Dear reader let me tell you a story. Idalia hit the West Coast of Florida last week. It was 4 p.m., the day before the landing of Hurricane Idalia. My husband and I were still working. My son was sleeping. We had not prepped the house at all. Windows exposed. We didn’t have water or food. The news kept urging us to get ready. I franticly left work and got all the necessary supplies. When my husband, Roberto got home, we put all our potted plants in, patio furniture, grill, and all the other junk we have outside. It started raining. My husband was like, “Forget the windows.” We didn’t board the windows.
I went inside cleaned the tub, and filled it with water. That’s when the anxiety started to seep in.
Lately, this little devil on my shoulder keeps telling me, “This is it! This is the one that’s going to mess us all up.” An angel keeps telling me “to pray.” This hurricane deal is getting a bit scary. The anxiety started settling in. I couldn’t sleep that night. I was glued to Tiktok and the news trying to figure out if we would sink. I worried about the windows, the flooding, and the people who were experiencing homelessness, and slept that night under the tent of an organization that’s on the other side of the block.
I fell asleep at 6 am. Woke up again at 11 a.m. Then spent all day in front of the TV looking at the news about the storm.
That’s such an unhealthy way for me to spend my day. As a writer, you’d think I’d sit next to a window, and listen to the rain while I write for hours. Couldn’t work, couldn’t write, couldn’t sleep. Nothing.
I was one of the fortunate ones whose area didn’t get hit that hard. But that anxiety I felt during the hurricane paralyzed me. As a Floridian, I’m used to hurricanes and honestly, I was one of the people who used to celebrate hurricanes with a bottle and music. But lately, climate change has changed my perspective.
Popular mental health tips don’t help me in the face of natural disasters either. After the hurricane, many families were affected. So many areas in Fl got completely flooded, which to be honest, apart from feeling horrible for the affected families and the damaged properties, the news served as confirmation that my luck might run out soon.
The media just makes the anxiety worse because they keep displaying all the devastating images, but I guess they serve their purpose too. Still, that can be traumatizing in itself. Memories of past experiences come back too. Back when Hurricane Irma hit us in September 2017. I had an efficiency in the back of my house and its ceiling came down. the Septic Tank just gave up and we couldn’t fix it because it was in the range of $7,000 and $12,000 to replace. FEMA didn’t approve our application. We ended up selling the house. And those are minor events that happened to me compared to what’s been happening to others with Hurricane Maria, Irma, Ian, and now Idalia. People are dying and losing their homes, having to migrate to other areas just to be safe.
The threat is real and the anxiety can skyrocket. I never felt that level of anxiety for a hurricane before Irma. So of course, after, not before, the hurricane, I started researching how to reduce my anxiety. And I know I’m not the only one.
While the main focus of hurricane preparedness and intervention is to prevent loss of lives and property, what’s not talked about too much is the effects climate has on our mental health. Evidence that climate change threatens mental health is mounting, according to a recent report from Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation. Heat waves and hurricanes increase the risks of trauma and depression. I’m not a medical professional. I’m just someone trying to figure out how to reduce my own anxiety and share what I learn.
The New York Times released an article where Dr. Renee Lertzman, a climate psychologist said, that “when people don’t talk about anxiety, the isolation can lead to depression”. We already have plenty to be depressed about. No need to keep adding.
Both the NY Times article and another article released by NPR, connecting with others helps reduce anxiety.
NPR suggests helping out in the community by providing food or other assistance to the community. Of course, always following the local government’s orders to stay home when we need to. I remember during Hurricane Irma we brought out the grill and the whole block brought out food and we shared our resources with each other. This is something we can do even without a natural disaster. I remember the days when I could go knock on my neighbors’ door for sugar or just a casual conversation. I don’t do that often enough.
Another way to reduce climate anxiety is to take action.
Action usually helps my anxiety so I started thinking about what I can do besides playing board games, cleaning my house, and frantically playing with Lady Cindy, I need to feel that I’m doing something to reduce the harm I inflict on the planet. I’m late to the climate action game but I think it’s time to listen to Mama Earth because how many whippings are we gonna get before we listen?
I was listening to an episode of Listen and Be Heard where the host interviewed Laura Lengnick author of Resilient Agriculture. She provides a lot of information taking climate action. I’ve added the link if you want to listen to it.
One way to take action is to reduce food waste. A couple of days ago, Roberto my husband, and I went to get pizza and the restaurant was about to close. While we were waiting for the order, one of the staff dumped an entire tray of garlic bread into the garbage can. We were so shocked. Now that is wasteful. There are plenty of people that would want it, plus it’s bad for the planet, and for business. In the US, we throw away almost 60 million tons — 120 billion pounds — every year. That’s about almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply. All that food goes to the landfill and gets burned and the smoke produces greenhouse gases. Without Greenhouse gases, the earth would be cold but too hot isn’t good either.
I waste too much food too. My husband doesn’t eat leftovers. I keep cooking for my 21-year-old even though he never eats at home anymore and I keep forgetting about those vegetables I bought. So these are the three simple things I’m committed to do,
I’m getting a smaller rice pot, and starting to cook less, Maybe I’ll cook half of a can of beans instead of a whole can.
Eat all that pasta and the rest of the food I have in the back of the pantry before I head out to buy more groceries. Buy only what I’m really going to eat.
I’m going to try to eat less meat. I used to be a vegetarian for many years but as I got older I felt I needed more meat, but I can handle one meatless night a week.
Hopefully, I can reduce my waste by a couple of pounds a week and that’ll help Mama Earth. I know it’s not much but it’s a start. These are small changes I’m focusing on because I feel they’re easy and won’t cost me much. Share in the comments what are some things you do to help the environment and reduce your anxiety related to climate change.
Thank you for reading this.
Very resonant!!!! I use the app TooGoodToGo to save food from being wasted….affordable and good for the food system. Also….I so agree with the thing about talking to alleviate stress. As a New Yorker…. So many movies show this region to be ground zero…. I pray without thinking…. And stay stocked up…. Climate change is an existential fire that is as wild as the ones raging around the globe. la vida loca… 🤷🏾♀️ 🪐💃🏾🤪 security was a staple that we are losing the grip of every passing day. #adaptorbeadapted