Are You Suffering From Eco-anxiety?
by Haven Logan PH.D
Every day we are bombarded with reports of damages to our beautiful planet and the effects of those damages on us. As a result, many people are developing eco-anxiety. “Is the hot weather we’ve been having the past few years a result of global warming? What about this year’s rains and floods? Aren’t we having a lot more hurricanes and earthquakes? Did I remember to turn off all the lights? Should I keep the gas-guzzler I love or spend money I don’t have for a hybrid? Should I hold up the check-out line while I retrieve the cloth bags in my car or just go with the plastic?”
The term eco-anxiety was first used in a 1990 Washington Post article, but only recently has it been receiving widespread attention. This type of anxiety reflects worry about the current state of our planet as well as the future environmental conditions to be inherited by our children. For many people the most troubling aspect of eco-anxiety is guilt over what they are not doing to help save the planet.
Those of us growing up in the 1950’s felt anxious about an atomic attack, but, as individuals, there was little we could do to prevent it. At school we held drills and practiced sitting in the basement with our arms over our heads. A few families built air-raid shelters, but most of us simply felt powerless to prevent or minimize the effects of nuclear war. In contrast, the threats we now face are multiple, and the choices for helping to save the planet seem limitless. As with so many things in modern life, reaching a decision of how best to proceed in learning to live “green” can be yet another cause for anxiety.
Eco-anxiety is now considered to be a diagnosable condition by many in the mental health field. There are growing numbers of eco-therapists who treat people complaining of symptoms such as panic attacks, loss of appetite, and irritability. Overwhelmed by the demands and time pressures of life, many people feel as if going green is another addition to their endless to-do list. Eco-therapists help patients reduce anxiety while finding practical solutions to implementing a more environmentally positive lifestyle.
Why does it seem so difficult to make the changes necessary to save our planet? For one thing, we find these changes inconvenient. American society in the past sixty years has been built upon the altar of convenience. Take drive-through restaurants as an example: We drive up, get a meal prepared by someone else and don’t have to get out of our cars. The environment, however, pays a heavy price as we burn foreign oil waiting in line to get meals packed in plastic that later fills our landfills to overflowing. Just as we get used to certain foods, we also develop a trust in certain household products, and we worry that green alternatives won’t clean our floors as well. Most of the required green modifications to our lifestyle we perceive to be more expensive or more trouble or both, so we resist change. Trying to change our habits definitely isn’t comfortable.
Getting Started
It could be that the economic problems we have encountered in the past three years have been the push we needed to start living greener lives, both individually and as a nation. The cost of gasoline reaching $4.00 a gallon makes most people question their driving patterns and vehicle choices. As cities have begun banning plastic bags or stores started charging for them, we remember those cloth bags. With tighter budgets we are looking for better-made consumer goods that we can keep for many years. Eating out is no longer a daily event for many families. Home gardens and home cooking have come back into favor as practical and sensible choices.
Don’t try to implement changes in every area of your life all at once. Take one area at a time. Assess where you are now and how you would like to improve. As you go along, make sure to acknowledge the progress you’ve made and not focus on just what you haven’t done. Here are a few of the many websites that can help you along the way:
http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator
On this site you can calculate your household carbon footprint which reflects the effect you have on the climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases you produce from your home energy and transportation.
http://www.algore.com
Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth and his other projects provide multiple ideas. You can download a list of “Ten Things to Do” to stop global warming.
http://www.ecomomalliance.org
http://www.greenandcleanmom.blogspot.com
This is a blog filled with advice from a mother trying to live a greener life.
http://www.treehugger.com
Look at greener ways to approach many aspects of life and also find ideas for environmental action.
In contrast to the attitude of “mastering the environment” found in most of the world’s industrialized nations are the traditions of tribal people who view themselves as caretakers of the land and oceans. Rather than taking as much as they can, they gather only what they need so that resources are never depleted. We are seeing a clash of these values now on the California coast. There are those who favor off-shore drilling so we can be independent of foreign oil and continue our way of life, while there are many others who view the recent creation of no-take marine reserves under the Marine Life Protection Act as an important step forward in protecting our oceans. But to the members of the native Pomo tribes the MLPA means banishment from their sacred traditional grounds where their harvest of seaweed, abalone, mussels and fish has provided them food for centuries.
As the conflict on the California coast demonstrates, often there are no easy answers to the environmental challenges facing us. It is important to avoid both denial of these problems and the paralyzing effects of eco-anxiety. Hope for all of us lies in doing what we can, as soon as we can. On the individual level, small, steady steps in a positive direction will be more effective than trying to change everything at once and then giving up when discouragement sets in. Getting out of the house and away from electronic gadgets, smelling the flowers, feeling the grass, and hearing the birds will help you remember why you are working to live a more environmentally conscious life.