Essay by Eric Worrall
Reinforcing climate delusions, or being a relatable mental health worker?
Climate Change Is Keeping Therapists Up at Night
How anxiety about the planet’s future is transforming the practice of psychotherapy.
By Brooke Jarvis
Oct. 21, 2023Andrew Bryant can still remember when he thought of climate change as primarily a problem of the future. When he heard or read about troubling impacts, he found himself setting them in 2080, a year that, not so coincidentally, would be a century after his own birth. The changing climate, and all the challenges it would bring, were “scary and sad,” he said recently, “but so far in the future that I’d be safe.”
…
The smoke was the first sign that things were starting to change. People who live in the coastal Northwest often joke that the brief, beautiful bluebird summers are the reason everyone puts up with so many months of chilly gloom. But starting in the mid-2010s, those beloved blue skies began to disappear. First, the smoke came in occasional bursts, from wildfires in Canada or California or Siberia, and blew away when the wind changed direction. Within a few summers, though, it was coming in thicker, from more directions at once, and lasting longer. …
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… “Paying heed to what is happening in our communities and across the globe is a healthier response than turning away in denial or disavowal.”
,,,
Over and over, he read the same story, of potential patients who’d gone looking for someone to talk to about climate change and other environmental crises, only to be told that they were overreacting — that their concern, and not the climate, was what was out of whack and in need of treatment. (This was a story common enough to have become a joke, another therapist told me: “You come in and talk about how anxious you are that fossil-fuel companies continue to pump CO2 into the air, and your therapist says, ‘So, tell me about your mother.’”)
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In a field that has long emphasized boundaries, discouraging therapists from bringing their own issues or experiences into the therapy room, climate therapy offers a particular challenge: Separation can be harder when the problems at hand affect therapist and client alike. …
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/magazine/climate-anxiety-therapy.html
The climate anxiety being felt by patients and their therapists is very real to them, however ridiculous it might seem to us.
The patients suffering climate anxiety obviously have trouble relating to therapists who don’t believe in the climate crisis. But on the other hand, wouldn’t a patient who believed she was being stalked by the tooth fairy have just as much trouble relating to a therapist who didn’t take the tooth fairy seriously?
What if all their immediate peers and friends were also on the lookout for the terrifying tooth fairy? That’s a lot of affirmation for a belief normal people would regard as utterly delusional.
And of course, both patients and therapists look on climate skepticism, or denial as they see it, as a maladjustment to a very real crisis. A conviction your non-believer therapist is mentally ill, along with all the affirmation they receive from other sources, probably makes it very difficult for the climate anxious to accept counselling and help from unbelievers.
What a mess.
Ultimately I guess it doesn’t matter much if some people live in irrational fear of the tooth fairy, or live in irrational terror of an imminent climate apocalypse, so long as they can function well enough in their daily lives to take care of their kids, hold down a job, and obey the law.
If climate anxious therapists are the best people to help their climate anxious patients to live with and manage their fear, in a way which is compatible with an otherwise productive and happy life, perhaps that is better than the alternative.
Of course, there is one inescapable consequence for the rest of us, of allowing such climate delusions to stand unchallenged. The politicians such people vote for usually try to impose their delusions on the rest of us.
It sounds to me like we have some therapists who shouldn’t be dealing with patients, but should be in therapy themselves.
Yes, those drawn to become therapists seem to be in the greatest need.
Any excuse for the authority of a white coat.
The new cassock
Having worn a white coat for many years, I am glad to say that I have looked, but never found, a picture of Michael E. Mann in a white coat.
To all the hopeful single men out there, I can also say: Get yourself a job in a University Hospital that means you can walk the corridors wearing a white coat and an ID badge that can’t be quickly read.
There. That’s the best free advice you will ever get.
“a picture of Michael E. Mann in a white coat”
a picture of him in a straight jacket would be preferable- perhaps an AI expert here could evoke it 🙂
I was just about to suggest one of those Smoking Jackets that Tie in the Back and a Room with Buttons on the walls.
Q) Does your room have buttons on the walls?
