Today's blog title is a tired old mantra used by magicians who make a living convincing the audience that what they see - is not there or, what they don't see - is there. "Now you see it / Now you don't" is anxiety producing because the observer is never sure what is real and begins to mistrust his/her ability to accurately perceive what is right in front of them. This sleight of hand causes anxiety in the individual observer that grows into excitement across the audience and, that's entertainment!

Climate Anxiety

It's no surprise that many Americans are growing increasingly anxious about the perilous state of our planet. Mental health clinicians are seeing more patients come in with symptoms of climate change anxiety, and they're not always sure what is causing it. Climate change is without question having a negative impact on the mental health of otherwise healthy people (especially the elderly, children, and the more vulnerable) and social workers are increasingly asked to respond. The American Psychological Association refers to ecoanxiety as ‘a chronic fear of environmental doom’, ranging from mild stress to clinical disorders like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Now You See It

• Media campaigns meant to inform and inspire action, like the 2006 Time Magazine cover featuring a polar bear on a melting iceberg and the caption “Be worried. Be very worried,” stoke fear among readers.
• With “climate emergency” being named the Oxford Dictionary word of the year in 2019, and a record 4,290% increase in Google searches of “eco-anxiety” the same year, these issues are clearly gaining widespread attention.
• Eco-anxiety is a growing concern, particularly among younger people. In a recent global survey of more than 10,000 young people, 84% of respondents aged 16 to 25 were at least moderately worried about climate change. A Yale study found that 43% of Americans are either “alarmed” or “concerned” about climate change.

Now You Don’t

Climate anxiety is heightened in those that are aware of and feel the existential threat of climate change by the fact that most of us, most of the time, act as if it does not exist.

• Those suffering from eco-anxiety often receive the message that they are being “snowflakes” and that their views are “alarmist.”
• Likewise, clients wrestling with the natural consequences of these feelings, such as hesitancy to have children, tend to be dismissed as being overly dramatic.
• Those who worry about the fate of the planet may feel a sense of learned helplessness, as any individual action may seem futile.
• Finally, as the country experiences government change in Washington, our official stance on climate change takes a 180 degree turn from official existential concern to abject denial. This Washington whipsawing is frightening people.

What Clinicians are Trying

Clinicians understand that it is not the threat to our planet's survival alone that is causing national anxiety but rather the denial by a large portion of our population that climate change is even a threat.

• Therefore, clinicians should first and foremost validate eco-anxiety as a natural response to a distressing situation. Rather than an irrational phobia, these fears are well-founded due to several environmental crises, such as animal depopulation, melting glaciers, coral bleaching, and extreme weather.
• Therapists can encourage clients who feel that distressing climate dialogue is “inescapable”, to avoid overexposure to traumatizing images by limiting media exposure to manageable levels.
• Some clinicians have instituted a Climate Cafe as an “informal, open, respectful, confidential space to safely share emotional responses and reactions” to the climate crisis.
• Others have started the Climate Journal Project, an online community that provides guided reflections and challenges, designed to help you build resilience against eco-anxiety so you can live with greater joy and purpose as we face major environmental changes ahead.
• The Climate Psychology Alliance suggests that psychologists and psychotherapists should not aim to get rid of climate anxiety, but instead ‘support individuals and communities to build strong containers that allow the expression and exploration of their emotions without collapsing under it or turning away’.

Let's Face It

As one clinician put it, "If ecoanxiety is treated as pathology, the forces of denial will have won…what we are witnessing isn't a tsunami of mental illness, but a long-overdue outbreak of sanity."