Lesson Fifteen: Climate Anxiety
What to do with all the feels
Let’s start with a touch of Climate Psych 101.
When people feel threatened and isolated, they can adopt a range of strategies to diminish their sense of internal fear - eg. denial, uncertainty, playing down the threat, and anger toward the communicator to name a few. Psychologists call these responses maladaptations, in that they are responses that do nothing to reduce the actual level of risk.
People have also developed a few ways to reason with choices they have to make:
But what does that all mean?! Aka there are a lot of reasons we have people ostrich-ing and avoiding facing what is happening.
As we’ve learned from researching mental health, if anxieties or stresses aren’t addressed, they can manifest into other larger issues.
What we have control over and what we can can do to address this is:
Unpack it
Sometimes the worst part is just not knowing what is going on. If you’re someone who is reassured by knowledge, you should seek more info. I’m currently reading An Uninhabitable Earth and It gives a good overview of what we’re facing.
Talk about it
Find a Friend: Feeling like this is human nature. If you talk to other people, chances are they’ll know what you’re feeling - and then you can both be open and unlock where the paralysis is stemming from.
Social Media: If in-person chats aren’t your jam, you can also use your social outlets as a tool to amplify facts and steps for action.
Give to it
Organizations exist for everything. Find one that you align with and if it’s accessible to you, donate.
Some examples are: 🌳Planting trees, ✈️ Offsetting your carbon emissions, 🏥 Providing resources to help with climate disaster relief (eg. Australia), 🐨 Protecting wildlife and preventing extinction, and 📈 Investing in green energy stocks.
Help it
Be an ally for our planet and make the choices that will help restore it.
What makes you an ally is when you get educated and take action. Strike, vote, volunteer, buy local, eat less meat, walk more, recycle…you get it. Also, never underestimate the power of your own voice. You might just inspire someone else to use theirs.
In a world that seems to be out of control, focus on the things that you can control and see if that improves things for you.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s lesson! I’m curious, what do you do to help ease your climate stresses? Leave a comment below!
