Got Climate Anxiety? You’re not alone.

Climate change anxiety, a spike in distress or fear about the effects of climate change, is an emerging mental health challenge. And if you’re part of the more than two-thirds of Americans who experience some form of it, you might be wondering what you can do to feel better. Maybe you’re a candidate for climate-aware therapy? Or how about getting involved in climate action? In this episode of Vitals, Sheena answers all this and more, with the help of Britt Wray, a researcher studying the intersection of climate change and psychology, and Merryl Reichbach, a climate-aware therapist.

🩺🥼 Vitals is a series that’s taking a new approach to health and medicine. Hosts Alok Patel, MD, and Sheena Williams RN are going beyond the headlines to answer your questions on the latest health topics. No judgment, no taboos. Just 100% science-based information.

Check out, Women of the Earth, a show on PBS Terra about women who are finding unconventional ways to heal the earth from climate change.

Let’s Connect:

Find our experts and hosts:

:: Sheena William, RN ::
Twitter: @Keepingitkinky1
Instagram: @keepingitkinky

:: Alok Patel, MD ::
Twitter: @AlokPatelMD
Instagram: @alokpatelmd

::Britt Wray::
Twitter: @brittwray

::Merryl Reichbach::
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, LCSW, MA, MSW

This episode of Vitals is licensed exclusively to YouTube.

Research:

[Dollightful]

Gosh, there's a term for it? I have worried about the planet's future since I was a little girl. I have taken steps to negate my own footprint (going vegetarian, avoiding single-use-plastics, buying only locally produced items, etc), but it sure can feel hopeless at times. At least there is some comfort in knowing many people feel the same way. Time to learn potato farming!!

[JackBlack-mlqw]

I've had severe climate anxiety since my child was born. It's difficult for me to enjoy the things I used to since I know I'm destroying the planet when doing those activities (flying, eating meat, unnecessary driving to name a few). My wife doesn't want to change her lifestyle and she is annoyed I want to change mine. My parents think it will cause the apocalypse, but they're not doing anything to change either. I drink too much and eat way too many edibles just to relax. I'm on antidepressants just to get sleep. I've taken many steps and spent alot if money to reduce my personal footprint, but still I don't feel better. Climate anxiety is a major problem that's growing fast.

[victoriaconde]

I am glad someone is speaking about it. I have OCD and i was latched onto other themes before and i was almost done with it. Climate change has worried me since i was 11, I am 21 now and i can barely talk about it with my parents.

I just can’t do anything, i’ve been raised in a very consumist family, and i struggle a lot to give up this addiction.
Also I live in Argentina, in a city and in a building, so i can rarely do something like cultivating anything.

Besides my country is going through a terrible economic crisis so governments don’t have climate emergency in their agenda.

I just feel hopeless, i can’t se a future and i feel alone because no one that I love is nearly commited to this as i am. I just enjoy so much going out with friends, ordering food, receiving presents, i was raised like that and world is no longer compatible with that.

I’m grieving all my goals, my future. I left a university career last year and decided to study graphic design, which is no helpful to climate change just because is a consumist discipline. I love branding design and i can see that i will never be able to do that for a living.

I feel completely useless and I can’t see my purpose in this short lived planet.

[amayr]

I love the push to think about your individual impacts to a Point. Put your money where your values lie when feasible for your situation. if not able to buy the Needed lease Impact items it's okay because the most negative influence on our environment is the major capitalist corporations that only care about profits and cut all the corners - an example is all the chemical spills happing in our water. the oil institutes created the term carbon footprint, it is a good tool to connect all the activities of life and try to better the process but it's not on the individual. find a group more change will be done with all helping each other.

[purpleprince]

I haven't learned learned how to calm down yet. I have been taking small steps to become vegetarian... Learning how to recycle.. As to what I can do.

[kathyfaulk]

WOW! How about getting all the climate action groups together and marching on DC and camping out on the Mall until our ELECTED representatives decide to take real action on climate??? Just a thought...

[cformosa]

Thank you for this bit of supportive information. I have been worried about the planet my entire life. Didn’t have kids. Watcuu go ing the destruction of the NC mountain areas I spent time in as a kid—❤. I am not feeling well.

[trevinbeattie]

The thing is even though the current climate change is very rapid from a geological perspective it’s still very slow from a human perspective, and our fear responses evolved to deal with threats that arise and can be dealt with quickly, as in a matter of minutes. We’re not emotionally equipped to deal with crises that take place over a lifetime or more, so it’s important to focus on rational approaches to handling it.

