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Therapist advises on climate change burnout paralysis
Licensed therapist Leslie Davenport offers advice to Grist readers on managing burnout related to climate change anxiety. She suggests focusing on internal regulation and practical action to counter feelings of helplessness. It's about shifting from overwhelmed inaction to a more regulated, resilient state.
Licensed therapist Leslie Davenport offers advice to Grist readers on managing burnout related to climate change anxiety. She suggests focusing on internal regulation and practical action to counter feelings of helplessness. It's about shifting from overwhelmed inaction to a more regulated, resilient state.
The architecture take
The conversation around climate anxiety often leans into 'doom and gloom,' which, frankly, just spikes my cortisol. But Davenport's approach is more useful. She says burnout isn't just about overwork; it's also about a feeling of futility that leads to paralysis. This isn't groundbreaking, but the application to eco-anxiety is sharp: you need a sense of agency to calm the nervous system. The actual mechanism at play here is a perceived lack of control elevating our stress response. By suggesting concrete actions, even small ones, and framing it as internal regulation, she offers a path to downregulate the HPA axis. I've found it's not the scale of the action that matters, but the shift from passive worry to active, however tiny, engagement. That's a good lesson for any overwhelmed state.