"Climate" won the 2019 Word of the Year contest! For a long time we ignored environmental pollution until finally their negative effects convinced us that it can only get worse. Just 3-4 years ago, would we have thought that Poles would start worrying about the climate so much that the concerns would require psychological support? And yet - climate depression is no joke!
Accelerated Ecology Course.
"Climate" was chosen the Word of the Year 2019 by a chapter of linguists in the Words for the Time competition organized by the University of Warsaw. And the competition was fierce, as second place went to the famous acronym LGBT. In 2018, in the same competition, "smog" took a high third place. In the last 3-4 years, Poles have begun to take climate change seriously and actively counteract further pollution. In opinion polls published in 2019, climate catastrophe ranks at the top of our concerns about the future - next to war, economic crisis or our own health. It's no longer a joke, a figment of the imagination of haunted environmentalists or a fad - we have felt the negative effects of climate change firsthand (such as droughts and numerous tornadoes).
We have also practically experienced.
The negative impact of a polluted environment not only on our physical health, but also on our psyche.
(For more on this topic, see my previous article "Smog and the Psyche - how polluted air affects our mental health".
https://www.cpp.pl/psychexpress/smog-a-psyche-zanieczyszczone-powietrze-wplywa-zdrowie-psychiczne/
). Increasingly, when changing our place of residence, we take air quality into account. There are also cases of whole families moving from the southern regions of Poland to the north, forced by health problems of adults and children. We have come to understand that it is man who contributes to changes in the environment, so he can also actively prevent its further degradation. We trust scientific knowledge and experts in the field more. Caring for the climate and clean air has become an important part of branding cities, businesses and even employers. The year 2019 was a watershed year, with companies outdoing each other with information campaigns and statements that, out of concern for the environment, they are abandoning the use of paper materials, plastic bottles, disposable cups, plastic packaging, etc. Environmental awareness is becoming something as obvious as the rules of good manners.
In 2020, a serious company must be resolutely "eco" and also environmentally educate its customers, business partners and employees!.
Fear of disaster.
This increased awareness is also accompanied by a loss of a sense of security and fear that we have no influence over global phenomena and their effects on us, our loved ones and even our life's achievements. This anxiety is further compounded by the impression of a lack of active action on the part of state authorities - recent opinion polls show that most of us rate the Polish government's climate protection efforts as highly inadequate. Burying one's head in the sand by avoiding information about climate change or denying it is not a good defense strategy. Most people choose the more effective strategies of joining the trend of slowing down environmental degradation. This requires changing lifestyles (bicycles instead of cars), daily habits (segregating garbage), giving up convenience (own shopping bags), modifying menus, etc. In a word, being more "eco" and encouraging others to do the same. In 2017. American Psychological Association described
phenomenon of "climate depression" .
(climate anxiety)
as so-called pretraumatic stress.
- chronic fear of climate catastrophe, the negative consequences of which we cannot even imagine. It is not a separate disease entity included in the international classification, but a type of reactive depression i.e. arising in response to certain phenomena/events. Symptoms of climate anxiety may include information seeking or avoidance, recurring thoughts and images of potential disaster, anxiety about the future, insomnia, memory disturbances, loss of meaning in life. In such a situation, there is usually a strong need for group support - conversation, information sharing or joint action. Active pro-environmental activities in cooperation with others, and even participation in social actions or protests, help reduce the fear of climate catastrophe.
In more difficult cases, psychological support can be helpful - there are already support groups in Warsaw and several large cities.
Their goal is to help people cope with their own emotions that express climate anxiety: some may feel anger, others sadness and helplessness. Author:
Dorota Strzelec.
-Psychologist, career counselor, crisis intervener, coach, trainer
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