Climate change - I think I want to die

[HelpMeICantCope]

I don’t know what to do or how to cope. All I can think about is climate change and how nobody is doing anything to stop it. This has happened every summer for the last couple of years, the fear of what is coming and the grief for the damage we are doing is unescapable. I’m supposed to be on holiday with DP (well, I am on holiday) and it’s taking all my mental strength not to fall apart. I’m shaking, I can’t eat, I can barely sleep. He’s fine and thinks we’ll solve it and life will go on. I can only see the apocalypse. In another life I’d want to have children, but how can I bring them into this? I just want a simple life, why is this happening to us?

If it wasn’t climate change you would be fixated on something else, another looming catastrophe. You issue is anxiety. Life is uncertain for all of us. If you are doing your bit then that is is all you can do. I would see a GP because in the kindest way this level of worry is not normal or healthy. You don’t and never can control the world and what others do.

This sounds a lot like a form of existential OCD. the best thing you can do is get control of your thinking patterns with CBT and medication if necessary then work on what you can do as an individual to try and make a difference.

@SweetSakura they are the temperatures from the Met Office mean maximum temperature for July from 1890 - 2021. Hardly see how studying statistics at university could show they are tosh. Or are you utterly invested on hyping up the irrational fears of people on this thread.

@Mefuckingtoo Knowledge of statistics demonstrates that those figures that you gave us are far too small and selective a sample to be meaningful. The attached image (average global temperature) is far more reliable.

To balance out the above image, I have attached a graph of CO2 emissions per person per year in the UK. Change is happening.

I'm not saying that immediate action isn't necessary. I'm just saying that there is action happening, and it's starting to work. We are already steering away from the worst case scenarios, but we need more action to avoid more damage to our environment.

SweetSakura · Yesterday 10:33

I don't think its irrational to be beside yourself with worry about this. Far more irrational to minimise it when the science is so clear.

I find it really hard seeing people continue to live their lives as though climate change isnt real.

I am not sure medication is the solution to a real actual problem.

However, time doing things to make a difference will help.

And taking time out from worrying and learning to compartmentalise is fine.

And spending time with People who are trying as well. It's do demoralising doing your bit and feeling like you are the only one

I agree. Also with BluOcty

Thank you to all of you replying in good faith. Your comments are really helping and it’s especially helpful to see that change is happening, or starting to, @Loopyloopy.

@StoodOnAPlug, nice of you to come onto a thread on the Mental Health board to tell someone with suicidal thoughts to get a grip. Cheers for that.

To the PPs suggesting that some sort of action might help, I’ve found a local Transition group, part of Friends of the Earth, who I’ve got in touch with.

I’m still not sure medication is the right thing for me in this case, because what’s causing the anxiety is really real. But I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.

Throughout history most of life has been shit.

Those who are depressed are often seeing the most clearly. It just isn't sustainable to live without the rose tinted glasses - as you are finding out!

So, not gaslighting, yes climate change is real and deeply concerning, but it's not actually normal for humans to worry or care much about existential crises. You have a mental health issue which your GP can help with. Worry doesn't help anyone in any case, only action does, and you don't need to feel anxious to take action

Please stop this. Your obsession is out if control and is dangerous. Please speak to your GP asap and get some help and support. Hopefully you can have for eg some AD's and some counselling.

@Babdoc , yours is one of MN's sanest voices.

Hi @HelpMeICantCope as others have suggested you really should talk to your GP.

But, a huge amount is being done to tackle climate change and out of the G7 or G20 the UK is at the forefront of reducing our carbon footprint. The biggest thing we need to do is stop burning fossil fuels, it really is that simple. The renewable energy industry is huge, at any one time roughly 30% to 50% comes from renewable or low carbon sources and the UK has plans for an increase in offshore wind alone of 500% over the next decade.

Advances in hydrogen fuel, power to liquid aviation fuels, battery technologies, heat pumps, carbon capture etc etc all mean we can have a sustainable future, and that includes your future children as well.

The circular economy is growing every year, and the future will be different but I'm really positive for our children's future.

I understand OP and it is a huge concern. You've got some good advice here from other posters about seeking help with your anxiety. I just wanted to reach out on your comments about deciding not to have children, which is a choice that a few people I know are also making, and it is really, really sad.

Me and DH have not made that choice, despite being aware of these issues. I still do not feel that it is bad enough to mean that a child's life will not be worth living, and I think it could be worth discussing that with your therapist, as you may be catastrophising somewhat (yes it is bad and it will eventually be awful, but I believe that the next 80 years will be good enough for a good life).

