In the midst of Australia battling some of the worst bush fires it has ever seen, it has been impossible to avoid the media coverage of the events unfolding around our country. The click bait links to red skies, Armageddon like visions of people stranded on beaches and singed koalas been fed water by firefighters are unmissable. This all taking place not all that far from my home in the Gold Coast. It made me begin to wonder the cumulative effect of this on our anxiety and stress levels. It’s interesting also in the context of this new year time, when people have come off the back of depleted nervous systems following a week of excessive booze, unbalanced meal plans and dealing with Auntie Sherryl’s opportune comments over Xmas. At a time when anxiety is already potentially heightened from people’s own self-development expectations as a new year looms.
I notice the public riled up. Angry and blaming towards a government head as he is the easiest target to cast fear driven shame. Climate change becomes a daily conversation and everyone is an expert it seems. Now, before I give you some functional psychological strategies for this time of our lives, here are some ways you might be making your anxiety and stress worse this fire season.
1. Trying to force people to agree with your climate change perspectives
2. Avoiding everyone who seems anxious or distressed
3. Surrounding yourself with solely anxious or distressed people
4. Quickly borrowing solutions to the fire crisis from people you follow on social media or ‘experts’
5. You act as though the apocalyptic view of Australia portrayed on histrionic media stations is actually true
6. Using all of your energy to focus on raising others from their naivety and ignore your own needs and your family
7. Focussing more on Scomo’s behaviours around people instead of your own
8. Venting to others without first calming yourself down to a rational level
9. Over-functioning for Australia or your immediate surroundings when you feel frustrated
10. Convincing yourself that the Prime Minister must change in order for you to calm down
All of these are stop gap measures to relieve our anxiety or stress. But they do little to increase our capacity to endure and tolerate these experiences. These actions make us sensitive to dramatic news stories and distract us from being our best, more logical calm selves.
On the opposite spectrum, here are the opposite of these behaviours. People who manage these are more likely to be calmer as a population during challenging times.
1. They develop their own balanced opinions on this situation over time instead of borrowing them from others
2. They respond based on the facts rather than their (or others’) imagination
3. They can be around climate change sceptics and Greta alike and feel able to think for themselves
4. They try to self-regulate before asking to be reassured
5. They can be flexible in their thinking around the fires, climate change, and yes, even Scomo
6. They focus on managing themselves rather than changing others
7. They accept that anxiety is a natural part of real psychological growth
Please take care fellow Australians whether you are immediately affected by the bush fires or not. Although I don't want to minimise the travesty of this fire season, I don’t think it is helpful to magnify it. This is not the end of our beautiful sunburnt country. There will no doubt be significant change from it. And I only hope that learnings will come to people with power from this experience. Right now, much is out of our control yet our reactions, our anxiety in the face of these situations can be helped.
I have no professional training on climate change, fire fighting, politics and indeed, the Apocalypse. Although reading between my satirical lines you may find a personal opinion on these matters, my intention was not to push one. I have the deepest respect for the firefighters working in their roles and the greatest of sympathy to those who have lost lives, loved ones, or their homes in these blazes.