A from room next door) yes it does…(Q) Does yours?
A) Nope…It used to have buttons but I ate them!!!
If you ask me (and obviously you didn’t) any psychiatrist who suffers from Climate Anxiety, or anxiety in general, ought to have their head examined! I’d suggest trepanation as a start to determine the existence of gray matter.
Yes, the psychiatrist needs therapy, too.
If I were their therapist, they would be in good shape. 🙂
The first thing I would ask them is: What was the evidence that convinced you that CO2 is a dangerous gas?
I would then show them that what they thought was evidence was actually speculation, assumptions, unsubstantiated assertions or fraud.
Then they could leave reassured that there is no evidence the Earth is coming apart at the seams.
Yeah, because it helps them to feel better by “treating” someone as screwed up as they are. They do more harm than good.
Not really. I don’t think you have encountered people with the greatest psychological need.
Who counsels the counselor?
After one particular public mass car crash or some such, I recall the BBC reporting “The victims were being given counselling”.
My astute companion commented “Don’t they have any friends?”
If I were the therapist I would first ask if the patient has solar panels on the roof, or has an array in the yard, and if the patient uses fossil fuels every day. THEN if she has solar panels and has stopped using fossil fuels, then I would give her strong meds to calm the anxiety, and beneficial electro shock therapy to the temples, it calms the mood I hear.
“”Key Takeaways
Anxiety and distress related to environmental issues have spiked in the last decade, spurred by a dramatic increase in climate disasters.
Climate-aware therapists are trained to look for signs of climate-based distress and anxiety and help their patients become more resilient.
Creating connections with others can help people with climate-based distress to cope with their feelings.””
https://www.verywellhealth.com/climate-aware-therapy-5200762
“Anxiety and distress related to environmental issues have spiked in the last decade, spurred by a dramatic increase in climate disasters.”
It’s amazing how delusional climate alarmists get. Claiming there is “a dramatic increase in climate disasters” is just false. There’s no evidence for this, yet here they are making this claim. They are just making things up. Contributing to the hyperbole.
The only thing that has dramatically increased is the climate alarmist reporting on the subject. The Climate Change Alarm has been turned up to 11 in the Mass Media.
Anybody who calls themselves a psychiatrist or psychologist is, 97% of the time, in dire need of help.
They will never question why they now have bulging – profitable – case loads. We know why though, don’t we.
Many psychiatrists are also way too eager to prescribe highly addictive drugs, like Adderall, Mydayis, Prozac, Valium and other mood altering drugs, especially since the symptoms they’re legitimately prescribed to treat are way too easy to fake.
Geez, I must be of the 3% of the lucky one’s. Your are equating an entire profession with political pandering and then grossly and unfairly disparaging them all. Yet there is truth in your perspective…especially now. A therapist who pandering to a political movement is in violation of their ethical standards. It is a big boundary violation in therapy to align with a clients political beliefs. I am not personally aware climate anxiety therapy. I retired from the field over a decade ago but nothing surprises me now.
The vast majority of “therapists” are leftarded morons simply ripping people off and causing mental problems where there never were any to begin with.
Has anyone here done a search through ‘Psychology Today’ articles to see if psychologists are in on deception?
This is an extremely important subject.
Thanks for the article, Eric Worral.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/psych-unseen/202204/why-dont-people-believe-in-climate-change
from that:
Yet, while people around the world are becoming more concerned about climate change, climate change denialism persists in one form or another.
It must be eradicated as it’s Satanism! 🙂
also:
“One reason has to do with “naïve realism”—the belief that our personal experience is reality.”
You’re darn tootin! I step outside- see no emergency- yet I’m told there’s an emergency- I should be fearful- I should change everything about the way I live. All ’cause they say so.
“One reason has to do with “naïve realism”—the belief that our personal experience is reality.” — well it’s weird that woke psychologists have poo-poohed that, because elsewhere among the social justice classes, that’s exactly what “lived experience” is (ask Megan Markle), and you’re a racist if you don’t bow down to it.
