Eco anxiety in Perth

[Bookgirl]

Hi, we are in the middle of a horrible heatwave here and its causing me a lot of anxiety thinking about the future and generally just stressing out about it all.  Just seems so insurmountable and i feel overwhelmed.  My 15 year old son gets angry at me for being pessimistic but its hard to be optimistic when its over 40 degrees for a long time.  I just feel like i am sinking right now.

[Bookgirl]

I think its the enormity of it all that scares me and the suddeness. Last year was really cold and this year its the opposite. My husband says there has always been ups and downs but last year something seemed to happen that no one knows how to explain which is what scares me. It just got hotter in europe and its kept going around the world. Sometimes the enormity of it all just overwhelms me with all the change it will cause in the coming years and how we will all cope. Part of me just doesn't want to face it at all. I would rather not be here for all that. Its too much. It's too hard.  I think of all the kids who will grow up in this. My friend's daughter had a baby and i just can't imagine bringing a child into this world right now.  

[Eagle Ray]

Dear Bookgirl,

I understand the feeling of it being so big it feels overwhelming. A decade ago I was similar when there was a similar ecological impact from dry conditions. After a visit to the Perth Hills I could see the impact in the landscape in areas I’d known since a child, so much so I didn’t sleep that night. So like you I am sensitive and feel things strongly that others may not. But talking to a friend at the time, he said you can’t take it on to worry about it as it will mean you don’t enjoy your life and there is no positive gain in intensely worrying about it. He was right, and I’ve managed to shift in time to accepting certain realities and recognising what is in my power to do something about but also the limits to what I can do.

It can help to reframe the situation in terms of what you can do. Part of the issue with overwhelm is that it can lead to a kind of paralysis. It is basically strong anxiety turning into depression/shutdown. Sometimes by doing something that is achievable it can shift that paralysis and immobility that comes from feeling overwhelmed. Years ago now I volunteered with an organisation that plants native trees across many areas in WA. I helped propagate and raise native plant seedlings. That was something I could do that was achievable, and in terms of climate change it helps keep carbon in the soil and is a counterbalance to emissions. I’m wondering if focussing on something like that would help you to feel you are doing something achievable that contributes something positive? It doesn’t have to be that specific example, but something you would like to do and enjoy that makes something of a difference. 

Late this afternoon I walked in the bushland opposite where I live. After the rains yesterday there was quite a bit of bird life and the path was still damp. At the same time many of the understory plants have died. But unlike a decade ago when that worried me intensely, I still have concern but I also noticed the plants that are still going and marvelled at their resilience. I also know from the previous die-off event that the areas I saw impacted then did make a reasonable recovery and looked a lot better until this latest drought. I accept that the plants are doing their best to adapt and some have died, but the system will keep working to adapt as best it can.

Another way of looking at things I sometimes find useful is understanding my inner world and the outer world as systems that both need balance. My emotional health can get out of whack just as planetary health gets out of whack. If I don’t attend to my internal state and seek balance within, I am no use to the external world. So the more balanced I can be, the more I can contribute to a more balanced world around me. I remember you saying the doom oriented things your parents said about climate change when you were a kid. That would have set your nervous system on edge and contributed to feelings of powerlessness. But responding to external imbalances with more internal imbalances can only lead to further dysregulation and a loss of hope. If your parents had had a more proactive, constructive, positive view your own conditioning would likely have been different in terms of how you respond to things now. I think the greatest gift we can give future generations is hope and a curiosity about solving things constructively. Curiosity can be a great circuit breaker when we are stuck.

So sending you some hope and the strength to find some balance within as well as hopefully some ideas for constructive things you can do that will help you feel better and make a difference in the world, which only need be small, achievable goals.

Take care,

ER

[Bookgirl]

I had a bit of a breakdown over it all in front of my son and husband today and was crying. My son gets angry at me about not having any hope. Anyway, i felt better after i had talked about it. Not great obviously as its late and i am not sleeping. I think its just because i don't even feel safe at home anymore. I keep seeing all the dead trees everywhere and i get so depressed. My husband says the same thing that i have to take it a day at a time and enjoy each day but its so hard because of my upbringing but i will try.  

[Bookgirl]

I had a bit of meltdown yesterday and was crying in front of my husband and son who is 15. My son gets angry with me about it only because i know he is concerned about my mental health more than anything. I felt better after i had talked about it but i still feel awful about everything. I sent emails to all my MPs and PM as no one is even talking about the situation here. Its like everyone hopes it will go away and its just not.  It feels like it is getting worse and worse.  My son says he would put on my gravestone "everyone is going to die" because that is what i say about numerous things. He says i told him multiple times in the last 6 years that it would happen and it hasn't happened.  It just depresses me so much.

[Eagle Ray]

Dear Bookgirl,

I am wondering if something that may be helpful for you is Damon Gameau's book on practical ways of approaching and tackling climate change. It is called 2040: A Handbook for the Regeneration. After becoming a father he wanted to feel able to do practical things himself and inspire others to do the same. He recognises that many people can feel overwhelmed by the climate change issue, so he is breaking it down into meaningful ways to make a difference.

