Speak Up. Reach Out is Freshered's mental health initiative.
From droughts to floods to unnatural heatwaves, increasingly unusual weather patterns seem to be making the news, daily. If this is keeping you awake at night you, along with many other students, may have climate anxiety.
Following the warmest year on record with the UK recording its first ever temperature above 40°C (40.3°C in Lincolnshire), it is only natural that climate change would be a contributor to the declining mental health of the younger generation.
A survey by Save the Children found that 60% of young people surveyed felt that climate change and inequality is affecting their generation’s mental health.
Put simple, climate anxiety is being plagued by feelings of fear or worry about the future. Despite the planetary impacts of climate change occurring right before our eyes, the popularisation of the term ‘climate anxiety’ has only truly emerged within the last five years.
These feelings of anxiety are entirely natural, and unfortunately, completely justified. There is also, unfortunately, no magic wand that is going to make the root cause of this anxiety go away. However, there are ways that you can manage these feelings.
How Students Can Manage Climate Anxiety
Managing climate anxiety is largely about making yourself feel in control of something that is uncontrollable for individuals.
Lifestyle Changes
- Bamboo toothbrush
- Plastic-free living
- Walking/cycling as opposed to driving
If you have read this far into the article, you’re already familiar with these ideas. Large-scale intervention would involve the enormous corporations and businesses that are major contributors. However, small-scale changes can make you feel more comfortable about the part that you might play in the exacerbation of climate change.
Podcasts
Having climate anxiety in the first place suggests that you do care about the future of the planet, so it’s not always a bad thing. Try listening to Greenpeace’s podcast suggestions to ease your climate anxiety.
Talk About It
There is an incredibly high chance that, once you talk about it, you will discover that you won’t be alone in your feelings. The fact that ‘climate anxiety’ has its own term should be proof enough of this. Although climate anxiety can make you feel a sense of powerlessness, it can be comforting to know that others feel the same way.
Related: Alternative Ways For Students To Destress
