Climate Change, Anxious 10yr-olds and Psychiatrists

 

10yr-olds are presenting to psychiatrists

anxious over the fate of the world

and their future

 

When the brain is not fully developed

there is a tendency to catastrophise

 

Psychiatrists call it 'emotional reasoning'

where feelings are confused with fact

 

They are led to believe the world

is coming to an end

and see that as a fact

 

Parents are warned that fear

over climate change is a normal response

but if it leads to inability to sleep

it is an anxiety

 

PostScript

 

Every time leading Australian psychologist

Michael Carr-Gregg talks to a child with

anxiety disorder they tell him about climate change

 

Don Matthews October 2019