[paintingtracey]

Thanks for taking at look at this issue. I've spent the last few years grappling with this and have found a few things that help. The first thing we try to do is see how we can help, what steps can we take to stop it, slow it down, or at least mitigate it in some way. Then we come face to face with our impotence. I've have taken steps to do what I can, and every day I try to improve on that. But that doesn't change my anxiety. What truly helped me is moving through deep acceptance and process what that means. Honestly look at the science, it's bad, lookat the news, it's bad, and look at what our national world leaders are doing, it's not even close to enough. I have come to accept the truth of who we are as a species and what we have already set in motion. I do this from a place of deep compassion. It's heart breaking. The enormity is overwhelming for the capacity of our brains to deal with. I have turned to the tool I've had all along and didn't realize it, my art. Through art I can transform difficult feelings, difficult science, difficult concepts into something. That process, and there is data to support this, is healing. Maybe my art will touch someone else, who knows. I just know I have to do it. I would like to thank the journalist who did this segment and encourage her to reach farther into herself, the well of who she is, and let that show more. My feeling was she was very surface. The acting in the beginning could have been actual footage of her reaction to reading a difficult study or something. Maybe it was because the topic is so difficult. I am only saying this because I can tell she's a great person with potential. I hope this is taken in the spirit of helpful feedback. Be who you are, you don't need to perform for us. Thanks again for doing this.

[TheDanEdwards]

Anxiety is a human response, complex and difficult to understand. But it can arise from anything one fixates upon - what clothes to buy, whether to look for a new job, family squabbles, etc. I've long defended the science of climatology against the denier industry, yet I grow disappointed with so many of the popularizers of climate phenomena and the problems we are inheriting and passing on. Too many popularizers have taken the scare approach (and the AGW-deniers love to jump on them.) In reality life is full of problems, and the only way to deal with a problem is to work on it.

[rosemarywessel]

PS - thanks for making sure to have an expert on there who mentions that anxiety is a normal response to what we're facing. We should be frightened by the circumstance, but addressing it in a healthy way is the key to not letting it control us.
Great piece! Thank you for making this.

[srsatlantic]

🇨🇦 We need to get the businesses to put up footage of them helping the climate & reducing electricity use

[gwynadams]

I'm actually going to school to become an ecotherapist. For those interested, Prescott College has a wonderful program for getting a counseling degree centered around ecospychology.

[Sir_Pumpington_Of_Dumpenshire]

90% bot comments to push the narrative. The gullible actress is terrible at her job.

[lonelycubicle]

PBS Spacetime sent me to PBS Terra which sent me here

[theultimatereductionist]

I HAVE NOT and I WILL NOT watch this video, because I have zero patience for hearing the psychobabble or gaslighting from the antiscience reality-deniers/AGW-deniers.
However, JUST FROM THE TITLE ALONE, I will ASSUME you have climate anxiety, as do I, and I 1000% sympathize with you.
Moreover, climate activists need to STICK TOGETHER and BE LOYAL TO THE CAUSE of reversing AGW,
AND THAT MEANS PRIORITIZING OUR CAUSE OF FIGHTIN AGW ABOVE ALL OTHER CAUSES WE MIGHT DISAGREE WITH.
Saying we should uphold the law just because it's the law is a political opinion.
Supporting nationalism or the existence of a nation just for its own sake, is a political opinion.
Saying we shouldn't outlaw people eating meat or having kids, is a political opinion, that I strongly oppose.
I absolutely do support outlawing people eating animals and reproducing.
If you disagree with that, yet agree with me on fighting AGW, then PRIORITIZE FIGHTING AGW.

[clivematthews]

Thank you for making me feel that this is serious, this anxiety is something I feel regularly, I don’t feel it because of me or my actions, simply because I am an open minded person who applies intuition whenever I can, but the biggest source of my anxiety is people around me and autocratic countries that don’t give a damn what they destroy or what ecosystems they disrupt. Making such people understand is always a tall order, especially when they come with their own counter logic for why climate change is a hoax, or that their needs are more serious than what our future might end up as.

Just thank you for this video, it helps make me feel better ❤🙏🏾

[Manhunternew]

It's not in the dsm, but anxiety is. And that can apply to multiple topics

[annabbott]

Love this video. I have also noticed the lack of snow down here in DC, and my kids aren't having snow days, so they are sad as well. I don't eat meat and I'm trying to cut back on cheese and eggs. I'm actively shopping for an EV. I look for every eco friendly product in stores and use as little plastic as possible. Just hoping other people follow along.

[prometheus]

Anytime you have a constant pump from the media about anything, there will be anxiety. I remember when I was 14 years old freaking out about the ozone layer. In hindsight, what was happening was worse for my mental health than it was for the ozone layer.