New Eco-Therapy for the Eco-Anxious

In the wake of Al Gore's award-winning documentary on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth", other movies, news specials, television shows, and the resulting flurry of "green" articles in women's magazines this month, a new type of mental distress is rearing its head. Sufferers complain of panic attacks, loss of appetite, irritability and unexplained bouts of weakness, and sleeplessness.

The Right Angle at Human Events reports--

'Eco-anxiety' is the latest product of environmentally induced concerns. The sensationalized temperature focus intensified last week with Al Gore's senate testimony on the matter. Like Gore's increasingly frustrated statements, American apprehension levels about global warming have swelled to unhealthy proportions. These -- mostly unnecessary -- stresses can be attributed in large part to a constant media bombardment of intimidation. Not to mention the partisan political soap opera such headlines produce.

Columbia News has more information about the state of Eco-Therapy here in the U.S.--

Melissa Pickett, an eco-therapist with a practice in Santa Fe, sees anywhere from 40 to 80 eco-anxious patients a month. They complain of panic attacks, loss of appetite, irritability and unexplained bouts of weakness, sleeplessness and "buzzing," which they describe as the eerie feeling that their cells are twitching. Pickett's remedies include telling patients to carry natural objects, like certain minerals, for a period of weeks. Making environmentally friendly lifestyle changes can also prove therapeutic, she said.

The fears of the eco-anxious are fueled by abundant media coverage of crises like global warming, collapsed fisheries and food shortages. The Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" warns that only 10 years might remain to avert a major environmental catastrophe.

LEAP, the Life Empowerment Action Program based in Sebastopol, California describes the two-pronged benefits of their Eco-Therapy program for the eco-patient--

Eco-therapy works on two levels: The first is Earth-bound or Earth-centered, and is focused primarily on living sustainably for the benefit of the planet as a whole. On this level, being immersed in nature reminds us that we are simply a small part of a bigger picture, rather than a separate and dominant force. When we begin to see the earth and ourselves as one, it becomes natural for us to act sustainably. Only then do we realize that feelings of guilt, anxiety and despair result from our failure to act.

The second level is person-centered. The process of Eco-therapy focuses primarily on providing benefits to the individual. Contact with nature becomes restorative, a place for reflection and, for many, creates a place of spiritual connection grounded in a wider sense of belonging and presence. The beauty of Eco-therapy is that it usually leads to a feeling of interconnection and relationship and to a consciousness that recognizes that a healthy planet and a healthy individual are part of the same process - the process of sacred and authentic living.

People suffering from eco-anxiety are convinced humans are driving the earth towards environmental doom. They worry about everything from global warming to pesticides to being struck by mega-asteroids. The media, television shows and movies have helped to convince a growing number of people that environmental doom is imminent. They internalize information from sensationalists and doomsayers without taking the time to fully think through the level of the perceived threat.

Dr. Gavin Schmidt, who studies climate variability at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, attributes the rise in eco-anxiety to a naive public. He told reporters "The fact that people don't have a good grasp of how science thinking works, means they don't have a good grasp of what they should be skeptical about."

"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action," Schmidt said, "but there's no scientific reason to despair."

Sources:

Worried about environmental doom? Go see an eco-therapist, Columbia News Service, March 13, 2007, tp://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2007-03-13/nobel-ecoanxiety

Are You Eco-Anxious? , The Right Angle @ Human Events, March 26, 2007, 3/http://www.humanevents.com/rightangle/index.php?id=21679=3&title=are_you_eco_anxious&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Eco-Therapy, Life Empowerment Action Programs, http://www.aboutleap.com/ecotherapy/