‘Shrink your focus’ when it comes to climate anxiety
Big questions like ‘will I be able to have kids?’ and ‘will I have a career?’ are causing climate anxiety for young people, after scientists warn we are heading towards an unlivable world.
More than 1,000 scientists from 25 countries protested for an urgent addressing of climate change on April 6. The protest came after a report was released two days prior stating “rapid and deep” cuts to greenhouse gas emissions need to be made by 2025 to keep the planet below 1.5°C. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said, if emissions aren’t controlled by 2025, greenhouse gas emissions will cause a median global warming temperature of 3.2°C by 2100 – a climate that would have catastrophic effects.
Kirsty Ross, Massey Senior Lecturer in Clinical Phycology and Senior Clinical Phycologist, said climate anxiety is similar to the mental health effects of natural disasters, where you feel out of control and helpless. However, “It's our choices now that can give us a sense of control.”
A 2021 worldwide study, Young people’s voices on climate anxiety, government betrayal and moral injury: a global phenomenon, showed 63 per cent of 16–25-year old's felt anxious about climate change, 57 per cent of the 10,000 people saying they felt powerless.
Psychologists encourage people with climate anxiety to “shrink your focus to what's within your sphere of influence, and choices you can make,” Ross said. “It's thinking about what are the choices that are in my control … If everyone focuses in on the things that they can change then there actually could be quite a change.” Long term questions don’t need to be answered right now. “Focus in on the present moment, try not to think too much into the future in terms of ‘what ifs?’.”
Climate anxiety comes under a more generalised anxiety. “It's something that can be quite insidious. It can be quite pervasive crossing over in different areas in people's lives.” Ross said, “When we think too big and too far ahead, obviously that’s really overwhelming. It tends to add to the anxiety rather than reduce it.”
She said while this anxiety crosses over generations, “The younger you are the longer you’re going to be walking the earth in its changed form.” Younger people have more choices to make where they need to keep the climate in mind. “There's lots of decision you have to make as a young person from the car you buy to are you gonna have children? What career will you have? Are you going to travel? Some of those decisions older generations have already made.”
Ross said she often sees young people with climate anxiety making decisions like reducing plastic, recycling, second-hand shopping, choosing a car that is energy efficient, taking the bus, biking or walking. Making these big and small choices helps you feel “as though you're doing your bit towards making a difference in the world”.
