How do we cope with Climate Anxiety?

In my psychology training I remember learning about Dan Siegel’s theory of the window of tolerance in the context of anxiety and PTSD. I hadn’t considered until more recently how this might be applied to climate change and mental health. Siegel suggests that, through self-regulation, humans have strategies for staying within a window of optimal arousal but can be tipped into states of hyper-arousal (fearful, flooded) or hypo-arousal (depressed, dissociated, numbed out). Either state creates great difficulties in living. Because of the magnitude and complexity of the Climate Change phenomenon, people can easily become activated beyond what is optimal. However, tools like mindfulness, grounding, breathing, and cognitive restructuring can help a person’s capacity for self-regulation.

Frequently, I hear people talk about feeling disempowered when it comes to responding to what they hear and see as it relates to the health of the planet. There’s a feeling of smallness, a perception that one cannot make a contribution to a cause they care so deeply about. However, to resign ourselves to a reality in which what we do doesn’t matter would represent a denial of values, a surrender, a giving up. For some, this attitude simply maintains distress, for others it can curdle into apathy. Existential writer Victor Frankl reminds us that to instill meaning in life’s events, no matter how bleak, can transform suffering. To find meaning and direction amidst the backdrop of traumatic experiences can build resilience and help one psychically survive.

Giving human experience meaning changes one’s perception of the experience. In the case of the Climate Crisis, it may help generate ideas about how one might newly engage or re-engage with the issue. As soon as we are able to identify the ways that our carbon rich lifestyles and habits of consumption and waste impact our shared planet, we can begin to reflect on what we might be willing to give up in order to make meaningful change. This process is highly personal, and the ways that one contributes to the effort will no doubt be influenced by their own resources, capacities, skills, and readiness. For some it is activism or organizing, for others financial or other donations, for some it is learning sustainable farming, and for others giving up long haul flights or changing consumer habits.

For all of us though — concerned citizens and heads of state alike — change comes at a cost. But to deny or to ignore the situation, to continue with business as usual, bears out a greater cost in the end. Instead, we must work alone and in community to cope with what is already here and what is to come. All of us must recognize how we and other humans and species are impacted, commit to meaningful engagement and action, and unite together to create change.