What I Shared With Doctors Picking Up The Pieces From Hurricane Helene
What I Shared With Doctors Picking Up The Pieces From Hurricane Helene
Climate emotions in the aftermath of a disaster, and for years to come
I got the email at 9:30 pm last Monday and I smashed reply within minutes.
Would you like to talk about climate emotions to a group of doctors doing a rural family-medicine residency program in Western North Carolina, who are now dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene along with their patients?
This was a hell-yes for me. We are at such a heartbreaking, overwhelming moment, everyone is looking for a way to help, and now I had a small thing I could do. It really felt like a gift.
And it was a prompt to make my thoughts on this topic as succinct as possible.
I want to share here what I said in case it’s helpful to others.
What To Know About Climate/Polycrisis Emotions
They are near-universal
They are more intense in young people, people of color, and disaster survivors
They are normal, not pathological. More like grief than depression. Grief is a sign of love and healthy attachment. Climate emotions are a sign of our connection to everything that is alive.
Climate emotions can arise from direct experience, or helping other people who are going through difficulty, or exposure to media, (in other words, vicarious trauma). They can be related to the past, present or future (in other words, anticipatory).
All of the above applies to other kinds of “pain for the world,” by the way, like our compassion for poor people or victims of war, or our reaction to political uncertainty. In other words, a lot of what is going on right now. You’re not alone and you’re not ‘crazy’.
What To Know About Coping With Polycrisis Emotions
Coping requires four things (apologies to Maria Ojala).
General emotional literacy and regulation tools like breathing and mindfulness, talking it out, singing and dancing and painting it out, time in nature, exercise, listening to music, crying, hitting a pillow or loving on a pet
Action towards the problem - We can’t therapy or bubble-bath or optimism and positive-thinking our way out of climate anxiety. We need to be taking real, meaningful action, like making our personal lifestyles more sustainable to the extent possible, actions toward resilience like preparing for disaster, and collective action—community based efforts, civic engagement and activism for big picture solutions.
Mental reframes - Taking action will inevitably not be enough and we will get exhausted and disillusioned. This is bigger than any of us. We need some real wisdom for the journey.
Mutual support and trust - You need to find and make safe spaces. Cultivate connections to people you can trust with your feelings and vice versa. There is still a lot of silence around climate emotions either for political resasons, or social pressure—fear of being a downer to others.
1. Emotional Literacy, Resilience, and Regulation Tools/Resources
Climate Emotions Wheel & Resources https://www.climatementalhealth.net/wheel
Climate Mental Health Network Guide to Climate Emotions https://www.climatementalhealth.net/_files/ugd/be8092_ef3abbb96dd04130835b06eae6550b0e.pdf
What To Do When Climate Change Scares You workbook for kids https://www.apa.org/pubs/magination/what-when-climate-change-scares-you
APHA Climate And Health Youth Education Toolkit — for those who want to educate on climate and health impacts, including mental health
https://apha.org/topics-and-issues/climate-health-and-equity/education
Educators Guide to Climate Emotions https://www.climatepsychology.us/educators-guide-climate-emotions
2. Action
It can feel daunting to contemplate taking collective action on top of all our other responsibilities. I tailored this message toward the room of family medicine doctors. I wanted to make sure they know that they can take meaningful climate action within their jobs.
You can too, and you can take meaningful action in your role as a parent/caregiver if you are one (beautiful piece on caregiving as climate action by Jo Del Amor).
The American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement from February 2024 recommends doctors: “Incorporate climate change counseling into clinical practice. Assess climate risks and recommend climate solutions when screening for and addressing social determinants of health such as energy, food, and housing security.” In other words:
Talk to patients about protecting against heat waves, and the signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke in kids, or whatever the local extreme weather might be.
Talk to them about the importance of clean air, what air-quality numbers mean, risk factors for asthma.
Talk to them about the tick and mosquito season getting longer, and infectious diseases.
Recommend walking, biking, time in nature, and plant-based foods, all of which benefit both health and the planet.
Recommend reusable, nonreactive water and food containers rather than single-use plastic that leaches chemicals.
If you’re in a deep-red part of the country where it’s dangerous or controversial to do so, as these doctors pointed out, you can do all of the above and keep your patients safer without mentioning climate change.
3. Mental Reframes
At some point, when dealing with climate emotions, it’s going to feel overwhelming, futile, or you will get disillusioned. You will feel this way again and again, hitting wall after wall. The actions you’re taking usually will not bring immediate positive results, or the results are invisible. There is burnout.
I think these feelings—overwhelm, futility—are what keep many of us from facing these emotions in the first place.
That’s why in addition to emotional regulation and action, we need some mental reframes, changes in thoughts or outlook. These can come from art, philosophy, spiritual teachings, or more. They include:
We’re doomed! We’ll never fix this The future is still unwritten; You are not omniscient and don’t know what will happen; There are rewards on the journey
I can’t do this/I can’t do enough It’s not all up to me, Many people are working together
This is too painful to deal with It’s ok to take a break, I deserve joy, my pain is a sign of my connection and capacity for love.
4. Mental Reframes, part 2 : Resilience vs Post-Traumatic Growth
These days when something horrible happens, we often take the name of the place where the horrible thing happened, and add the word STRONG. Presto, a hashtag:
#MauiStrong. #UvaldeStrong. #UkraineStrong.
The message is one of resilience, which is defined as “the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties.” Resilience connotes bouncing back.
But sometimes we’re not strong enough. Sometimes we don’t bend, we break. We don’t recover quickly, or at all. Sometimes the presumption of resilience is unrealistic, and even cruel. What then?
Then you have the opportunity for post-traumatic growth.
Post-traumatic growth occurs in the presence of harm, of trauma, of brokenness. Not despite of, but because. It doesn’t diminish the force of the harm, but it changes the shape of what comes after.
For example, among a group of low-income Black mothers, a majority experienced post-traumatic growth after Katrina. A major factor was the resources invested in their community’s recovery.
The five dimensions of post-traumatic growth are: seeing new possibilities in one’s life, improving relationships and feelings of warmth and trust in others, feeling more strong and confident in one’s self, having an enhanced appreciation for life, and “spiritual change”—a renewal of meaning.
Post-traumatic growth can also be fostered in others. It becomes more available when people are told it is possible to grow after tragedy.
One more time: Knowing post-traumatic growth is possible, makes it more possible.
Growing emotional literacy (there it is again), raises the potential for post-trauamatic growth.
When we are listened to, given a chance to tell our story and invited to write a new chapter, post-traumatic growth may also occur.
And finally, post-traumatic growth can manifest through acts of service, especially helping people who went through something similar to you.
So I asked the doctors to consider that they have the opportunity to grow from Helene, to help their patients grow, and maybe one day, to pass on their experience, to help the survivors of the next disaster, which is all too soon.
Reading
The 2024 State of the Climate Report —this is strong stuff so make sure you are in a good headspace.
An important new climate book from a pediatrician—h/t
: “There’s no good future for our children if we don’t stop carbon pollution.”