5 Strategies for Moving through Climate Anxiety

By Jodi Rhoden, LCSW, CAADC at Perez Therapy, LLC

photo credit Vice Media Gender Spectrum Collection

Earlier this year, as I prepared to see clients, complete notes, and follow up on correspondence for my work week, I found myself increasingly distracted by the news. Massive wildfires were burning and spreading through Los Angeles, where several of my loved ones live. I began checking and re-checking the news, the fire maps, and social media to get the latest updates. 

The LA wildfires came just a few months after Hurricane Helene, an unprecedented “geological event,” reshaped the landscape and lives of in Western North Carolina. In both places, tragically, some people did not survive, some people are just beginning to pick up the pieces of their lives, and some people may not ever recover.

That week, I struggled to sleep, toggling back and forth between apps on my phone–as if keeping watch over the fires through the night from 2,700 miles away could somehow help (spoiler alert: it did not help).

As a therapist, I know that many of my clients experience anxiety, anguish, and despair over the climate crisis, and as a human, I experience these emotions, too. As climate change-induced floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and heat waves intensify, it’s natural to become distracted, frightened, numb, depressed, or anxious when we hear about or experience climate change’s impacts.

Photo of Colorado wildfire in 2020 by Malachi Brooks

From a somatic (body-based) and trauma-informed therapy perspective, these feelings make perfect sense. Our nervous systems have evolved over millennia to be sensitive instruments for detecting and responding to threats of harm. Humans naturally attune to threats such as floods and fires, and our sympathetic nervous system (the “fight or flight” response) is activated when those threats are detected. News of a fire or flood, even if it is far away, can impact our nervous systems as if we were there, literally in harm's way. 

These feelings are normal and valid, but it’s important not to get stuck in those feelings. When we get stuck in our threat responses, we limit the range of healthy responses we can access, and we can sometimes limit our connection to others. And connection to others is the best and most important way to build safety. When we feel connected to others, we feel supported, we feel purposeful, and we are able to mobilize to make changes. 

Here are some strategies everyone can take to help build climate resilience in our nervous systems, which can help us build climate resilience in our families, communities, and world:

1. Orient to the reality of climate change. As James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Sometimes it can seem easier, or safer, to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that climate change isn’t happening. We might feel overwhelmed, powerless, or guilty. But our bodies are still tracking the threat of climate change, which makes it harder to ignore, and requires more effort to numb out. Try to spend a little time each day or week facing some facts of climate change, without doomscrolling. Listen to an informative podcast, or read or listen to a book by a trusted climate voice (did you know that you can borrow audiobooks for free with a library card, through the Libby app? Try it here!) Some examples include: This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, or The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg. 

2. Allow yourself to grieve. The toll that climate change has and will continue to take on our communities, lives, and the natural world is monumental. Feeling deep grief about this is natural, and a necessary step in moving through paralysis to acceptance and action. Talk with your therapist, journal, sing, or meditate on your grief. Gather with others to share your grief in a safe setting, like the workshops led by Naila Francis of This Hallowed Wilderness. 

3. Spend time in nature. As David Attenborough said, “no one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced." As humans, we belong to the earth, and we deserve to feel connected to and nourished by it. You don’t have to be a backcountry hiker in the wilderness to feel your own connection to nature. You can join a community garden in your neighborhood, or take a blanket to your nearest park and simply spend some time in the sunshine and the breeze. Take a walk in the Wissahickon Valley Park, take a moment to sit outside and observe the moon and stars at night, or cultivate a houseplant! Anything that nurtures your relationship to the living world, no matter how small it seems, is a way to counter the negative mental health impacts of climate anxiety, and fuel your motivation for change. 

4.  Take action in your own life. No one person is responsible to fix climate change alone. But our actions together have a cumulative impact, and taking action towards a goal can help combat feelings of powerlessness. When we take steps towards climate solutions, like replacing some of the meat in our grocery carts with plant-based foods, taking advantage of the ease and affordability of SEPTA, or thrifting instead of buying fast fashion, not only are we making an impact, but we feel more aligned with our values. And feeling aligned with our values is a key foundation of having a healthy self-concept, instead of feeling hopeless or helpless. 

Take action in community. You don’t have to be “an activist” to join together with your neighbors to make a change, and foster resilience in the face of increased climate impacts. Meeting like-minded people, building trust and supportive relationships, sharing resources like child care, food, and housing are all strategies for creating webs of community that can weather the storms. And from this place of trust and mutual support, communities can take action: defending their neighborhoods from predatory development and environmental racism, and standing up to corporate greed, government complacency, and other drivers of climate change. For a few mutual aid organizations that you can plug into, check out Northwest Mutual Aid and  Mutual Aid Philly (English and Spanish). If you’re ready to take the plunge into climate change activism, check out Sunrise Movement or Mutual Aid Disaster Relief.

Photo by Ny Menghor

Feelings of anxiety and distress about climate change are natural. But you don’t have to stay stuck there. By facing the reality of the situation, allowing ourselves to feel our feelings, cultivating a positive connection to nature, and taking action in our own lives and in our communities, we can move through climate anxiety and build climate resilience while living with purpose and meaning. 

At Perez Therapy, our team of dedicated and compassionate therapists can support you in navigating this and other life challenges, finding your authentic path, and moving through the inevitable transitions and changes of life. If you’re ready to work with a therapist, fill out our prescreening form, and a member of our team will get back to you within 1-2 business days.