lonely when most of it is happening inside your own head.
For some women, doing something alongside others feels different from sitting alone with the worry.
That might mean joining a neighborhood project, volunteering, gardening with someone, getting involved in advocacy, or simply talking with a friend who understands why this matters to you.
Notice When Staying Informed Turns Into Checking
During fire season, checking the AQI is useful. You need that information to make decisions. The AirNow Fire and Smoke Map provides current information about wildfire smoke and particle pollution.
But there is a point where staying informed becomes checking again and again without learning anything new.
You checked at 8:00. The kids are staying inside. The filters are running.
At 8:15, you check again.
You know, just in case the entire air mass over Washington has moved in the last fifteen minutes.
Sometimes conditions really are changing quickly and you need updated information. Other times, another check is mostly an attempt to feel certain or reassured.
A useful question is:
Will checking right now change what I do?
If the answer is no, see what happens if you wait.
Spend Time in the World You’re Worried About
If climate change has started to make the natural world feel like one long warning sign, it can help to have experiences of nature that aren’t about monitoring danger.
When conditions are safe, that might mean gardening, walking by the water, hiking, sitting outside with your coffee, or simply noticing what is blooming on your block.
Research on structured nature-based activities has found benefits for anxiety and mood, although the quality of the studies varies.
But you don’t have to turn your walk into another intervention you’re supposed to be doing correctly.
Sometimes you can just go outside.
Talk About It
Sometimes you need somewhere to say what you’re actually afraid of.
That might be with a friend, partner, community, or therapist.
If climate worry has become tangled up with broader anxiety, panic, grief, guilt, or a traumatic experience, therapy can help you sort out what you are carrying and what might actually help.
The goal isn’t to make you care less.
It’s to help you care without having the worry consume your life.
A Final Thought
Eco-anxiety can come from paying attention to something you genuinely care about.
I don’t think the answer is to convince yourself that everything is fine.
Sometimes it isn’t.
Fire season is real. Climate change is real. There are decisions we have to make for ourselves and our families.
But you also don’t have to carry the future of the planet on your shoulders every day.
You can check the air quality, close the windows, turn on the filters, make the best decision you can about the kids — and then put the phone down.
There is room between not caring and feeling responsible for everything.
Until we meet again — breathe gently, walk slowly, and treat yourself with kindness.
— Iris
Research & Further Reading
Cosh, S. M., et al. (2024). The relationship between climate change and mental health: A systematic review of the association between eco-anxiety, psychological distress, and symptoms of major affective disorders. BMC Psychiatry, 24, 833.
Furman, L., Vinko, M., Perčič, S., Kobal, E., & Ačko, L. (2026). Climate anxiety in children and young people: A systematic review of prevalence and measurement methods. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 30, 100705.
Hickman, C., et al. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–e873.
Forresi, B., Oppo, A., Misitano, A., Barbieri, A., Koenen, K. C., & Korte, K. J. (2026). Wildfires and mental health in adults and youth: Meta-analysis of prevalence estimates by assessment timing, diagnostic criteria, and assessment methods. Journal of Traumatic Stress. Published online June 12, 2026.
Coventry, P. A., et al. (2021). Nature-based outdoor activities for mental and physical health: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SSM – Population Health, 16, 100934.
National Institute of Mental Health. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: What You Need to Know.
American Psychological Association & ecoAmerica (2021). Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Inequities, and Responses.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Using the Air Quality Index (AQI) to Plan Daily Activities.
AirNow. Fire and Smoke Map.