I also still wonder about whether it would be worth you looking into what is driving the intrusive and repetitive thoughts and after my own experience with hormone dysregulation, I can say it has made a massive difference when I addressed that. It may not be relevant in your case, but it might be worth investigating just in case. I have read of multiple examples now of perimenopausal and menopausal women who had experienced OCD before found it got much, much worse at this stage of life due to hormonal stages. Other women who had never had OCD developed it at that stage of life. In my own case I had a sudden onset of extremely intrusive and disturbing thoughts 24/7. It took a little while for it to dawn on me that hormones might be the issue. Now after starting hormone medication and tweaking it to get the right balance, I can say those debilitating intrusive thoughts have gone away and my mental health is so much better. I still have underlying issues linked to complex trauma, but I no longer have intense, all consuming, restrictive and repetitive thoughts.

Our mind and body are never separate, so looking at things from all angles can be a good idea. But also it is easy to go into all or nothing thinking, so thinking that no one is talking about or addressing climate change. But many people actually are. There are many interesting podcasts now around positive initiatives addressing climate change. I find regenerative agriculture one of the most interesting aspects and very encouraging. Farmer Charles Massy is really breaking new ground in this area and I have his book Call of the Reed Warbler. There was a big regenerative agriculture conference in Margaret River last year. The website of that is still up and if you have a look at it you can see the bios of farmers, researchers and others doing great work in this area. If you do some research you will find many, many initiatives addressing climate change and how to do things better. If you only read and listen to the news it has an inherent negative bias and will give you a gloomy picture. You can actually create a different reality for yourself by consuming different media and researching to find areas of inspiration and encouragement.

Sending you a big hug,

ER

[Bookgirl]

I think its because everyone seems scared and uneasy about the changes. I hate change and so it makes me worse.  And it wasn't really affecting us and then all of a sudden we have a horror summer and now barely any autumn and i am terrified of what it might be like in winter as in no winter at all. I know i can't control it. I know having nice sunny days is ok its just wrong at this time of year and it freaks me out about the future. I tell myself the earth is not dying, its changing and maybe humans not being able to survive is a good thing because we have stuffed everything up so drastically. I am just terrified i won't be able to cope and i feel like i have let my son down by letting him be raised in a world that he may have no future in.  I look at my friend's baby and think i could never have brought children into the world now.  I will see if i can find that book.

[Bookgirl]

And i look online and other people are scared not just me and talk about selling up. It is so scary and i don't think i can cope with it.

[Eagle Ray]

Hi Bookgirl,

I don’t know what you are reading online, but if it is something like a Facebook page dedicated to people especially worried about climate change, then it is likely to increase your anxiety. You need some balance. Panic is very contagious and it isn’t healthy.

I really encourage you to look at the examples of people who are positively oriented towards meaningful change. As far as your son’s future and your friend’s baby’s future go, you will not help create a better future reality for them by intensely panicking. It creates more worry and paralysis from fear. That generates more stress which is unhealthy for everyone.

I’m concerned as well about climate change but I know I will not help the situation through intense worry. I live in a small town and I’ve met a number of people who moved here around a similar time who chose to because of their fear of Covid. They all follow online conspiracy theories which invoke high levels of fear and so they have wanted to run away from society. While climate change is real and not a conspiracy theory, the spread of fear can be very similar in that it’s very contagious. Similar things happened with panic buying when Covid was first happening. If everyone had stayed calm the supermarket shelves would not have run empty and everyone would have been less stressed. Only more problems were created through panic and fear.

None of that is grounded or helpful. I can only think you are continually exposing yourself to online content that is feeding fear in you. You are fixating on it and spiralling. I’m wondering if you can do some somatic work with your psychologist to calm your nervous system. At the moment your nervous system is not getting a break. It would be great if you can begin to tap into some feelings of release and self-reassurance, letting yourself know you are safe right now.

Even saying the words, “I am safe” may help. In nature, all the birds and animals don’t go into panic but continually find ways to adapt. We humans with our complex brains get way more stuck and tend to fixate and ruminate. But all of that doesn’t actually achieve any positive outcomes. So perhaps you can re-orient yourself to the idea of adaption and flexibility, the hallmarks of what other species do to manage, problem-solve etc. That also involves the creative part of the brain as well as curiosity. It’s been found that curiosity can shut down the fear part of the brain, so becoming curious and creative about problem solving may be a pathway out of the chronic fear response.

Take care,

ER

[Bookgirl]

I have a bad cold so been in bed all day ruminating which is never good. My son has just read me the riot act again about my problems. He is so mature for a 15 year old. I bought the book you mentioned and will see if that helps. I just feel burnt out as you say. Thank you again for being there for me. I do feel desparate at the moment and you help calm me down. As i say i am talking to others which helps too.

[Bookgirl]

I was looking at ways to fight eco anxiety and there was an article about how scientists are crying about what is happening and it just made me feel worse.  This morning i felt really bad like not wanting to keep fighting but managed to get up in the end. Just feel absolutely hopeless and don't know how to manage it.  I don't know how everyone else just keeps going and thinking it will be alright. My son says we will adapt.  I wish it would all be over sooner rather than later rather than this slow move toward extinction that gets reported on every day.