When I was a kid (1980s), I was absolutely convinced the world would end soon due to nuclear weapons. Google "time magazine covers ussr nuclear weapons" to see what the media screamed back then.
This is pure gold. Literally yesterday, I have started writing a longer research article on "climate change mitigation" collateral damage, and though I remembered the study from 2021 about climate anxiety in kids, I completely forgot where it was published, and Google doesn't give the best results. It was like you read my mind! This is a great blog, keep up the work.
To their credit... it is in the APA’s interest to ensure that more and more people need shrinks, no? An embedded growth obligation if there ever was one!
In 2013 The Atlantic had an interview with a psychotherapist that critiqued the DSM process. He notes, "As early as 1886, prominent psychiatrists worried that they would be left behind, or written out of the medical kingdom. For reasons not entirely clear, the government turned to the American Medico-Psychological Association, (later the American Psychiatric Association, or APA), to tell them how many mentally ill people were out there. The APA used it as an opportunity to establish its credibility." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-real-problems-with-psychiatry/275371/
The addendum to this is that the main "anti-eco-anxiety" groups mainstreamed in the environmental movement (and increasingly society as a whole) are Britt Wray's GenDread and the Good Grief Network, both of which are intimately tied to and regularly platform fringe voices that promote the idea of inevitable societal collapse and/or human extinction. The founders of both groups are connected to Michael Dowd (wannabe Guy McPherson near term human extinction type) and their resource lists are filled with people promoting such ideas. When the people who are supposed to help you get over ecoanxiety and deliberately perpetuating it, how is anyone supposed to find relief?
A nudge can work wonders. Get weather reporters to substitute the undefined "normal" for the mathematical "average" in their scripts and like magic, every day is now "abnormal" and you should be afraid every day.
Climate Central was recruiting paid promoters a decade ago for their "TV Mets" campaign to pressure these "trusted messengers" to attribute all non optimum weather to "global warming". Seems to have been successful.
I think the best elevator pitch on why not to be emotionally distressed is the way the one flooding study was reported:
"Did you hear about the study that predicted 187 million people would be flooded in 2100? They actually predicted as few as 5000 per year with low cost flood protections"
I think a key follow up is to validate their concern: "That doesn't mean you shouldn't be concerned, that's good, it's just that the situation is 1000 times less worrying than the news headlines"
When I was a kid (1980s), I was absolutely convinced the world would end soon due to nuclear weapons. Google "time magazine covers ussr nuclear weapons" to see what the media screamed back then.
This is pure gold. Literally yesterday, I have started writing a longer research article on "climate change mitigation" collateral damage, and though I remembered the study from 2021 about climate anxiety in kids, I completely forgot where it was published, and Google doesn't give the best results. It was like you read my mind! This is a great blog, keep up the work.
To their credit... it is in the APA’s interest to ensure that more and more people need shrinks, no? An embedded growth obligation if there ever was one!
In 2013 The Atlantic had an interview with a psychotherapist that critiqued the DSM process. He notes, "As early as 1886, prominent psychiatrists worried that they would be left behind, or written out of the medical kingdom. For reasons not entirely clear, the government turned to the American Medico-Psychological Association, (later the American Psychiatric Association, or APA), to tell them how many mentally ill people were out there. The APA used it as an opportunity to establish its credibility." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-real-problems-with-psychiatry/275371/
The addendum to this is that the main "anti-eco-anxiety" groups mainstreamed in the environmental movement (and increasingly society as a whole) are Britt Wray's GenDread and the Good Grief Network, both of which are intimately tied to and regularly platform fringe voices that promote the idea of inevitable societal collapse and/or human extinction. The founders of both groups are connected to Michael Dowd (wannabe Guy McPherson near term human extinction type) and their resource lists are filled with people promoting such ideas. When the people who are supposed to help you get over ecoanxiety and deliberately perpetuating it, how is anyone supposed to find relief?
Interesting! Thank you.
A nudge can work wonders. Get weather reporters to substitute the undefined "normal" for the mathematical "average" in their scripts and like magic, every day is now "abnormal" and you should be afraid every day.
Climate Central was recruiting paid promoters a decade ago for their "TV Mets" campaign to pressure these "trusted messengers" to attribute all non optimum weather to "global warming". Seems to have been successful.
Great article. Thank you.
I think the best elevator pitch on why not to be emotionally distressed is the way the one flooding study was reported:
"Did you hear about the study that predicted 187 million people would be flooded in 2100? They actually predicted as few as 5000 per year with low cost flood protections"
I think a key follow up is to validate their concern: "That doesn't mean you shouldn't be concerned, that's good, it's just that the situation is 1000 times less worrying than the news headlines"