It is Groundhog Day every year. The last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on the Environment and the Climate tabled in August taught us nothing new; the most pessimistic scenarios are overtaken by reality and governments must act urgently, otherwise we are on our way to ruin.
The fears about such predictions have had a personal resonance with me for a long time. At the beginning of adulthood, my psychologist taught me that the essence of the anxiety disorder that I had just been diagnosed is to hold on to any object around us. She had just put words to the fears that had accompanied me since the end of my childhood. For years, I had obsessively scrutinized the temperature gauge in my mother’s car, comparing the number in front of me to the normal at this time of year. The rain at Christmas made my blood run cold. It was visceral discomfort for me to be in a car with the engine running for no reason. I even resented the city employees who cleared the snow from the streets the day after a storm because they put in front of me the asphalt discovered from the warmer winters that climate change would hold in store for us in the future.
Eco anxiety
This chapter of my life illustrates the fact that mental disorders have multiple causes that go beyond a chemical imbalance in someone’s head. Indeed, according to the current paradigm in psychiatry, the mental health of an individual is based not only on factors of a biological and individual nature, but also of an environmental and social nature. Our mental health will indeed be shaken if we are plunged into evil due to extrinsic factors.
This is why living every day with a sword of Damocles like the ongoing planetary upheaval is a significant risk factor that deteriorates everyone’s mental health.
No wonder the results of an Ipsos poll reported in Press last October 161 indicate that 59% of respondents are afraid of climate change. That’s not to mention the distress caused by climate change when it materializes. In the wake of the forest fires that devastated the American West, an article in the New York Times published last summer reported that events of this nature can lead to symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
How to remedy all this discomfort? As my psychologist did with me in the past, today, in my peer helper practice, I encourage the young people I see to play down the events and to act when possible to get rid of the feeling of helplessness. that disease inflicts on them. However, these two strategies are struggling to suffice when we talk about a truly existential threat and when we try to make us believe that salvation comes through thicker plastic bags and cardboard straws.
Act once and for all
Also, it is my opinion that exerting strong pressure during the multilateral negotiations of COP26 in Glasgow next month would be a tremendous public health action as it would eventually help to create a major impact on well-being. millions of Canadians. Canada must use all the means conferred on it by its status as a middle power to leave a salient mark on the occasion of this historic summit.
This is not to mention the ambitious policies that the Trudeau government will have to adopt across Canada, which prides itself on being a defender of the environment despite a mixed record.
Imagine for a moment how deeply the vision of the future of an entire generation, mine, would be profoundly transformed if we no longer had to worry about the survival of our children. As a study published in The Lancet in 2019, ambitious actions could prevent deaths attributable to food insecurity or the increase in the number of extreme weather events. Such actions could finally instill a little hope in everyone. Perhaps we could then really speak of “sunny ways”.
1. Read the article “Climate change survey: majority of young people say they are afraid” What do you think? Express your opinion