“climate change denialism”
Yes, when they use a term like that we know what side of the fence they are on. Good luck getting an unbiased opinion from them.
I have met some women involved in the mental health field, always nutty lefties. And one I met was a lying scammer nut job, but she was cute!
The colorful language used in your ad hominem attack on the “vast majority of therapists” makes me laugh. I am glad I have been of the ‘vast minority of therapists’ who wasn’t intellectually disabled nor ripped anyone off. In fact, I have never encountered a colleague that I would include in your vast majority in over 40 years. I made a very modest living as a therapist working in community mental health. But I get were your ae coming from. The world has changed. The state of my profession has declined in the past 20 years. There are charlatans and mountebanks in every progression especially mine.
BTW I am a life long Democrat who rejects anthropomorphic climate change. Since it’s genesis early on, I concluded global warming/climate change was a political movement due to it’s one variable pseudoscience. Anyone that says we are the problem has a problem. We have always been the problem and will always be the problem…you just have to love us. It is a ideological/philosophical/political movement I want no part of. And you don’t escape it by being a Republican. It takes a great deal of money to push the dystopic propaganda into every nook and cranny like Psychology Today. The article in psychologic today is set up to pathologize climate change skepticism is nothing more than a lame ad hominin attack ( logical fallacy) dressed up as empirical using lame ad hominin labels such as “naïve reasoning” and “motivated reasoning”, which like a horoscope, can be applied to just about all of us including climate change activists. This means the movement is being leveraged by very powerful people with lot’s of money on the line.
Anthropomorphic? Shouldn’t that be ‘anthropogenic’?
Thanks Martin for the correction. The climate change movement is highly anthropomorphic with one anthropogenic variable of causation.
And you are a highly braindamaged leftard. We. Get. It. You can stop proving what a braindamaged leftard you are
Story tip
“”Hydrogen boiler push to continue despite verdict of UK watchdog
Government and gas-focused industry body resist conclusion that heat pumps are ‘only viable’ option for heating UK homes””
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/21/hydrogen-boiler-home-heating-uk
Pass the popcorn….
Ugh I tried reading but got mired in the delusions. Apt for a topic on climate anxiety delusions.
Everybody is going bananas for the wrong reasons and mostly the wrong results. It’s a godawful mess isn’t it?
It certainly is a complete dog’s dinner
I struggle with this kind of stuff. My first impulse is that the people seeking help are weak and uniformed and or ill informed. They need to grow up and inform themselves, stop depending on others, become more independent. Most people like this I have little sympathy for they need to grow up. On the other hand I can see there is more than likely a number of people with serious issues and they can not be treated that way. They need help but not the kind of help they get from therapists who are so lazy or unconcerned that they can’t be bothered to look into the matter themselves. Then they (therapists) are a part of the problem not the solution.
Many simply need a wise grandfather.
Jordan Peterson is being defrocked by his professional association for refusing to go for re-education on how to relate to the wokey dozens of genders out there in Wonderland created by lefty ideologues. So the correct therapy is now against the law.
That is pitiful.
I hear you Bob, but I’ve recently seen first hand that such depression can reach a point where people are no longer capable of rationally evaluating the evidence.
A close friend has been driven to this point by illness in his immediate family, he can’t accept that the treatment for the illness is working and the prognosis is good. In his mind he is still trapped in that hellish time when the prognosis was bad and nothing seemed to be working.
I think seeing my friend suffer this way has given me more sympathy for people suffering climate depression.
I mean it might seem completely absurd for someone to work themselves into such a state over an imaginary bogeyman like climate change, but not everyone has the analytical ability to evaluate the evidence for themselves, and even if they do, they could have been so traumatised by their fear, they are no longer capable of being rational about the issue.
Obviously such people to an extent endanger the rest of us, their climate delusions and the resource misallocation these delusions have fostered have done enormous harm to the global economy and the wellbeing of us all. But I can recognise this, yet still feel sympathy for people trapped in their own personal hell.
Yes Eric I think you are referring to the group I would cut slack. They do need help, on the other hand I have friends and family who are fit and educated and refuse to believe anything unless they hear it from the mainstream media, even if what they believe is proven to be wrong. I have no sympathy for them, they can go to hell.
