How can turning eco-anxiety into collective action help you overcome paralyzing fear?

What are the best mindfulness techniques to manage climate anxiety and stop doomscrolling?

Clinical psychologist Lucia Tecuta provides a roadmap for building emotional resilience amidst the climate crisis. Learn to navigate “eco-paralysis,” manage doomsday thinking, and find hope through community connection and cognitive behavioral strategies. Break the cycle of hopelessness by exploring Tecuta’s step-by-step cognitive strategies below, and learn how to channel your concern into healthy, constructive action today.

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

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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.

Take-Aways

• Climate anxiety is rising as the effects of climate change become more obvious.
• Acknowledge your feelings, and learn to accept them.
• Practice mindfulness to rein in your intense feelings.
• Cease your doomsday thinking, and consume your news from a range of balanced sources.
• Find the right forum to discuss your feelings, and join forces with others to build community.

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.

“Climate anxiety is projected to be a growing mental health burden as the climate emergency continues to unfold.”

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, as are members of Indigenous communities, climate change activists, farmers and people who work in nature, and victims of climate disasters. Your anxiety intensifies if you feel that your government is apathetic about the issue, and if you frequently read bad news stories in the press.

Acknowledge your feelings, and learn to accept them.

When your climate anxiety is temporary, it can help you adjust to and take action against climate change. But when that anxiety lingers, you might find yourself spiraling into depression because the stress is persistent, you worry about the future, and you feel there is no escape. De-escalate your climate anxiety by labeling your feelings. When you feel an intense emotion, such as anxiety, it can feel as though “you are the emotion.” You react instinctively to triggers. You might, for instance, get angry at a climate-denying relative, post a tirade on social media, or feel guilty for owning a car or taking a flight. Labeling your feelings, however, helps you to explore them while distancing yourself from them. By observing your emotions more objectively, you can manage them more effectively.

Practice mindfulness techniques to rein in your intense feelings.

When anxiety threatens to overcome you, try a deep breathing exercise to restore your sense of calm. Inhale slowly through your nose until your lungs feel full, hold for a few seconds, then exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat this exercise for 10 minutes twice a day. Alternatively, engage in mindfulness meditation. Climate anxiety is a fear of an unknown future, so use mindfulness meditation to ground yourself in the present. Sit or lie in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Concentrate on your breath. If your mind wanders, which it will, guide your focus back to your breath. Notice any sounds or smells in your environment, and practice being present.

Cease your doomsday thinking, and consume your news from a range of balanced sources.

When you ruminate about worst-case scenarios, you create the mental space for climate anxiety to flourish. Instead, employ “empirical dispute” to rein in your doomsday thinking. For instance, instead of panicking about how the world will respond if it runs out of food, think about all the technologies, scientific advances, and government measures that will combine to avoid such an outcome. Alternatively, embrace “pragmatic dispute” by evaluating whether your doomsday thinking is beneficial to you. If not, then opt to focus on more productive activities, such as getting involved in a community garden, organizing food drives, or donating aid to vulnerable communities.

Be mindful of the media you consume. Seek balanced news sources that report on the problems as well as any solutions, new developments, and discoveries. Take note of how much time you spend reading about climate change and how it makes you feel. If you find that your “doomscrolling” impacts your mood, take steps to reduce the habit.

Find the right forum to discuss your feelings, and join forces with others to build community.

If your friends and relatives don’t share your views on climate change, consider visiting a support group — online or in-person — to help you work through your feelings. Alternatively, listen to a climate change podcast online that cultivates hope and solidarity.

“You are not responsible for the problem, but you can be part of the solution.”

As an individual, you can adopt numerous habits to reduce your carbon footprint, such as eating more sustainable foods. However, the main perpetrator is industry, not individuals. Thus, solving climate change requires systemic change. You can play your part by joining an organization that aims to raise awareness, lobby for change, plant trees, or clean up the local environment, for instance. Working with others to address climate change can foster feelings of connection while offering you constructive ways to work through your climate anxiety.

About the Author

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