What do I do about Climate Anxiety?

When I started private practice years ago, I hardly ever heard anyone talk to me about worries they were having about the climate change. That’s changing. It’s not often the main reason people are seeking therapy from me, but it is something there as an ongoing “background” worry. The issue gets pushed to the forefront when there is s evere weather, like the extreme heat we have had here and here in Virginia. We lost power during a severe, quick thunderstorm in Northern Virginia this past Sunday, and were fortunately only “in the dark” for a few hours. But it had been a very hot day of about 104 degrees with the heat index. What if we were without power longer than that? What about people who are vulnerable - elderly, ill, or otherwise at risk? It struck me that a paradigm shift has begun: Air conditioner was once seen as a luxury asset. Now, it is the thing that separates many from illness or death. This may be true of so many things in life that we take for granted in the modern world. But the modern world is hotter than it’s ever been.

Then the power came back, the temperatures cooled down to the mid-to high- 80’s. And when that happens, climate anxiety fades, as the pressing concerns of our daily lives and stressors that present more tangible, “action items” take our attention and energy…and then, the climate anxiety comes back, like the gradual increase in ocean tides. I’m guessing that in places like Florida and Arizona, it’s been more on people’s minds and in their daily lives.

And clients feel it. So do therapists. We are all people, after all. This article, makes the point that the effect this has on us is something to be worked through - not cured, but acknowledged and coped with. I want to bring something more to the table when someone tells me they are concerned about, than, “let’s work on your anxiety”. That’s often the challenge of therapy - how can we address an issue that affects our entire planet, in the therapy room? I can’t pretend it will just get better, or get a person not to think about it, or to say that by coming to therapy, it will be fixed. I also can’t put the onus of this worry just on the client, saying, “let’s just work on why it’s so hard for you”, as though it were a purely internal issue. Like many systemic issues, there are limitations to what psychotherapy can do in terms of fixing the problem.

Where is the crossroads between the systemic/external (climate change, overall human consumption patterns, resource) and the personl/internal (how this is affecting a person emotionally, daily, on a personal level?) In plain English, one things is what is happening; the other is, how we view what is happening, and how it is impacting us. Which really is the crux of all therapy, but again, this is an issue impacting us all. Climate change, like the COVID-19 pandemic, is a global issue that is happening, but that people are reacting to in wildly different ways. There are deniers (none of this is a big deal, if it exists at all, so there is no point in doing anything different), catastrophizers (who see this as so bad, nothing can be done, so there is no point in doing anything, not even bothering to live daily life). Some people I know have ascribed a religious meaning to it - it means the end of days. The fires are demonic. And then, the uncertain folks, the people in between - we look at evidence, we know it is happening, we don’t know what it will mean, but we feel frustrated and helpless thinking too much about something that feels beyond our control.

What happens when you have Climate Anxiety, but you live with a Denier? That dynamic alone is one that can create tension, and it happens quite often. The ability to validate another person we care about and not dismiss their concerns is the process we are looking at. It makes a difference.

So I do believe we need to be able to give voice to these concerns, and have space to do so without being laughed at or scorned. Or silenced. We still need to connect with each other about our concerns. What can we do, individually, that helps something? How can we connect to a larger community of like-minded people, and find ways to do what we can? We all want a vision of the future, however indefinite it looks. I come back to that notion, “The courage to live with uncertainty”. We keep going, not knowing what the future will look like. I have hope that our species and planet are remarkable adaptive and that things find a way. It might be different, it might be very hard to imagine, but it will happen.

So, I welcome the conversation. I may not know the solution, but we can talk, and I will just hear your Climate Anxiety.