Seems like climate dpression is increasing. Could it be that those who control the climate change reality knob have been successful in spreading their delusion?
Is there a metric for this?
Maybe the number of deranged disturbances (Net Zero traffic blocking) per number of outrageous MSM articles. The trick is finding unbiased datasets…
Neurotics build castles in the air.
Psychotics live in them.
Psychiatrists charge the rent.
Politicians pander for their votes & donations (“never waste a crisis”)
MSM for their eyeballs & clicks (“if it bleeds, it leads”)
Enviros for their donations (and convince them not to have kids)
Academics ask for grant funding (model mania “research”)
Anti-Capitalists to accomplish things no one would ever knowingly vote for
Prior to the WEF I would have said it’s not a conspiracy but a confluence of interests. Now I’m not
so sure.
But as someone here at WUWT said: “Dupes vs Knaves”: most people are being duped [and this fosters anxiety] by the Knaves who really know better.
Be kind to the dupes, but ridicule the knaves!
Green jobs – Not Keeping Therapists Up at Night
“”British Steel owner preparing to cut as many as 2,000 jobs, report says
China’s Jingye Group said to be considering move as part of switch to using greener electric arc furnaces””
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/22/british-steel-owner-preparing-to-cut-as-many-as-2000-jobs-report-says
The only benefit to be gained from these so-called therapists is the increase in fitness which results from sprinting away from them as fast as your little legs can go.
Well, at least it is encouraging that the people that these “potential patients” talked to told them “they were overreacting — that their concern, and not the climate, was what was out of whack and in need of treatment“. Hopefully there really are a very large number of people who understand the real nature (pun not intended) of the climate.
I think there are, but the Al Gores and Dale Vinces of this world have the money, the greed, the influence, and the useful idiots all the way down to Michael Mann.
How dare you question the existence of the Tooth Fairy! Denier!
Yeah you got me 🙂
As punishment you must do an in-depth analysis of which you are more likely to find; a tooth fairy or a Climate Apocalypse! I’m giving 2 to 1 odds on the tooth fairy!
The tooth fairy provided evidence when I was a kid… 🙂
“fossil-fuel companies continue to pump CO2 into the air”
What an idiot. People, not ff companies pump CO2 into the air. He or she would probably respond, “but of course, I realize that”- well then, SAY it- that’s its all of us, not the ff companies.
I’ll bet *he* pumps CO2 into the air, too.
Anyone with so much climate anxiety as to go to a therapist over it- hasn’t enough real problems. 🙂
But they do have one Massive Unreal Problem
We are hard wired to deal with problems. If we don’t have real ones, we create imaginary ones.
The “climate scientists” had climate redefined so it is only around 30 years. I guess that is all the models could hope to handle. Meanwhile, the tropics are still hot the Arctic and Antarctic are still cold, the deserts are still dry and the rainforests are still wet. And, that will still hold for the foreseeable future.
Beyond the age of 30, most Supermodels tend to lose their attraction
Thank you. At my age, 82, I can attest to that. I’ve watched a lot of them age. And, I smiled.
I’m not so sure, Bryan! I dated a Victoria’s Secret model who was in her late 30s, and do you remember what Christy Brinkley looked like into her 50s!? Sheeeeesh!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
My Girl looked just as good to me in her 60’s as she did in her 20’s. Of course, she was special. 🙂
I can’t help but wonder if people living in ancient times (especially in the dark ages) suffered from severe anxiety from worrying about witches, devils, demons and resulting spells and possession….Did children cringe in terror when crops failed and storms came? Did they look to adults (ala Greta) to go up to the cottage on the hill and drag that nasty old witch (in reality some poor widow with an herb garden and too many cats) out and burn her at the stake? Did they then demand a purge (inquisition) against anyone who might call on the supernatural to affect the weather?