I also believe that we need good people to help with this cause in the future. If you can raise a child well and give them good influences, they may grow to be someone who can make a positive impact on the world. As someone who is in a relatively privileged position of being educated and having reasonable amount of money and decent lifestyle, I feel I can do a good job of raising a child (just one) to be a good person.

Maybe I am naive. But for me, it's not yet at a point where I would decide not to bring children into the world. I do worry that my grandchild/ren might have to make that sad decision.

Honestly the people on here telling op to get a grip or stop wailing are fucking outrageous

She's posted in a mental health area of the site because she obviously has an inclination that her thought patterns arnt helpful and are causing her massive distress and you're flaming her? She's not put it in the chat group for obvious reasons.

The climate change anxiety is just a theme of OCD. health, harming someone, religion or, bodily functions are many of the other themes OCD can take and are debilitating. If you don't know what you're talking about and just want to emphasize or try to understand, I suggest you fuck back off to AIBU because, yes you absolutely are being unreasonable

• don't want to emphasize

Medication is not only for people who have anxiety/depression about 'pretend' things.

Several people I know have taken drugs to get through difficult things in their lives e.g. bereavement, family issues, illness, etc.

There is nothing wrong with taking medication, even if the issue you are anxious about is real. This issue of climate change is there for everybody, but not everybody has the extreme level of anxiety that you do which impacts on their day to day lives (including people like me, who know the issues, and are concerned, but are still able to live their lives).

I would recommend checking it out, it might help you.

Even when the anxiety is about a very real danger, the physical response it generates can sometimes be crippling rather than helpful. It can generate a freeze response, when what we actually may need is our fight response.

Taking meds might get you away from any physical feeling that feeds into "I ought to die" and let you focus on "I need to take this action instead".

Therapy can also be helpful. It isn't about seeing a molehill instead of a mountain. A good therapist should be able to acknowledge what you're worrying about, but still help you through the thought processes leading to "freeze" (I would say suicide is the ultimate freeze) and help you find a way to a more useful response for the situation.

A more useful response might range from fighting (eg, campaigning) to resting (eg, putting the worry thoughts down temporarily, so that you can divert your energy to a different priority for a while). Either way, it's about being less locked up in a miserable holding pattern.

The climate crisis gets me too. I'll never be able to live a net zero life on my own either. But I've made changes here and there that align with my values more, and that has helped.

@want2bemum thank you. I still think that on balance we’d want to have a child, but I do lie awake at night wondering about what sort of live s/he would have in the decades to come. Thinking about deciding not to have a child made me break down in tears yesterday - it feels like being robbed of something I thought we’d always have.

Thank you as well for your point about people taking medication when they’re bereaved or having family issues - that makes total sense.

@overthinkersanonnymus I think you’re on the money with OCD tendencies. It definitely feels obsessive, and it feels like disordered thinking, at least compared to most other people. How do people working in the sector/industry cope? Or do you get to see enough of the positive steps too to give you hope (e.g. the 500% increase in wind power in the next 10 years)?

You aren't alone with the way you feel about the magnitude of the crisis. IIRC, Greta Thunberg's first response to her climate-related anxiety was severe anorexia and mutism. She had to change the response to that anxiety. When she did, she helped not only herself but millions of others.

@iCouldSleepForAYear thank you. I found myself wondering yesterday how campaigners like Greta cope (not for a second comparing myself to her obviously!)

But it feels like having this blindfold taken off and you see this horror that we’re hurtling towards unless we take drastic action (which several PPs in industry have pointed out is in progress, hence the UK’s drop in carbon emissions).

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your responses. Going to get in touch with my GP when we get home.

Your anxiety and MH issues have nothing to do with climate change. If there was not climate change you would find another focus for your anxiety. Hopefully you are having treatment and counselling.

@Loopyloopy as I guessed, you just want to scare the OP more rather then help her get some perspective on the actual threat to her, as an English resident. The mean temperature of July in the UK has hardly changed in the last 100 years. Global data abs carbon load has nothing to do with what I was sharing. Temperatures in the UK have actually stabilised over the last ten years. We are using less carbon as a nation, our birth rate is falling. It is not as hopeless or catastrophic as it is portrayed. Have some CBT. Take some anxiety meds, but also get some perspective. You are not going to be scratching out an existence on parched earth here in the UK.