Honestly, in my work as a therapist, I’m seeing this A Lot, and tbh I still don’t have a satisfactory approach to it. A heavy dose of Existentialist “create your own Purpose” tempered with “when the plane’s going down, put your own oxygen mask on first”, but… yeah, there is no ethical way to work on individual emotional distress without acknowledging the systemic socioeconomic, geopolitical fuckery going on at the moment, and the sheer grief that comes with it.
This is one of those areas where like on the one hand as a chronic moderate-severe depressive this shit hits me hard and on the other I’m watching people technically more mentally healthy than me struggle with the vast pointless mess of existence for the first time and it’s a trip.
Some tips from the inside, in case they help:
- life has always been pointless. Or rather, we have always been unable to control the relative point-fulness of life. The factors involved in opening the possibilities of who can have a large scale impact where are so insanely complex that they can at best only be pieced together imperfectly in retrospect
- the only thing that has changed is your awareness of this fact. No, seriously. The sun will eventually swallow the planet; at any moment without our knowledge or control the sun could flare in weird ways that will kill us all; etc. There was geopolitical and socioeconomic fuckery as bad or worse going on before: you just didn’t see it. Promise.
- you do what you can with what you have. You do what’s in front of you. Humanity has survived all of this before; it may survive it again. It may not. You can only do what you can: take what lessons exist from the past and apply them.
- sometimes it is just that bad and they are totally out to get you. The question is, what do you do about it?
- almost without exception in human history the answer has been “build community; support the one you have; reach out to connect MORE and to make the world more kind and less hateful than before.”
- recognize you’re trying to tackle god-level problems with a brain originally meant for keeping small proto-fish from being eaten. Treat that part of your brain like a very anxious toddler or rescue pitbull. Give it small measurable victories and successes even if you have to make them up. Make sure it’s fed and watered and has enough rest. Medicate it if you have to - there’s nothing wrong with that. The opposite, in fact.
We are hairless plains apes living in a thin skin of atmosphere between spinning liquid superheated death and the void of absolute cold, sustained by the radiation of a supermassive explosion that will kill us at the slightest excuse. We have always been unlikely and implausible and probably doomed which means every moment we are able to live, thrive and help others do so is an incredible victory. Don’t quit now. ❤️
Holy fuck I needed this
Kindle the Light, Shelter the Light, Protect the Light, Be the Light.
We can none of us save the world alone, we can only save each other: by thus is the world saved. Everyone helps someone.
I’m an environmental science student with chronic depression and anxiety. I swear the regular, non mentally ill people are often handling this worse than I am - and I think that’s because they don’t know as much about how climate change works and what’s being done to help make it less bad.
Generally, the more you know about something the less scary it is. My evrn professors know we’re all terrified about the future, and they all are too - this is a problem our curriculum is being built to address. You know what we do about it?
We focus on the solutions.
We imagine the ways the future could be better than the one we’re currently staring down the barrel of. And we look at the ways people are trying to get there, and how we can contribute to that.
And I know it’s so fucking hard to imagine solutions, to imagine a future that isn’t terrifying, when the present looks like this. Environmental studies experts know that too, there’s a lot of discussion in this field of how we can help people begin to imagine these things, because some people believe (and I agree) that the first step to building a better future is imagining one. And a lot of people are so scared, that imagination is beyond their reach. So if you can’t imagine a good future, read about one. Watch a movie about one. Look at a painting about one. There are tons of writers whose work is all about this exact problem. Braiding Sweetgrass is a book that completely changed my life. There’s a really great podcast called How To Save A Planet that I can’t recommend enough if climate change is giving you major anxiety. Heck, watch Star Trek or any other kind of positive, hopeful depiction of the future you can get your hands on - it may not be as environment-focused or grounded in our present reality as some of the things created by environmental experts, but it is a hell of a lot more accessible. Find something that depicts a good future and watch/read/whatever it until it seeps into your soul.
We also know that climate change isn’t something we’re going to stop. It’s something we’re going to mitigate, soften the blow, but we know climate change is already here. I think that’s called radical acceptance, and I’m pretty sure some types of therapy use it, but my memory for that is a bit rusty. We say, okay, climate change is happening. How do we make it less dangerous? How do we adapt to these changes?
So, if you’re overwhelmed by the problems we’re facing, one option is to learn about how exactly they work, how people are trying to solve or mitigate them, and how you can be even a tiny, miniscule part of that solution. Try to imagine a good future and how we might get there, and if you can’t, find and experience art by people who can. And accept that you can’t fix the big problems yourself. If they get fixed, it’s gonna be because millions of people each decided to be one tiny part of the solution.
I repeat: I have chronic anxiety and depression. I study environmental problems, and in a couple years I’m gonna have a degree in this. I am scared of many things, but climate change really isn’t one of them anymore. I do think part of that is what’s called exposure therapy: I have been around this idea so much my brain is used to it now. That sounds like apathy, but it’s not. I have so much hope for all the incredible, brilliant, passionate people who are trying to make our future safer and better. I hope I can become one of them someday.
Further recommended resources for people with climate anxiety (which is an actual term and recognized Thing That Exists):
A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety (what it sounds like)
The documentary 2040 (made by a guy worried about what his daughter’s future might look like, so he started researching what the world could look like in 2040, if we implemented a bunch of climate change solutions right now using the technology we already have. It’s very hopeful, and a bit mind-blowing.)
Project Drawdown (these people did all the math about exactly what needs to happen to keep global temperature change within certain limits. Seriously, All The Math. The documentary 2040 is based on this project. They also have some lovely introductory videos.)
Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai (who was a total badass, by the way. She founded the Greenbelt Movement to fight deforestation in Nigeria, and then it spread to lots of nearby countries. If you need a story about one person who did something hugely important against absolutely terrifying odds, read this book.)
More things for The Great List of Hopeful Climate Resources:
Fix The News (this is a newsletter that collects good news from around the world, including but not limited to environmental stuff and general human wellbeing)
All We Can Save (book of essays by environmentalists)
How To Save A Planet podcast (this is in the above text-wall but I’m putting it here, too. every episode focuses on a climate change mitigation strategy, and they get CREATIVE. There are so many neat things in here you’ve likely never heard of or even imagined. One of the creators also worked on this NPR podcast that did an episode about finding and destroying ‘climate bomb’ refrigerants in the conservative, rural USA - it remains one of my all-time favorite podcast episodes. It’s bizarre, unexpected, a bit like a spy movie, and HUGELY impactful.)
Braiding Sweetgrass (also up there in the text wall somewhere, putting it here as well for ease of access. This is my favorite out of this whole list. If you’re struggling to imagine what a positive relationship between humans and the planet might look like, or even doubting whether it’s possible, this is the book for you. And as a bonus, each chapter can stand alone if you don’t feel like reading the whole book in order.)
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (this book is OLD - like 1940s old - and Leopold is considered the father of modern ecology. What I find super comforting is that he GETS IT! He felt the same awe and despair and hope that I feel now as an ecologist. This is less beginner-friendly than most things on this list but I couldn’t not include it.)
