How to cope with climate anxiety
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How to cope with climate anxiety

It’s normal to feel troubled by the climate crisis. These practices can help keep your response manageable and constructive

Lucia Tecuta
Psyche, 2024
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As floods, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, forest fires and other natural disasters become more frequent and intense, humans can no longer afford to deny climate change. Yet rising climate anxiety creates a sense of powerlessness to effect change. Lucia Tecuta, a cognitive behavioral therapist, teaches emotional resilience in the face of climate change to help you avoid a paralyzing spiral of doom and gloom.

Summary

Climate anxiety is rising as the effects of climate change become more obvious.

Climate anxiety is the upset, despair, sadness, and anger a person experiences in response to human-made climate change. While the idea of climate change is daunting for most, for some, the dread becomes so all-consuming that it leads to “eco-paralysis” — an inability to take steps toward solutions. Accepting that climate change is happening is challenging, but you can learn to foster emotional resilience. 

A modicum of climate anxiety can inspire individuals to become climate activists and to take steps to combat climate change. However, some people’s overwhelming concern for the environment immobilizes them. If you constantly ruminate on climate change and struggle to focus or make decisions, if you experience physiological symptoms such as respiratory distress, and if you’ve lost your zeal for life, your climate anxiety is impairing your mental health. In extreme cases, climate anxiety can trigger clinical depression. Although anyone can succumb to climate anxiety, children and young adults are particularly susceptible...

About the Author

Cognitive behavioral therapist and clinical psychologist Lucia Tecuta is an assistant professor at the University of Bologna.

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