Surviving Climate Anxiety: A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving

Psychologist Doherty shares a lucid guide to coping with climate crisis-induced depression and anxiety. Presupposing the reader’s understanding of the situation’s gravity, Doherty mostly avoids outlining the perils of climate change and instead explains how to adjust one’s behavior and feelings to cope, beginning with standard practices like reframing thoughts and more precisely labeling one’s emotions. Later sections get more specific, detailing how readers can define their “environmental identity”—or “deep-seated beliefs, attitudes, and relationships towards nature in all its forms”—and use it as a sort of North Star to guide the environmental initiatives they pursue and ways in which they connect to nature. The goal, Doherty explains, is to find a “stabilizing, grounding force to combat the free-floating existential dread... about the planet’s future” and move forward in a more focused, productive way. The author’s lack of alarmism is refreshing, as is his middle-of-the-road approach to appreciating “good things, honestly and in the present moment, while also having an awareness that things could be much better,” making room for “moments of gratitude and satisfaction... alongside moments of outrage and anger.” The result is a smart, practical guide to battling through the uncertainty of one of today’s most pressing global threats. (Oct.)