ECO-ANXIETY AND SOLISTAGIA: TOOLS FOR ENGAGING WITH CHILDREN AND YOUTH AROUND CLIMATE CHANGE

Presented by Nicole Hardy, MSS, LCSW

DEFINING ECO-ANXIETY

• The American Psychological Association (APA) describes eco-anxiety as “the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one's future and that of next generations.” 
• However, it’s important to not pathologize appropriate responses to stressors. Anxiety, grief, depression, and anger are all common and valid responses to loss and to traumatic events.
• What have you seen in your students?

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SOLISTAGIA

• Solastalgia is a unique form of distress that specifically results from upsetting, unstoppable, often abrupt changes to a person's home and/or larger environment. These changes are becoming all the more common as climate change escalates.
• Solastalgia can be thought of as a deep form of homesickness for the home or land of your recent past, experienced while still living in that home or place. People with this condition may feel their sense of place, belonging, and comfort has been eroded or is under attack, causing mild to severe and chronic symptoms of anxiety, depression, loss, distress, and powerlessness.
• Researched by Glenn Albrecht, an environmental philosopher

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON MENTAL HEALTH

Surveys examining concerns about climate change stratified by age have found:

• Distress about climate change is high among the general population.
• Young adults experience the highest levels of distress.
• 67% of Gen Zers self-reported feeling “somewhat” or “very” concerned about the impact climate change has on their mental health.
• 59% of young adults aged 16-24 living across ten countries — including the U.S. —reported feeling “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change, and over 45% reported that this worry interferes with their daily functioning.
• Many youth feel that their concerns are dismissed when they try to discuss them with adults.
• Concerns about climate change have begun to shape major life decisions among young people, including where they live, what careers they pursue, and whether or not they plan to have children.
• From “Climate Change and Youth Mental Health” Report, December 2021, www.climatementalhealth.net

WHAT CONTRIBUTES TO DESPAIR?�BAD NEWS BIAS!

• It’s important to understand the impact of the near constant stream of negative news that permeates news media, social media and, often, daily conversations.
• Repeated exposure contributes to feelings of hopelessness and despair. Staying stuck in a fear cycle impedes students’ ability to engage with learning content and access change strategies.
• In addition to increasing experiences of anxiety and depression, a narrative of hopelessness furthers disengagement. Students having a sense of action and at least some locus of control helps to mitigate despair.
• Do you see this in your students? Do you experience this yourself?

UNDERSTANDING THE FEAR-AVOIDANCE CYCLE

SO WHAT TO DO?

• The goal of interventions for climate anxiety should not be to eliminate negative emotions, but to facilitate healthy processing of emotions, reduce stress and functional impairment, and foster resilience.
• Acknowledge that eco-anxiety is an appropriate response to an all-too-real existential threat. Fear is a completely valid response!
• Help students use their anxiety about the future to take constructive actions that help mitigate climate change, such as making lifestyle changes or engaging in activism.
• Support students in balancing the duality of acceptance and change strategies. Grief is a crucial part of navigating this balance.

GRIEF PROCESSING

In 1967, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross proposed a model that can be a helpful tool for understanding students’ grief responses:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

Grief is not linear! It’s common to cycle through these experiences repeatedly. Some people may not experience all five steps. Leave room for diverse experiences. Holding space for grief helps with processing and integration.

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WHAT TO DO WITH ANGER?

• Anger is a normal and healthy part of grief expression. You may even find that anger is a predominant response for some of your students!
• Notice what other emotions anger activates in your students. Does it motivate change? Despair? Disconnection?
• Try to maintain a balance of honoring the inherent wisdom of students’ responses. There is not a right or wrong way to experience and process grief.
• “If parts of our world that we loved were dying, we would expect to grieve. These feelings are normal, healthy responses…They help us notice what’s going on; they are also what rouses our response.” –Joanna Macy

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FINDING MEANING

In 2020, David Kessler suggested that there is a sixth stage of the grief model:

Finding Meaning.

He proposed that Finding Meaning can be a step past Acceptance. This speaks to the role of integrating the grief or loss, as well as the potential for visualizing a future that reflects those changes.

This can be a beautiful opportunity to imagine a world where changes are made. How can you include success stories in your lessons? How can lessons reflect opportunities for growth and change? Imagination and creativity are welcome tools to explore this topic!

VALIDATION, INVALIDATION, AND TOXIC POSITIVITY

• Using strategies of grief integration and finding meaning do not mean toxic positivity. Toxic positivity generally isn’t helpful and often shuts down students’ valid concerns. Encouragement is well-intentioned but can feel unintentionally invalidating to students.
• Invalidation can feel like dismissal or rejection, which impedes dialogue and accessing learning.
• Validation seeks to increase connection and help students feel heard and seen with their concerns. Validation helps people receive encouragement.
• However, be careful not to validate the invalid!
• Use tools of reflective listening and acknowledgement. Like all of us, students want to feel heard!

EXAMPLES

• “Try not to worry.” VS “This is hard and scary.”
• “Humans always figure out solutions!” VS “It’s overwhelming to think about the unknown options.”
• “Being angry isn’t helpful.” VS “It’s normal to feel angry about this. What does that anger make you want to do?”
• “Hopelessness won’t change anything.” VS “I hear that you’re feeling hopeless and overwhelmed. I get it.”
• “Every generation has something that feels catastrophic.” VS “This is a large, complicated, and scary global challenge.”

• “Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it’s going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts.” --Joanna Macy

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We can work to change the narrative!

• Validate students’ emotional responses, while also exploring other emotional experiences related to our place in the world.
• Stories of hope, rewilding, conservation, coexistence, and other climate solutions can counter narratives based in hopelessness and despair.
• As is appropriate to the setting, building concrete action steps into lesson plans is a powerful tool to foster a sense of personal and community based agency and change.

CLIMATE JUSTICE AND CLIMATE ACTION

Youth are at the forefront of many of the climate change and climate justice movements taking place around the world. From individuals like Greta Thunberg to organizations like the Sunrise Movement, young people are taking the lead with demanding and implementing changes.

Changes can include direct actions, legislative advocacy, lawsuits, peer support, letter writing campaigns, etc.

Individual actions add up to make a difference. Instilling a love for the outdoors in children creates an investment and motivates change. Planting native plants, supporting pollinators, and doing lessons outside are small changes that connect to a bigger investment in mitigating climate change.

RESOURCES

• The New York Times has an entire database full of resources dedicated to tools for teaching about climate change. It covers a wide array of topics.
• The Climate Mental Health Network is also an amazing resource. They have films, teaching materials, and are also looking for teachers (and parents) for focus groups.
• EcoRise focuses on student-led organizing and activism, utilizing a curriculum that include environmental justice work. They also offer a teacher ambassador program!
• Climate.gov offers a wide array of teaching resources for classrooms K-12.

RESOURCES, CONTINUED

• Subjectoclimate.org offers a huge array of lesson plans, including science, arts, social emotional learning, language arts, and lessons in other languages.
• Columbia Climate School; Climate, Earth, and Society offers lessons plans for K-12, as well as live, interactive teacher trainings. They offer specific climate activist training tools and trainings.
• Climatechangelive.org offers lesson plans and activities for both teachers and students, grades K-12. It is more science focused and includes many nature-based interactive lessons.
• The Nature Conservancy has excellent narrative-based resources for younger kids.

SAMPLE LESSONS FROM CLIMATEMENTALHEALTH.NET