Something tells me there is no doubt people did endure psychological suffering in those days (the book The Crucible is but a more recent example of such hysteria). But supposedly (at least that’s what I was taught in school, when they actually taught reality) this is the age of reason. Sadly that seems not to be the case, and it appears we are heading into a modern day dark age where dogma and superstition rule.
It seems that mankind has moved into the Age of Indoctrination; reason is now racist, while emotion and victimhood are to be celebrated! At least the burning of 40,000-50,000 witches did seem to have some effect on the weather; they got to enjoy the Little Ice Age! And the killing of the witches familiars; their cats, had a noticeable effect of the spread of plagues and disease!
Much like the Climatocracy of today, the nobles and church leaders of the Middle Ages punished, tortured and killed those they consider disbelievers and heretics. Incidentally, wouldn’t Auto-da-fe be a great name for an EV? It could include a self-ignition button for punishing climate “deniers!”
It’s fortunate for the psychological trades that climate anxiety is mainly a problem among the middle classes, who have the money for therapy sessions. Better than dealing with low income bastards with all their poverty-related anxiety that can’t just be “affirmed” eh?
I wouldn’t send any person to a therapist having the same delusions as their patient. Indeed, therapists are being corrupted in their institutions of learning. I understand that climate anxiety has been added to the official lists of traumatic disorders caused by real things.
That serious climate change has been debunked, makes this a manufactured delusional disorder.
I think it doesn’t take too long before the screws start coming loose with these psychoanalysts, and associating/dealing with unstable clients speeds up the process.
Wildfires are a worthless reason to allow yourself to become insane. Where did these fires come from and how did they start? Many of them are purposeful arson and have nothing at all to do with arising due to climate change. I think most of these people, therapists and patients alike, have had lives that have been much too easy. They don’t believe in traditional religion and they find this psychotic worry about the non-existent climate change somehow adds some meaning to their otherwise worthless and empty lives. I have no empathy whatsoever for these people and just think they are screwed up and broken.
“Within a few summers, though, it was coming in thicker, from more directions at once, and lasting longer. …”
Obviously fact based science as the vortex over Colerado draws air in from all directions at once and stores it underground in the Rockies !
From the article: “Paying heed to what is happening in our communities and across the globe is a healthier response than turning away in denial or disavowal.”
Understanding what you are seeing is what you are missing. You have no historical perspective. If you did, then you would know that there is always extreme weather somewhere on Earth, and you would know that the extreme weather today is no more extreme than it was in the past.
There has never been a connection established between CO2 and extreme weather. You are working on the false assumption that increased CO2 is equivalent to increased extreme weather. The facts dispute this notion CO2 has increased, but extreme weather has not increased or become more extreme.
It’s not that hard to figure out that the Climate Change Alarmists do NOT have the evidence they claim they have about CO2. CONfidence levels are not evidence of anything, and that’s all the climate alarmists have. The whole Human-caused Climate Change narrative is based on basically nothing, other than that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but beyond that there is no evidence that CO2 is doing anything the climate alarmists claim it is doing. They can’t tell us whether CO2, after feedbacks are included, is net warming or net cooling the Earth. That’s how much they don’t know.
A whole lot of CO2 hysteria based on hardly anything at all. The evidence does not support a connection between CO2 and extreme weather.
I am a licensed psychotherapist and have been in practice for over 30 years. I am required to diagnose and treatment mental health problems not comment on my clients belief systems. Those therapists who align with member’s belief systems are breaking important boundaries that enable therapy to work. People need to live, cope, adapt and have a life regardless of what they believe about the world.
( the state of my profession is deplorable).
Growing up doing duck and covers during the bay of pigs, my Dad making 6-4 months trips to Vietnam, 1/2 the marine officers in my neighborhood killed in 1966, D.C. on fire in April 1968, racial unrest in my HS with numerous murders and suicides…I did graduate from that HS. hurricane Agnes killed many people in my region, being diagnosed with a inoperable brain tumor at age 21….. hey life has always been scary.
Yet I have never had a mental health diagnosis nor does all the crazy crap on the internet and in the news worry me at all. If people are not yet clear that we live in the age of the ‘Grand Hook Ya’ it’s time to wise up , log off and go read books and take your friends and families for walks and badminton games or something else …… get a life…scrolling ain’t it.
