Social Sustainability
Pre-Traumatic Stress
Anxiety, grief and intrusive imagery about anticipated future climate catastrophes — a trauma-like response to events that have not yet happened.
Definition
Pre-traumatic stress describes trauma-like symptoms — intrusive images, hypervigilance, despair — experienced in anticipation of future events rather than after them, a concept named by forensic psychiatrist Lise van Susteren in the climate context. It affects people who closely track climate projections, including scientists, activists and young people, who grieve losses they expect rather than those already suffered.
Overview
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