1. Take action
Doing something positive helps you not to drown in despair. Living and acting according to your values is empowering and energising. Joining with others to work towards a shared positive vision of the future and take part in collective action nurtures hope, helps to validate your feelings and builds support around you.
Find out what’s happening by contacting the local Greener Practice group at tay.fifegreenerpractice@nhs.scot
2. Self-care
It is important that you pace yourself and accept the limits of what you, as an individual, can achieve. Take time for regeneration if you are struggling. Sometimes everyone needs to accept help from others.
Pay attention to your physical and mental wellbeing by making sure that you get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, get enough exercise, and make time to connect with the people, activities and places that nurture and recharge you.
3. Nurture hope
Take time to read about hope-based, solutions-focused visions of the future, not just negative information. Positive News offers a different perspective.
4. Allow space to process distress and times to shut off from it.
We often try to push away difficult feelings but this can prevent us from processing them. They can then become disabling. Rather than avoiding these emotions, climate psychologists advise that we make time and space to accept and experience them with avoidance or denial. This is best done in a safe space with a supportive group of trusted people.
It is equally important to make time not to think about it and to focus on the people and activities that we enjoy. Lots of people find spending time in nature very helpful.
More information
To find out more about eco-distress, have a look at the Climate Psychology Alliance.
There is a lot of information about green and sustainable living on the Climate Cafes website.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has produced a podcast and fact sheets for children and young people and for parents, carers, teachers and other adults who support young people
Eco-Distress
If you are worried about climate change then you are not alone. Nearly half of adult participants in a recent study said they were very or extremely worried about climate change. In another report on children and young people, 59% were extremely worried about the climate and 84% were at least moderately worried.
Worrying about climate change is called eco-distress. This is not a mental health problem but a rational response to the crisis we are in. However, if you find that your level of worry is affecting your day to day life or you feel you are not coping then please seek support.
Eco-distress can include a wide range of emotions including anxiety, grief, despair, anger, hopelessness and feelings of overwhelm. It is important to acknowledge and validate these feelings rather than minimising or dismissing them.
Worrying about climate change is called eco-distress. This is not a mental health problem but a rational response to the crisis we are in. However, if you find that your level of worry is affecting your day to day life or you feel you are not coping then please seek support.
Eco-distress can include a wide range of emotions including anxiety, grief, despair, anger, hopelessness and feelings of overwhelm. It is important to acknowledge and validate these feelings rather than minimising or dismissing them.