The World We’re Losing by Larissa Diakiw
September 24, 2022 12:03 AM Subscribe
The first time I saw these swaths of burnt-pumpkin, dead forest, I felt a pain in my chest, though I will admit that I still hadn’t accepted or allowed myself to reveal this to others, consider it legitimate, or let myself feel it, so it became a stunted obscure pain. A pain I considered immature, juvenile, weak. This is the first time I can remember my own eco-grief. An elastic tight feeling inside my chest. I will always equate the orange colour of dead pine needles with the colour of death.
Thanks for posting.
posted by PistachioRoux at 8:51 AM on September 24, 2022
posted by PistachioRoux at 8:51 AM on September 24, 2022
I really miss fireflies.
posted by Ruki at 10:05 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Ruki at 10:05 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Solastalgia is a term coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2005. He defines it as the pain experienced when the environment you live in is under immediate assault.
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Such a good article, thank you.
A common treatment therapists recommend for eco-grief is mindfulness, the meditative practice of being present to yourself in the moment without judgement. Emotions are inevitable. Resisting or burying or denying them can push them into dormancy. The idea is that a meditative approach can allow people to feel with resilience and unknot the ropework of repression without being flooded into despair. Once you feel, you can begin to integrate the loss, mourning is possible. But how are we supposed to mourn the environment? Some psychologists stress the uniqueness of grief: because each individual grieves differently, finding a personal way to grieve is important. Other strategies for grief work, including psychedelic assisted therapy, using psilocybin as an adjunct to psychotherapy, or daily microdosing to improve the physical or depressive impacts of grief, rearticulating mourning rituals, both public and private and lamentation, are all having a renaissance.
The DSM does not provide diagnostics for an ill or afflicted society. Because climate change disproportionately affects the vulnerable, social determinants of health need to be looked at and issues of poverty, racism reckoned with. But without some deep structural shifts these therapies can only go so far. North American society places the responsibility of mental health on the individual, but how can a person heal or be well while living in a social structure with a fundamentally exploitative infrastructure that doesn’t support basic wellbeing?
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:22 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
A common treatment therapists recommend for eco-grief is mindfulness, the meditative practice of being present to yourself in the moment without judgement. Emotions are inevitable. Resisting or burying or denying them can push them into dormancy. The idea is that a meditative approach can allow people to feel with resilience and unknot the ropework of repression without being flooded into despair. Once you feel, you can begin to integrate the loss, mourning is possible. But how are we supposed to mourn the environment? Some psychologists stress the uniqueness of grief: because each individual grieves differently, finding a personal way to grieve is important. Other strategies for grief work, including psychedelic assisted therapy, using psilocybin as an adjunct to psychotherapy, or daily microdosing to improve the physical or depressive impacts of grief, rearticulating mourning rituals, both public and private and lamentation, are all having a renaissance.
The DSM does not provide diagnostics for an ill or afflicted society. Because climate change disproportionately affects the vulnerable, social determinants of health need to be looked at and issues of poverty, racism reckoned with. But without some deep structural shifts these therapies can only go so far. North American society places the responsibility of mental health on the individual, but how can a person heal or be well while living in a social structure with a fundamentally exploitative infrastructure that doesn’t support basic wellbeing?
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:22 AM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
An excellent meditation.
A lot more people are going to be feeling solastalgia.
posted by doctornemo at 11:48 AM on September 24, 2022
A lot more people are going to be feeling solastalgia.
posted by doctornemo at 11:48 AM on September 24, 2022
'He looked at me, and with a sad smile, simply said "They will die".' — James G Dyke
We've growing evidence that activism is the best therapy for eco-grief, eco-anxiety, etc, presumably non-violent direct action especially, so deflate tires, sit in roads, etc.
"[We] respect that she wants to make a stand. She can either sit at home and be really unhappy, or protest, and be happy." — Malena Ernman & Svante Thunberg
posted by jeffburdges at 2:16 PM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
We've growing evidence that activism is the best therapy for eco-grief, eco-anxiety, etc, presumably non-violent direct action especially, so deflate tires, sit in roads, etc.
"[We] respect that she wants to make a stand. She can either sit at home and be really unhappy, or protest, and be happy." — Malena Ernman & Svante Thunberg
posted by jeffburdges at 2:16 PM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
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Oof.
I love the way the piece fights back against the implication that grief like this is pathological. It calls to mind a saying whose author I’ve forgotten — "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." If you are losing your entire way of life, it is normal to grieve that deeply.
posted by eirias at 3:06 AM on September 24, 2022 [4 favorites]