"People with brain injury are not immune to climate distress. Add that to brain injury grief and grief from life losses, and it crushes us into feeling out of control and in despair. As a writer researching climate change for my latest novel, the third book in The Q'Zam'Ta Trilogy about life after death, I had no choice but to plunge into facts about our current level of global warming and modern agriculture's contributions to climate change."
"Even without having to research climate change, I cannot dismiss it as if it isn't real. Superficially, dismissing it may seem like a good way to avoid distress, but avoidance as a coping tactic only works for so long. Climate distress lurks beneath the surface, remains in the subconscious, throwing up sudden anger or sudden depression, creating an emotional minefield. Add in neurophysiological damage to the emotion centre and/or locus of control, and it creates havoc in one's daily life."
"But if you can somehow find a way to gain a sense of some control, to take action, no matter how small, it reduces despair and chips away at anxiety in a healthier manner. You're less likely to ride the climate distress roller coaster. For me, that was using every grant and zero percent loan that the government offered to install solar panels and replace my gas-fired furnace and stove with a cold climate heat pump and electric induction stove."
Climate distress, anxiety, and grief arise from large-scale environmental change. People with brain injury experience climate distress together with brain-injury grief and losses, intensifying feelings of helplessness and despair. Learning factual details about warming and agriculture can provoke shock and depression while remaining necessary for envisioning future scenarios. Avoidance temporarily masks distress but allows subconscious anger or sudden depression to surface. Neurophysiological damage to emotional centers and the locus of control worsens emotional instability and daily functioning. Small, concrete actions restore some control, reduce despair, and chip away at anxiety. Home electrification using grants, loans, solar panels, cold-climate heat pumps, and induction stoves lowers energy costs and increases comfort.
Read at Psychology Today
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