Self-care in troubled times

By Meg Turville-Heitz, RRC Board Member

Today’s uncertain budgets, staff reductions and the loss of support for initiatives intended to mitigate or adapt to climate change can have real health and mental health impacts on conservationists and outdoor workers.

A recent Wisconsin Land + Water Conference included a session on the impacts of anxiety and depression on conservation workers, and other environmental advocates, especially around issues of climate change. It also explored the mental and physical health impacts triggered by air quality, heat, natural disaster, etc. on various population groups.

Many attendees at the panel expressed a sense of loss of their “safe space” in the outdoors and grief for their mission in the natural world. The environmental harms they witness, uncertainty as programs they invested in end, and frustration with a lack of progress, can trigger anxiety and depression. Compounding an already fraught situation, are recent federal government and U.S. Supreme Court decisions that halted climate change initiatives, rolled back regulations, and removed many wetlands from protection.

The session host, Waukesha psychiatrist Emily Walz, MD, associated with Waukesha Community Health Center, Inc and the Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers in Milwaukee, highlighted several climate change and environmental issues that have a correlation to health:

  • Particulate matter in the air (PM 2.5) from wildfire smoke can cross the blood brain barrier and cause brain inflammation. This increases risks of dementia and higher rates of depression and cognitive disorders in children.
  • Flooding and severe weather can lead to mental challenges from grief, financial loss, frustration and even anger, especially in cases where a disaster could have been mitigated. This challenge includes first responders. Some responders face helping others when their own homes have been lost or family are unaccounted for.
  • Research found for every one degree of outside deviation in temperature from normal (high or low), suicides increased by 1-7 %. The studies documented that heat led to increases in anger and aggression. The highest risks were to people who are very young or old, pregnant, have chronic illness or who work outside. Those who suffer schizophrenia, based on a 2021 study, have higher odds of dying during a heat wave than others.
  • Farmers are less likely to have insurance or coverage for health. Mental health is covered even less. Their current reliance on the government for funding, and environmental conditions for subsistence, leave them vulnerable to anxiety, distress, and/or suicide.
  • Constant exposure to heat and smoke, can cause debilitating health conditions for outdoor workers.

Walz focused on adaptive responses and discussed a variety of ways to potentially help to alleviate the feelings of frustration, depression and trauma that are less adaptive, as well as a few resources.

Coping strategies attendees identified include:

  • Finding community,
  • Taking inspiration from new faces in their field,
  • Finding inspiration in working on adaptation and mitigation strategies,
  • Taking heart in the power to effect change in lower levels of government,
  • Modeling a positive attitude in the face of uncertainty allows for flexibility instead of feeling frozen by the anxiety of not knowing what’s next.

Walz noted that the main maladaptive defense against anxiety is avoidance, which only makes anxiety build. Instead, she says:

  • Take a break and enjoy simple pleasures.
  • Turn off the phone, TV, and dive into an unrelated thing for a while.
  • Do what brings immediate
  • Prioritize the things that can be accomplished.
  • Get enough sleep and find some release through sharing with others who have like-minded concerns or through journaling.
  • Instead of catastrophizing, reflect on what’s working.
  • Engage with a spiritual community, such as one focused on nature, meditation, or a religious community.
  • Express gratitude for what’s there; and share grief with others.
  • Seek out social support and or find a mentor.

If suicidal thoughts intrude, seek professional help.

Additional resources Walz shared: