(no subject)

[galadhir]

Ugh, having decided to come back to DW to do more long-form posting, I've ended up firing off my mouth on Tumblr. So I'm going to copy/paste my screeds over here before they become lost in the reblogs.

This one was written as a reply to someone whose mental health was suffering as a result of reading too much about climate change and global catastrophe, and who just didn't know what to do. I think it comes across as though I know what to do, but I don't. This is just my best guess:


I honestly think the human brain was not designed to handle the amount of bad news we throw at it day to day, and that when it becomes a mental health problem, we are beyond that point.

Making yourself ill will not help the world. The larger world won't notice, and your own world of people who actually know you will be hurt by it. So it would actually be a good and helpful thing to stop reading about climate change and concentrate on getting your mental health stabilized, in the short term.

In the long term - find out what YOU can do about climate change and do that thing.

For most people, there won't be an awful lot that you can do. But you can sign petitions. You can use green energy yourself and argue your friends/family into it. You can reduce your use of energy and plastic, and support food producers who are producing food in ways that improve the planet. You can spread awareness of the issues to the people you know. You can vote for politicians with good environmental credentials and support the work of larger organizations. You can start or join a community project to protect or improve a specific thing in your area...

If you're at the start of your life, you can can consider going into a field where you can help the environment. The world needs regenerative farmers and land managers and people working for Greenpeace and green politicians, and honest eco-friendly journalists and scientists researching renewable energy, and planners of green cities and builders of eco-friendly houses and designers and makers of regeneratively produced clothing, and inventors of plastic-substitutes, protectors of endangered lands and species, and makers of community gardens etc etc.

You can't do everything. Nobody can do everything. But you can probably do something.

So find your something you can do, and do that. And then try not to take responsibility for the things you don't have the power to change.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

Excellent reply, on both accounts.

[galadhir]

Thank you!

[mistressofmuses]

I agree - while I think that it's an amazing thing how connected the world is, and how much access we all have to news and information... it also means we are continually bombarded with tragedy and catastrophe from all sides. No mind or heart is meant to cope with that, least of all for someone who struggles with mental health already.

But doing what you can as an individual can help, even if it's not solving the large-scale problems (which are often too big for any individual to impact.) But me using my reusable grocery bags won't fix how many plastic bags there are... but it might prevent a few from ending up in one of my local ponds.

And once you feel up to taking those actionable steps (small though they may be), sometimes you at least feel less despair, because even if you can't fix it all, you are doing what you can to keep it from being worse, and even small positive impacts matter.

[galadhir]

Yeah, I think it doesn't help that our news seems to be focused on awful things and outrage. It's about time we started running news stories about good things that are happening as well.

And exactly. When I started trying to reduce my plastic waste, I saved it all up for a month and it was absolutely horrifying how much there was of it. The volume of waste generated by just one household in a year is astonishing. Reducing even that is not negligible. (Now my plastic waste in a month fits inside two hot-chocolate bottles, which is where I put it to keep it contained.) And that's just one household. The more people who are doing even that, the huger the impact.

[mistressofmuses]

Exactly! Our media absolutely focuses on the things that produce anger and outrage. While I *am* glad that this means that issues can be exposed to a broader audience (which means sometimes they get the attention needed for change), it gets overwhelmingly exhausting. (Add to that the particular social-media brand of "activism" that shames people for disengaging, or not maintaining the same level of anger over *every* issue, and it's no wonder people get burned out.)

Reducing plastic waste is HARD. There is SO MUCH that's packaged in single-use containers, or overpackaged, or designed to be replaced... My tiny household of two makes so much. I try to make decisions that help cut it down, but I know there's more that we could do.

[galadhir]

Oh it really is! There's plastic film on practically every food item you can buy. And so many new cleaning products seem to be focused on disposable wipes that are strengthened with plastic. And clothes are plastic, and even tea-bags are strengthened with plastic. It's in everything!

And unfortunately I've noticed that a lot of people are getting the message that the world is already broken beyond repair and they might as well just party while the ship sinks. A lot of young people I know can't see a future at all, which is heartbreaking in itself and can't be good for anyone.

[mistressofmuses]

It is heartbreaking how many people feel like there's just no hope whatsoever. I know I've seen several people talking about how therapists are seeing an increase in things like that... the kind of hopelessness and despair about the world as a whole, and the inability to make any positive impact on it.

[vanilla_elf]

Just the answer I would have given. Actually, it's the answer we do give in a professional environment! It's devastating to see how many people who had managed to stabilise their mental health for many years are now coming back and ask for help because they are overwhelmed - it's all just too much. Too much of everything.

(Please tell me nobody took offense... then again it's tumblr. Yeah, don't answer that. Heh!)

[galadhir]

*g* The nice thing about Tumblr is that if you don't make a special effort to look for the replies, it's actually quite hard to catch them. So yes, I've got quite used to saying my piece and then not looking to see if anyone's replied. Part of the reason why I'm back here, in fact, just for some semblance of community and conversation.

But yes, I don't think it helps that the environmentalists are all WE'RE ALREADY DOOMED!!! while the politicians are still proceding like the environment is that unimportant thing that no one cares about. I'm sure we could do more if there was a bit more emphasis on hope and finding things that we could do to help.

I'm glad to know it was good advice. Thank you!