The logic follows, she said: People who feel their communities are treated unfairly may reasonably expect to be neglected again as the climate changes; left without adequate cooling in extreme heat, or housing that survives the next storm. The anxiety is, in part, an accurate forecast.

The symptoms themselves are ordinary anxiety aimed at an unusual target. Simmons measured them with a seven-item scale modeled on the standard clinical screen for generalized anxiety disorder—the same nervousness, restlessness and trouble shutting off the worry—but triggered by thoughts of environmental loss rather than work or health. It is not a diagnosis; eco-anxiety appears in no psychiatric manual. Bridget Gerovac, a University of Florida extension agent in St. Lucie County, and Jessica Ogiony, a counselor, recently co-led a workshop on it. Ogiony described it as something closer to a signal than a disorder: “a healthy response,” she said, “even though they’re uncomfortable feelings,” to what’s actually happening in the world.

A precise description of the day to day human experience of collapse.

Link to open access article https://www.researchgate.net/publication/406201964_Eco-anxiety_in_Tampa_Bay_Prevalence_risk_factors_and_recommendations_for_environmental_practitioners