Unfortunately, our young people are living their lives often isolated on online and clamoring for a psychiatric diagnosis as some sort of badge of honor. Yes they are depressed and anxious (both clinical and sub-clinical). This is the inevitable outcome of living life online. They are running to therapists in record numbers with depression and anxiety caused by their life style. The divorce rate has definitely not helped.
Both my kids, 20 and 19 were happy, unencumbered, fun loving until we allowed them to have phones and free access to the internet at age 17. Now both are anxious and at times depressed due to the fire hose of flow of narcissism in social media. In addition, they are addicted to endless dopamine hits from scrolling tick tock. My daughter has given herself 3 diagnosis ADHD (scrolling addiction can cause ADHD symptoms but not ADHD), a personality disorder and depression….all a figment of her imagination. My son the same way…both see counselors in college. They don’t know who they are anymore or what to believe about anything. My mantra is “be yourself and only believe what you are sure is really true’, ‘it’s ok not to care or think about everything else unless you want to’.
The therapist’s job with young clients is to help them reality test the their basic presuppositions about who they are and their choice of lifestyle. In addition, to help them to build a more adaptive life style learning new skills and trying new things. It is a very long process because for many of our young people everything is too hard because they spend 12 hours a day scrolling. They are so hooked they find it impossible to cut back on the scrolling…even an hour out of 12. It’s hard to get a life when you have no clue what having a life is. Somatic complaints, psychiatric diagnosis and the state of the world become a psychological defense which justifies doing nothing and remaining snared in the quagmire of online addiction and even just normal life on line.. So fears about calamity, somatic and psychological disability become over reinforced to the point of near delusion. This makes our kid’s highly vulnerable to the suggestions of them mind control narratives.
The kid overwhelmed the climate catastrophe anxiety has to build internal and external boundaries that prevent external threat from becoming a personal internal reality. The hook is when an external threat drives internal guilt (false guilt). The guilt drives the anxiety. The result is kids just check out psychologically or the seek a solution to the guilt through a self righteous zealot approach. Instead of being the problem they become part of a solution. The hook ya nature of online life makes this 2nd option so easy. Political action is the way of life in America… if a kid wants to became politically active around an issue that is important to them great….but guilt is never a good reason. This sort of guilt is often false guilt due to poor boundaries around internal and external threats. This is the goal of propaganda… to get masses of people to move by breaking down the boundaries of people to fear… to feel guilty and to mobilize into self righteous action.
We saw this during the Vietnam war….( no comment here on whether war was just or unjust not my point here) my generation was scared of being drafted… it was a real threat either you embraced the threat courageously or you engaged in self righteous behavior to combat the threat…. protests, bombing school building etc. Once the draft ended the so called evolution of 1968-1973 was over. The protestors became yuppies and all the self righteous ethics of protest were converted to self righteous ethics of making money keeping up with the Jones. LOL.
Now we live in an age of dystopic propaganda were everything is a threat because threats and fear sell. The reality is the threat of death faces us with every breath we take from birth until death.
And too many kids don’t have two parents, which makes things much worse for kids.
True and a big part of the mental health crisis that is unfolding with our young people. Yet how powerful an impact does scrolling 12 hour a days have on kids who grew up in excellent families? It turns solid kids from solid families into big messes.
Jon Pepper’s latest satire “Missy’s Twitch” details many of these ideas. Fun book, released this year and hilariously timely (for now). Missy is an oil and gas heiress who acquires a twitch from her shame and distress over being part of the evil fossil fuel empire. Her therapist sees a gold mine and dubs her twitch climatosis, which the show runners behind the brain dead, hair sniffing president see as PR gold for imposing more world saving actions. Lots of fun to be had here and the author is spot on with current trends and events…including a line about Missy doing drugs and being so high that only ‘sidewinder missles and chinese spy ballons’ could go higher.
Thank you, but FYI, we got it covered.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/10/10/a-review-of-missys-twitch-and-the-scourge-of-climatosis/