Climate anxiety in midlife and older age: Why it hits different — and what you can do
Climate change is no longer a distant concern. For many of us, it’s becoming a lived reality — seen in more frequent bushfires, heatwaves, and floods like those recently devastating the Mid North Coast of NSW — from Taree to Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Bellingen, to Coffs Harbour — which have damaged thousands of homes, inundated farming and grazing land, and left communities isolated — and this hits many in midlife or older age especially hard.
The Mid North Coast of NSW has one of the oldest populations in NSW, with an average age of 50, and a higher-than-average prevalence of dementia — making climate disasters especially tough on the mental and emotional health of these coastal and farming communities. Alongside the devastating loss of life, the potential for trauma, and the financial impact, a quieter burden is growing — climate anxiety.
Climate anxiety is described as a chronic fear of environmental doom, often accompanied by emotional distress, disrupted daily functioning, and difficulty coping with uncertainty (Clayton et al., 2017). The World Health Organization (2022) and The Lancet Commission on Climate and Health also recognise climate-related mental health burdens as growing global concerns. While media often focuses on younger climate activists, older people are well positioned to take up the fight — with a lifetime of experience and connections to support them.
Why climate anxiety can hit harder in midlife and older age
1. You’ve watched the change over time
People in their 40s, 50s, and beyond have witnessed ecosystems and weather patterns change across decades. This personal history brings climate change into sharper focus. Researchers describe a unique emotional response called solastalgia — a kind of homesickness brought on by the ambiguous loss of one’s environment, while you’re still living in it (Albrecht et al., 2007; Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018). As someone who grew up in Wauchope on the Mid North Coast of NSW, the 2021 and 2025 floods, described as 1-in-100 and 1-in-500-year events — have really hit home (ABC News, 2021; The Nightly, 2025).
This long-term witnessing increases vulnerability to sadness, helplessness, grief, and anger — especially following extreme events like floods or bushfires. A review from the Medical Journal of Australia highlights that extreme weather events increase psychological distress, especially among those in regional communities (Fritze et al., 2008).
2. You’re holding it together for others
In midlife, many people act as relational and logistical bridges within families — connecting generations, supporting children, ageing parents, partners, and communities. In later life, you may also carry the role of a family history keeper and mentor.
The emotional load of these roles can compound climate-related anxiety, particularly when the expectation is to ‘stay strong’. As the Climate Council of Australia notes, climate-exacerbated disasters often impact midlife family carers — often women — disproportionately due to role overload and emotional labour (Climate Council, 2023).
3. The future feels more pressing
While younger people may worry about climate change in the long term, older adults often experience a more existential version of climate anxiety: What world am I leaving behind? What legacy will I have contributed to? What changes might come too late?
These questions can trigger feelings of guilt, regret, and in extreme situations a sense of disconnection from younger generations (Clayton et al., 2017).
The impact on mental and emotional health as we age
After the 2017 Lismore floods in the Northern Rivers of NSW, research led by the University Centre for Rural Health found significantly higher distress and posttraumatic stress among residents displaced for longer than six months (UCRH, 2020).
A separate report from the Black Dog Institute highlighted how repeated disasters — such as droughts, bushfires, and floods — were associated with cumulative psychological trauma in Australian communities (Black Dog Institute, 2021).
What you can do: Psychological coping strategies
1. Name it to normalise it
Feeling climate-anxious doesn’t make you weak. It means you care. Many people in mid and later life feel responsible for both the past and the future — and that emotional weight deserves space to bring meaning to it.
Talking openly about these feelings with friends, family, or a therapist helps reduce stigma and shame. The American Psychological Association recommends normalising emotional responses to climate change as an important step toward collective strength (Clayton et al., 2017).
2. Restore your sense of control
Potentially traumatic events, like the NSW floods, are often unexpected, unpredictable, and uncontrollable — eroding our sense of control and feeling in-charge (Joseph, 2011).
While global issues can feel overwhelming, taking local action helps restore our sense of personal agency. Whether that means supporting neighbours with a ‘milk and bread run,’ joining a regeneration project, or writing to your MP, these actions buffer against feeling stuck and helpless.
As the flood waters recede, many people are pitching in with clean-up efforts, checking on neighbours — especially those living with disability — or helping distribute food (The Guardian, 2025). These small acts reconnect us with a sense of community and purpose.
3. Stay connected, especially when you want to withdraw
Staying connected with others is especially important for psychological growth after adversity (Joseph, 2011; Walmsley & McCormack, 2016). The World Health Organization and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare both emphasise that community connection and early intervention are key to reducing the long-term psychological impacts of climate-exacerbated disasters (WHO, 2022; AIHW, 2021).
You don’t have to carry it all
If climate change or the recent NSW floods have left you feeling overwhelmed, Upside Stories offers online therapy wherever you have internet or mobile data. We offer evidence-based psychological support tailored for midlife and older adults — including support for loss and grief, anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress.
We also offer a personalised 10-week program, Rewrite Your Story, designed to support people navigating trauma, loss, or major turning points — when the time feels right to process events and make meaning.
The fastest way to reach us is to book a free 20-minute consult.
References
ABC News. (2021, March 24). Flood clean-up begins as Port Macquarie residents calculate cost of one-in-100-year event. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-24/port-macquarie-businesses-start-clean-up-after-nsw-floods/100024028
Albrecht, G., Sartore, G. M., Connor, L., Higginbotham, N., Freeman, S., Kelly, B., ... & Pollard, G. (2007). Solastalgia: The distress caused by environmental change. Australasian Psychiatry, 15(sup1), S95–S98. https://doi.org/10.1080/10398560701701288
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2021). Mental health services in Australia. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mental-health-services/mental-health-services-in-australia
Black Dog Institute. (2021). Mental Health Impact of Floods. https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/resources-support/at-the-ready/mental-health-impact-of-floods
Climate Council. (2023). Climate Disasters and Mental Health: Building community resilience. https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/climate-disasters-mental-health
Clayton, S., Manning, C., Krygsman, K., & Speiser, M. (2017). Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, implications, and guidance. American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf
Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N. R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2
Fritze, J. G., Blashki, G. A., Burke, S., & Wiseman, J. (2008). Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 2(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-2-13
The Guardian. (2025). NSW floods: communities begin recovery as water recedes. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news
Joseph, S. (2011). What doesn't kill us: The new psychology of posttraumatic growth. Basic Books.
The Nightly. (2025, May 22). NSW flood emergency: Moto farmer David Knowles revealed as victim of one-in-500-year event. Retrieved from https://thenightly.com.au/australia/nsw-flood-emergency-50000-people-cut-off-over-500-rescued-as-one-in-500-year-event-hits-mid-north-coast-c-18773938
University Centre for Rural Health. (2020). After the Flood: Mental health impacts of displacement in Northern NSW. https://ucrh.edu.au/project/after-the-flood
Walmsley, B. D., & McCormack, L. (2016). Synthesis of meaning: Negative and positive change in family members following the adversity of dementia. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 56(2), 122–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167814557547
World Health Organization. (2022). Mental health and climate change: Policy brief. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240055400