Dealing with Climate Change Anxiety
If you live in or near a mountainous state, you know that this has been an exceptionally mild winter with historically low snowpack. Within my my circle of outdoor enthusiast friends here in the Pacific Northwest, palpable fear is mounting.
What does this mean for summer?
Will we be doomed for another difficult wildfire season?
Will the AQI dictate our mountain run plans yet again?
This fear extends far beyond the immediate concern for the upcoming season and summer plans.
Will every summer be like this from here on out?
What kind of planet will be here for my kids when they get old?
Are we doomed?
I write this blog post not as a weather or climate change expert, but as a psychologist who understands anxiety, an outdoor athlete impacted by climate change, and as a human being who shares these same fears.
First, let’s normalize feeling anxious about climate change.
We are biologically wired as humans to experience fear and anxiety in response to dangerous and/or life-threatening situations. Anxiety is a normal, healthy emotion that serves a protective function in high-risk situations. The human mind has evolved not only to respond to danger in the present moment, but also to predict and anticipate danger in the future.
Climate change poses a real, immediate risk to our safety and the safety of, well, everyone and everything on the planet.
Feeling anxious in response to real, immediate risks is a healthy nervous system response.
Let’s also normalize feeling helpless.
As humans, we are natural “fixers.” We love nothing more than to solve a problem, find a solution, get rid of an issue, or make something better.
This works great for problems that can actually be solved.
However, when we face an enormous, complex problem such as climate change, we also are confronted with the reality that there’s no single solution that any of us as individuals can implement.
Experiencing distress in response to an complex, not-immediately-fixable problem is a healthy nervous system response.
That being said, there are some things that can help us understand and cope with climate change anxiety.
It’s important to understand the difference between pain and suffering.
Pain (emotional/mental/psychological) is an inevitable part of the human experience. We cannot skirt through life without experiencing pain. There’s no shortcut around it. If you are a living, breathing human — congratulations, you’ve got pain.
The extent to which pain is accompanied by suffering depends on your mental and behavioral response to the pain.
In this example:
Pain = climate change anxiety
Suffering = all the stuff you do in response to your anxiety that might help temporarily, but actually makes the anxiety much worse (spiraling, doom scrolling, self-criticizing, obsessing, drinking alcohol, zoning out, etc.)
A place to begin is to ask yourself these questions:
What am I doing when I feel anxious about climate change?
What do I say to myself when I feel anxious? Am I being kind?
How can I take care of my anxiety in a calm and loving way?
Check the cognitive distortions.
When anxiety is hogging the microphone, it says all kinds of unhelpful (and not true) things:
The worst case scenario WILL happen and it will happen NOW.
The problem needs to be solved NOW or not at all.
There’s NOTHING I CAN DO to effect change.
When these unhelpful thoughts happen, take notice. Begin to practice taking a step back, checking it, and reworking the thought to be something more balanced or useful. (There’s a helpful phrase to remember this sequence: catch it, check it, change it).
This doesn’t mean that you should only have positive thoughts, because that’s also not helpful or realistic.
Get in the practice of reworking anxiety thoughts to something more balanced and in-the-middle.
There’s a chance that this summer will be a rough fire season, but there’s also the possibility for spring snow and summer rain.
Even if it’s a rough season, I’ll be able to cope through it.
It’s okay to feel stressed out about this.
Take notice of behaviors that are making your anxiety worse.
Sometimes the things we do in response to anxiety help really well in the short-term, but not so well in the long-run. Doom scrolling is one in particular that tends to just make us feel like garbage, especially in light of uncertainty.
It can be tough to strike a balance between protecting your peace and being informed. When you notice your anxiety spiking wildly, it’s probably time to put the phone down.
Just be here, right now.
When things start to feel overwhelming, come back to what’s true for you today.
Lean on activities that help put you back in your body and feel a sense of connection to the present.
Start a gratitude practice.
Do something physically indulgent.
Take some deep breaths.
Exercise.
The future will be the future, and uncertainty still exists, and we still deserve to be present in our life that’s happening right now.
Identify small action steps that can effect change.
We as individuals cannot solve the climate crisis, but individual actions do matter.
Come up with a list of actionable steps - things you can get started on right now. Things that will make an impact to someone in your life or your community.
These actions don’t even need to be directly related to climate change.
Go out of your way to hold the door open for someone
Donate blood.
Support a small business.
