Having therapy for climate anxiety

Well, that sounds like a cheerful subject doesn’t it? Sadly, climate anxiety is becoming more and more common, particularly in young people. I’ve spoken about climate anxiety before, but having been having therapy for the past couple of months, I wanted to talk about my experience of being treated for it. To clarify, I am currently having CBT for generalised anxiety and health anxiety, which I’ve spoken about before.

One of the things I’ve learnt in therapy about worrying is that worrying is the brain trying to solve a problem. By worrying, we are thinking about possible routes to solutions and preparing ourselves for possible outcomes. For example, if we worry about how much money we have, we might think of ways to save money. Or, if we worry about a persistent cough, we might think about going to the doctors or obsess about what it could be. This is as unhelpful as it sounds, because we cannot actually solve the problem just by worrying about it.

Leading on from this, worries can mostly be split into hypothetical or current problems. Hypothetical problems are things that haven’t happened yet, or ‘what if’ problems. For example, ‘what if I get a terrible illness’. Current problems are about something that is happening. For example, ‘I don’t have enough money to pay my rent’. Therefore, if worrying doesn’t solve problems, and a lot of the worries I have are hypothetical, then worrying about them isn’t a great idea. These explanations are extremely helpful for a lot of the anxiety that I experience, like health or social related worries.

But not for climate anxiety. Climate change is neither a current nor a hypothetical problem – it’s happening, but not in a super direct way (i.e. my house hasn’t flooded), but it isn’t hypothetical because it IS happening, and it is terrifying. The usual approach to a hypothetical problem is to acknowledge it and then move on. The usual approach to a current problem is to acknowledge it and try to do something about it if you can. Both of these things are very difficult when it comes to climate change. The worry is so current, and yet so untouchable.

So, solutions to this hypothetical/current problem are difficult. We can’t (or at least I can’t) ignore it completely, so there goes option one. Option two is to find something productive to do about it, such as reducing your energy use, reducing plastic, going to a march etc. However, we know that these things, whilst important, do not have a massive impact on climate change. This is why the conventional approach for therapy doesn’t necessarily fit climate anxiety. One of the reasons for this is that ‘climate anxiety is a rational response‘ to a very real threat – one which feels as if it’s getting closer and closer. This is why the methods that work for reducing my other anxieties about my health or whether people hate me, do not work. So what will work?

1. Having therapy – although I’ve said that a lot of the treatments for anxiety do not work (in my opinion) for eco anxiety, they can reduce general anxiety and help you to cope with any symptoms such as panic attacks, intrusive thoughts etc. Whilst this doesn’t fix the problem, it can reduce some of that doomsday thinking.
2. Spending more time in nature – again, this might work for you, or it might not. Whilst being in nature generally reduces stress, it can also be a reminder of what we will lose as the planet starts to deteriorate. This can be motivating or it can be upsetting, but it’s still a viable option (and a great thing to do regardless).
3. Spending less time online OR editing your follow list – following discourse about climate change is part of my job, so I find it hard to switch off from. However, if you find that reading about climate change, particularly on social media, causes your anxiety to worsen, then it’s worth thinking about what information you actually want to see. For me, this means that I follow a mixture of activism groups, journalists, zero wasters and good news accounts. This helps me to feel like I’m seeing a mixture of news including solutions, the good things that have already happened, failures of governments and people experiencing the same anxiety.
4. Think small and big scale – regardless of what you’re worrying about, worrying about something we cannot change is not very helpful. In the same way, worrying about the whole climate crisis when you’re one person is not very helpful. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, it just means that it can be better, more productive and more satisfying to focus on what we can change. That can be small or large scale. For example, if you’re worried about your personal plastic use, you can reduce that. On a larger scale, if you’re worried about a couple of the issues in your local area, you can join groups, go on marches, write to your MP, etc. The important thing is that worrying shouldn’t make us powerless, it should motivate us whilst allowing us to enjoy what we currently have.

That was a bit of a heavy one, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I promise that future posts will include more cake and general happiness.