Surviving Climate Anxiety
A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Learn how to cope with and heal from climate anxiety in this groundbreaking guide by “the most prominent American advocate of ecopsychology” (New York Times).
With climate disasters mounting and solutions feeling ever more elusive, eco-anxiety is rapidly becoming one of the biggest mental health threats of our time.
Surviving Climate Anxiety is the essential guide to coping with the psychological impacts of persistent environmental crisis. In it, the world's leading climate anxiety expert Dr. Thomas Doherty shares his pioneering, evidence-based methods to help you:
Reclaim your nervous system: manage your thoughts and feelings, and stress about climate change Understand your environmental identity: your history, values, and connection to the natural world Prioritize eco-wellness: Utilize arts, creativity, and spirituality as tools for flourishing Liberate yourself from living as a climate hostage: overcome fear of climate disasters and tend to eco-depression and grief Broaden your horizons of hope: cultivate optimism through stewardship and action
Packed with practical, research-backed tips and dozens of stories - from the geologist haunted by images of melting glaciers, to the young couple agonizing over whether to bring a child into a world on fire, to a twenty-something wondering what it was like back when people believed in a future - Surviving Climate Anxiety provides the tools to cope, heal, and flourish, even in these times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Psychologist Doherty shares a lucid guide to coping with climate crisis-induced depression and anxiety. Presupposing the reader's understanding of the situation's gravity, Doherty mostly avoids outlining the perils of climate change and instead explains how to adjust one's behavior and feelings to cope, beginning with standard practices like reframing thoughts and more precisely labeling one's emotions. Later sections get more specific, detailing how readers can define their "environmental identity"—or "deep-seated beliefs, attitudes, and relationships towards nature in all its forms"—and use it as a sort of North Star to guide the environmental initiatives they pursue and ways in which they connect to nature. The goal, Doherty explains, is to find a "stabilizing, grounding force to combat the free-floating existential dread... about the planet's future" and move forward in a more focused, productive way. The author's lack of alarmism is refreshing, as is his middle-of-the-road approach to appreciating "good things, honestly and in the present moment, while also having an awareness that things could be much better," making room for "moments of gratitude and satisfaction... alongside moments of outrage and anger." The result is a smart, practical guide to battling through the uncertainty of one of today's most pressing global threats.