It feels good to feel a sense of agency during uncertain times.
When all else fails, lean on avoidance… but only for a little bit.
Avoidance is generally not a helpful coping skill in the long-run, but in the short-run? It does serve a function.
When the horrors of the world get to be too much, it’s okay to take a break.
Watch trashy TV.
Call your best friend and laugh until your stomach hurts.
Listen to millennial nostalgia music.
Get yourself a fancy coffee treat.
Do whatever it is that you need to do to take a pause and reset. Come back to the rest when you’re ready.
Reach out for support if you need it.
I’m here to help if you need support navigating life’s stressful times. Reach out to set up your free consultation call.
Taming the Backcountry Jitters
Embarking on a mountain adventure of any duration means stepping into new territory, both mentally and physically. It’s normal to feel a mix of excitement and nerves, whether that’s in training or on the trip itself. Along the way, you might question yourself, your abilities, or what the heck you’re doing on the edge of a glaciated mountain at 4am.
It’s important to understand that anxiety is a normal, healthy part of being human. We are wired to have anxiety in situations that are perceived as dangerous or life-threatening. When all goes as intended, anxiety serves a protective function to keep us safe via the fight-or-flight response, which is the body’s automatic way of conserving resources by fighting or fleeing threats.
This normal, adaptive response system can go haywire when we are faced with new or uncomfortable situations, such as wearing crampons for the first time or climbing through the night. Anxiety skyrockets when we overestimate the likelihood of danger while underscoring our ability to cope. We might have other reactions to the anxiety itself (“what’s wrong with me for feeling this way”) which can kick anxious thoughts into overdrive.
Luckily, there are many ways of managing anxiety so it does not have such a strong hold on you. While you might still always have some degree of anxiety in the backcountry, it doesn’t have to ruin your adventure.
Here are some practical tools for calming the backcountry jitters:
I summited Mt. Rainier in 2019 and had plenty of backcountry jitters that day.
Understand what anxiety looks like for you. Anxiety manifests a little differently for everyone. What are your warning signs? Perhaps it’s negative thoughts, irritability, breathing changes, or a tightness in your chest. When you understand your specific warning signs, you have the opportunity to take a step back, evaluate, and put coping skills into practice before anxiety escalates to a panic.
Breathing skills. I cannot overstate the benefits of intentional breathing for managing anxiety. Your breath is the only physical function that you can directly control, and it is your anchor to the here-and-now.
Box breathing can be especially helpful – inhale to the count of four, hold for four seconds, exhale for four, pause for four. Repeat this continually for a few minutes. Start practicing this in the days or weeks before your climb so that you use this reflexively when you start to feel anxious. You can also pair your breath count with steps to get your mind and body in sync.
Even better, pair the inhale and exhale with a personal mantra that feels grounding or reassuring, such as “I can do hard things” or “one step at a time.”
Control the controllables. Anxiety catapults us into the future, forcing us to think about “what-ifs” instead of “right nows.” While it can indeed be helpful (even life-saving) to be prepared for potential outcomes, it’s equally important to be focused on the step in front of you - literally, the step you are taking.
When anxiety starts to spiral, take a breath and identify one or two actions that you need to do right now – you’ll get to the rest when it’s time.
Label it and share it with someone. I envision anxiety like holding a beach ball underwater, especially when mixed with other emotions such as embarrassment or shame. It requires an increasing amount of focus and pressure to keep it under the surface, yet it shoots up anyways. Giving it a name (“I am feeling anxious”) without judgment is like letting some air out. Sharing how you are feeling with a teammate is a way to let the air out even further. Your team is there to support you!
Remember your “why.” You took time out of your busy schedule to be on the mountain, likely at the expense of other important parts of life (work, family time, etc). What are your reasons for being on the mountain aside from the summit? Remembering your “why” during moments of distress can remind you that it’s not just about how you feel in that moment – it’s part of a larger journey. As a bonus, every struggle you face on the mountain will make it a better story to share later.
Anxiety shows up for everyone on the mountain, from novices to experienced athletes. Anxiety is not a sign of weakness; it’s simply part of taking on new challenges outside of your comfort zone. It’s important to nurture your mental health during big adventures, just as you would your physical health.
With the right care and attention, anxiety can be something that you work with instead of against on your next adventure. And remember– everything you learn about yourself on the mountain can be applied to other parts of life.
This post was originally published on the Alpine Ascents blog, and has been modified slightly.