“Well, we are all gonna die anyway”, this was an ironic sentence I said or at least thought sometimes when I was more involved in climate activism. It might sound very blunt and morbid, however, looking back I think it was a sentence to protect myself and not get fully consumed by the huge amount of things going wrong in this world. As many people, especially at a young age, I was and still am afraid of climate change. Consuming news, hearing about catastrophes, exceeding the 1.5 degree border, seeing people and the ecosystem die and on the other hand hearing politicians not acknowledge the climate crisis as the crisis that it is – all this builds up so many different (and mostly negative) emotions in you, which are all very valid. A few emotions I felt were anger, hopelessness and grief. Anger, at the simple fact of not enough action being taken. Hopelessness, because it is hard to stay optimistic for  the crisis being solved. Grief, because of the people and nature we are losing to climate change. Other emotions very present for a lot of people are the fundamental fear of the climate crisis and climate catastrophes, the stress because of that and shame. Do those feelings feel familiar?

Then, you also feel climate emotions also called climate concern, worry and fear about climate change. Climate fear to a greater extent with ongoing psychological distress because of the climate crisis is defined as climate anxiety or eco-anxiety by psychologists. The research about this topic is still at the beginning. The official definition of climate anxiety by the “The Handbook of Climate Psychology” is a “heightened emotional, mental or somatic distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system”, but suggests that “paying heed to what is happening…is a healthier response than turning away in denial or disavowal”. In this aspect climate anxiety differs from other types of anxiety. The climate crisis is real and globally-threatening, so the fear of it is very reasonable and as described–it is a more healthy reaction than denial. It’s good and actually important that those feelings exist because they make us act – until they overwhelm us which is a thin line. This also leads to the question how to deal with those feelings, because as reasonable as they might be, if they have a negative effect on your everyday life you need to find a way to deal with them. Also, the border between worry and anxiety is fluent. So, there is a new challenge to find ways to deal with climate anxiety as well as climate worry, without diminishing the problem of the climate crisis. In the following article there are a few ideas that might be helpful to deal with climate worry and emotions. However, if climate anxiety has a negative impact on your everyday life maybe it is good to consider talking to a professional about it.  Also it is important to see that everyone has their own set of emotions regarding climate change and deals with it differently.

First of all, one thing you can do, for sure, is get active. You can find a community or activist group about climate protection and engage yourself in the activities. Doing something against the crisis can make it feel less overwhelming. Working on the problem and having an impact together with others can feel like you are doing something to prevent it and give hope. You can also do things on your own and try to reduce your own footprint on the world. However, with activism research also found out that there is a risk for burnout and when people in activism again don’t see much results coming from it, it can lead to hopelessness.

Joining a group, you will see that you are not alone with your worries and feelings and a lot of people feel the same. Talking about those feelings with like-minded people or your friends and family can help a lot. And if there is a need for it, also talking about climate anxiety with a professional can be very helpful.

Taking time for yourself and doing what you like is very important too. Maybe feelings like shame or blame might arise then, because you don’t have a completely climate friendly lifestyle, can’t make it to the demonstration, or you have a nice weekend even though the climate crisis is existing. However, you need to also take time for yourself and find a balance on where to go the extra mile for the climate and where not. Even though the climate crisis is happening, life goes on and we also need to take care of ourselves.

And sometimes… you just have to take the seriousness out of the situation and be humorous about it. It shouldn’t get too much to not get completely numb about it, but a bit of humour to deal with feelings, even though it might be morbid, has never hurt. Also, formulating feelings about the climate crisis in songs or other forms of art helps dealing with those feelings. Listening to songs about depressiveness, anger, hope or hopelessness, was helping me perceive the feelings, and it can show you that you are not alone with them. Feeling those emotions and accepting them can be helpful in general.

However, there are niches, especially on the Internet, that are prophesying the world going down and spreading this kind of depressiveness a lot which is also called “doomism”. Don’t get me wrong – humanity has really destroyed the planet in a lot of ways and I myself have a hard time sometimes to stay hopeful and believe we can save the planet, but we can! And also, we at least should try it, just for our own sake. That’s why mindful media consumption can be another helpful tool about managing climate emotions. Who never “doomscrolled” for some time and afterwards felt completely depressed because of all the tragedies happening? Don’t stop consuming news – it is also important to stay updated and to not look away – but be aware of yourself while doing so. Listen to yourself when you start feeling that it’s too much for you and then put limits to your consumption. There are also positive spaces in social media for talking about climate emotions, which can be a great way to connect with others and not feel alone with your feelings.

Finally, it is important to understand that those psychological effects of climate change are a problem of society and not an individual one. However, unfortunately, first we have to deal with those emotions individually. Those climate emotions are coming up because of the human-made climate crisis, and the psychological problem only arises because of it. Often, people that are more aware about the climate crisis feel the most emotions about them – and they feel isolated because in today’s world there is also a climate of denial. However, there is also a big climate of action and communities uniting for a healthy planet and green future. This is where our hope needs to come from and which needs to grow bigger. So, take care of yourself and let’s try to solve this problem as a society!

Maike Seuffert

Sources:
The psychology of climate anxiety – PMC
If climate change keeps you up at night, here’s how to cope – Harvard Health
Anxiety and Worry about Six Categories of Climate Change Impacts – PMC
Yale Experts Explain Climate Anxiety
Klimawandel: Was tun gegen Klimaangst? | Psychologie | Verstehen | ARD alpha
Angst Boom Bang – 2050.de
Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action: correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries – ScienceDirect
Why aren’t we more scared of the climate crisis? It’s complicated – The Guardian
Climate anxiety is on the rise — here’s what we do about it | World Economic Forum