Climate Change Anxiety

People of all ages are experiencing climate anxiety. In some cases, the anxiety can be debilitating. We discuss some of the issues for both adults and young children.

• Jedidiah Siev, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. He specializes in obsessive-compulsive disorder and related challenges in his practice and at the College. He will discuss his research on aspects of climate anxiety in adults and approaches to treatment.
• Jeremy Wortzel and Lena Champlin, along with the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry’s Climate Committee, published a children’s book, “Coco’s Fire”, created to help both young children and the adults who care for them cope with anxiety about climate change. They discuss the thinking and research that went into the book. Jeremy is a psychiatry resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Lena is a postdoctoral associate at Boston University, Department of Earth & Environment.