Guillem Mudoy: "Experiencing echo-anxiety is normal; it's even a sign of good health."

The first thing he does every morning when he wakes up is check the weather on his phone. Guillermo Mudoy (1951, Las Palmas) is doubly islander. He was born in the Canary Islands, but he is also a citizen of the Balearic Islands, where he has lived and run a professional practice for decades. With over 40 years of experience in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, he has firsthand knowledge of mental health problems and their current trends. In a context of almost irreversible climate change, he will explain this Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Estudi General Lul·lià how people are mentally coping with this situation.

What is eco-anxiety? What symptoms does it have in a person?

— It's an emotional reaction caused by the fantasy of a climate cataclysm. It's not strictly a pathology, but a normal response to a future threat. If the danger persists, the stress mechanism releases cortisol and other substances, which alters our biology and leads to much more serious health problems, such as depression, phobias, and panic attacks, among others. Extreme weather events, like the DANA storm in Valencia, are becoming increasingly frequent, and the political inaction is appalling. All of this makes grieving more difficult because it's compounded by feelings like rage, anger, and helplessness. Furthermore, we receive daily news of natural disasters that affect the most vulnerable people and activists, who are the most affected by eco-anxiety, as they witness the accelerating climate change and the insufficient institutional response. There's another concern that should be distinguished from eco-anxiety: solastalgia. Just as nostalgia is longing for the past, solastalgia is the feeling of seeing how it has been destroyed. It should be noted that climate change not only causes these effects, but also, for example, alters mood with heat. Heat waves increase the risk of suicide and death among patients with mental health problems.

What are the symptoms of eco-anxiety?

— On the one hand, it generates thoughts like quickly checking the news to see what's happened, opening your phone to check the weather forecast before anything else, not wanting to have children because of the uncertainty of the future, among other things. It ranges from a more or less constant worry or unease to feeling genuinely nervous, experiencing insomnia, general malaise, intestinal problems, and so on. Once it manifests with symptoms, eco-anxiety has the same symptoms as normal anxiety; the only difference is that it's caused by worry about the weather and what will happen in the future. Those affected by the DANA storm didn't experience eco-anxiety but rather profound grief, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, people who witnessed it and fear it could happen again at any moment do experience eco-anxiety.

When was this emotional reaction first discussed? Have the number of people affected increased since then? 

— Yes. In the 1990s, people started talking about eco-anxiety, but not by that name. They used the term solastalgia.

Is this problem being diagnosed frequently these days?

— It lacks a diagnosis. In fact, it's not classified as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of the American Psychological Association (APA). Furthermore, it's a normal response that leads you to attack. This is the mechanism of stress, which is a good thing. Faced with a threat, evolution has prepared us with an alert system, but when the threat is constant, this becomes a ticking time bomb and generates pathologies that are indeed classified, such as depression. Considering the current situation, experiencing eco-anxiety is normal and even a sign of good health. For example, is it normal to be indifferent to the genocide in Gaza? No. The normal thing is to feel empathy and concern. Another example is the DANA storm in Valencia. From this event, we know which areas are prone to flooding, and the entire Levante region of Palma is one of them. And we don't know when this might happen again. Perhaps it will be a thousand years before it happens again, or perhaps it will happen in a month. Moreover, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) is highly aware of the situation and issues numerous yellow and orange alerts. On the other hand, there have been very large wildfires in Castile and León this summer. Anyone who owns a house among pine trees in a high-risk area is worried because they know they could lose everything at any moment. In the Balearic Islands, we live off the sun and the beach, but with climate change, the beaches are eroding and disappearing, and the sun will become unbearable. What's more, you go to a beach and it's packed. We'll have a problem. But everything can be fixed. If energy-producing countries implemented the necessary measures, perhaps they could reverse the situation. In China, they've already achieved massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to encourage collective action. In Japan, too, the population is capable of sacrificing themselves for the community. In contrast, here, individualism and anarcho-liberalism reign, and everyone should be able to do whatever they please.

What is the profile of a patient who suffers from echo-anxiety?

— People on the left experience greater eco-anxiety than people on the right. This doesn't mean that right-wingers don't experience it, but all the surveys show that they have more. Activists also experience it more than non-activists, women more than men, and young people more than older people. Some people deny climate change as a defense mechanism; they don't want to see it. This is ecophobia. It's a defensive denial because it causes immense distress and can stem from eco-anxiety. Young people no longer want to read newspapers because they seem The Case (a news diary).

What goes wrong with the media when it comes to conveying what is happening in the world?

— The Communication Department at the University of Texas questioned what's wrong with how climate-related news is being reported. There's a way to do it through threats and blame, which can even lead to moral hypochondria, but things should be communicated with love. It's complex. For example, if you turn off the tap, consider how that water is reused and used for irrigation. Something that works really well when you're exposed to this kind of news is to go on hikes and do forest bathing. This isn't the same as long, exhaustive walks; it involves guided therapy sessions and learning about nature. This helps you see that nature isn't a threat, but a mother.

Does the large amount of bad news being spread today cause people to disconnect from current events?

— In the United States, there's an observatory that monitors public opinion on the state of affairs and questions why eco-anxiety is discussed one moment and then suddenly abandoned in favor of something else. This explains why one problem masks another. Furthermore, there are two ways of approaching problems: the analytical perspective, which tends to focus on the immediate cost and overlooks the long-term benefits; and the reactive, emotional approach, which involves self-sacrifice because the threat is perceived as great, but always with the support of the community, as the Chinese do. However, this creates division and tension between the two groups.