Heatwave anxiety can make you feel 'incredibly helpless' - here's how to manage it

At the peak of the June heatwave, the warmest June on record in England, all Tavia Watts could think about was how hot it was in her two- and five-year-old's bedroom - above 30C in some cases.

"During the heatwave, I've got a high level of anxiety all the time and I'm pretty much useless," she told the BBC. "I've had to leave bedtime when my husband reads [my kids] stories to have a little cry and to calm down, because it's just too hot in their room and I'm afraid for them."

Feeling "incredibly helpless", the 36-year-old posted a short reel to her hundreds of followers on Instagram, in which she voiced her inner anxieties. To her surprise, it got more than 18,000 likes and 1,700 reposts.

In the video Tavia, a stay-at-home mum living in Cheltenham, says the heat "feels like the world is literally ending", she's "terrified for [her] children's lives", and that she "wants to scream at the people not taking this seriously".

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Young people and women most at risk

Watts is not alone. A 2022 study from the University of Bath estimates that about 4.6% of people in the UK have climate anxiety, which is recognised as a form of mental distress by professional bodies and the NHS. Young people and women are among the groups most at risk, according to a study published in 2025.

"Anticipatory anxiety", related to heatwaves in particular, has become more common, say psychologists Dr Caroline Hickman from the University of Bath and Dr Emma Lawrance from the University of Oxford.

"Once people have been through a traumatic event like a flood or a heatwave, they anticipate the next one," Hickman, who offers therapy to individuals experiencing climate anxiety, told the BBC.

In the UK, "now we're getting the repeat, repeat, repeat [heatwaves]. It triggers that sense that 'I can't be safe in the world, and the world can't be trusted'," she added.

In June's heatwave, Hickman said she "had people saying they're going to kill themselves, I've had people saying they're going to terminate pregnancies, I've had people saying that they want to sell their houses and move somewhere cooler".

Watts said that her video "clearly struck a chord with people" - including therapists posting comments about coping mechanisms - and that she wanted to help others deal with climate anxiety.

"It can go one of two ways. You can either just fall into doomism and think, 'What is the point?'" she said.

"Or you can try to do something. I sign petitions during a heatwave; I organise climate community events; I run a free children's clothes swap shop. During the last heatwave, I finally became vegetarian, because then I can tell my kids at least I tried."

'The future is really scary'

Lizzie Ellen was "terrified" when she first learned about climate change in school, but at the time felt like it was "quite far off".

Now, the scorching temperatures of recent weeks have left the 38-year-old from west London "obsessively" reading about the heatwave and constantly checking her weather app.

Ellen, who gave birth to her first child a few months ago, told the BBC she had felt both isolated and worried about keeping her baby cool.

"With the baby, I've been staying indoors more, keeping on top of checking the temperature… so there's that isolation," she said.

"Then there's the future, which is really scary to be honest - thinking about how the heat we experienced back in June could become a daily reality within a very short time, [my baby's] lifetime… and that's pretty miserable, staying indoors all day in the dark."

Some have made major life changes in response to their climate concerns.

Ecologist Dr Francis Windram told the BBC that he had moved from Ascot, near London, to Lancaster in the north-west of England, specifically because of the cooler climate.

He still bought a portable air conditioning unit in spring as a precaution, and is concerned about his grandparents and his father living further south in Hertfordshire.

"We're looking at 35C-plus heat in houses that were not designed for it, with people who are not as able to regulate their temperature, and can't necessarily afford to just fit an AC," Windram said.