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Studies show that over 80% of us struggle with varying degrees of eco-anxiety, with the resounding emotions being sadness, anger, guilt and helplessness. These are difficult emotions to live with and can set the stage for issues like depression, anxiety and substance abuse. However, we often fail to grasp the full spectrum of coping mechanisms humans use in response to difficult emotions. For example, back in 2019, I was as terrified about climate change as I am today. But I was also doing very little about it. Sure, I recycled and avoided fast fashion, but I also ate meat and flew like it was nobody’s business. I felt guilty about doing these things, yet I couldn’t seem to respond to that guilt in any productive manner.

Looking back, I can see that the climate crisis provoked feelings of dependency and helplessness in me. Because I found emotions like these too difficult to face, I relied on projection and disavowal to function. While these responses were unhelpful, they were, in a sense, the best tools I had in my kit at the time. I know I am not alone in this response. But I also know that we are at a point in human history where we cannot afford the luxury of emotional avoidance. So, as our summers heat up and pandemics become more frequent, it is crucial to recognise that our mental health is not only impacted by climate change, it also affects how we respond to it.

The Americal Psychological Association defines eco-anxiety as a chronic fear of environmental doom. It typically manifests as a feeling of helplessness and frustration at one’s powerlessness in the face of ecological destruction. Common harmful coping strategies for dealing with it include:

Projection is a psychological term that denotes ‘putting’ undesirable feelings or emotions into someone or something else. For example, maybe you know about the risks of climate change, yet do not feel too emotionally reactive towards it. However, you are becoming increasingly afraid of seemingly unrelated things. In this instance, you could have projected your concern about the planet into something more ‘within your control’, such as your well-being.

Denial is an all-too-well-known reaction to climate change that poses terrifying risks. Denial refers to an unconscious attempt to rid oneself of reality by maintaining that it is not there. Climate change deniers are an extreme example, but more subtle versions exist. For instance, if someone minimises the impact of climate change because “climates have changed before”, it could indicate that they are using denial to cope.

Disavowal is a type of psychological dissociation which involves inducing a split within the psyche. Specifically, when someone disavows something, it is both seen and not seen simultaneously. For instance, an individual intellectually knows that climate change is real and imminent, but does not believe that he can do anything about it. He may discuss it with friends and articulate his fears, but a dissociation occurs when it comes to his own lifestyle.

Many psychoanalytic thinkers have argued that eco-anxiety is perpetuated by the evident fact that world leaders are not doing enough to protect us, and it is painful to feel so uncared for. As a result, our fears about climate change can all too quickly become entangled with childhood experiences of abandonment and dependency. Hence, we tend to respond to that fear similarly to how we learnt to deal with it in childhood. For some of us, this could mean leaning into the feeling, exploring it, acknowledging it and creating strategies to deal with it – from not eating meat or flying, to protesting and voting in a manner that focuses on the environment. For others, this could mean avoiding the reality that surrounds them at all costs. Poignantly, because the mechanism is unconscious, even the mostattuned to the crisis could find themselves using unhelpful tools in times of panic.

For example, there is a famous psychoanalytic incident that has become a parable within the field. During World War II, a pivotal series of conferences took place in London. These meetings focused on theoretical conceptions of aggression and violence. Amidst a heated discussion, Donald Winnicott stood up to say, “I should like to point out that there is an air-raid going on outside.” In other words, even those who spent their lives studying human nature were not immune to using such coping strategies in times of crisis. And much like the psychoanalysts in the 40s, we are living through a difficult and dangerous period.

So, if you want to do more to help or are struggling with difficult feelings you cannot seem to find the root cause of, try to focus on how you feel about the climate crisis. Ideally, try to figure out what emotions the climate crisis provokes in you, how you typically respond to these feelings, and whether those strategies are helpful to both your own health and the health of the planet.

Written by Molly Fitz

For a new expat, figuring out new services, and which ones are best, can be daunting. After a huge move, now you have to figure out services like electricity, internet, TV and mobile phone service. Fortunately, most of the companies behind these services in the Netherlands are very good. They have reasonable customer service, transparent terms and understandable bills. Most of these companies offer websites in English and with most of them it’s easy to change or stop services, and also to reach them. Well, most of them.

I’ve had a recent experience with one company that really stands out – and not in a good way. I won’t mention their name but let’s just say that I haven’t “ben” (sic) happy with them. They are a reseller mobile service for one of the larger national mobile companies. And like most mobile service resellers, they are affordable and easy to sign up for. This makes them particularly attractive to expats, immigrants and newbies in the Netherlands.

I’ve had experience with two of them. The first reseller was – and probably is still – the best option for a newly arrived person without a bank account. I was able to get a mobile phone number, which is essential for all the administrative and immigration business when first arriving in the Netherlands. Many services do identity verification via text message (not WhatsApp, Google Voice, Skype or the like), so that newly arrived foreigners must have a Dutch mobile number. This company was great and I really had no reason to leave them, except that I was lured away by slightly lower prices and an entertaining commercial from another reseller with people who had tattooed the name of a previous love interest on themselves, only to reveal that they were new with someone else. Even though mobile services here are incredibly cheap, I thought, why not change mobile services to save a few euros? So I switched.

The move from the old company to the new one was seamless. The previous company even had an option where I could extend or cancel my subscription. I figured the new company would too. Several months into the new contract, I needed a phone that could be used as a hotspot modem for my business. I found out the hard way that this is not possible with resellers. Crud. I needed to start a new mobile contract with a national seller to be able to use my phone as a hotspot. Furthermore, I needed to get a new number. I decided to retire the number from the mobile service reseller, ride out the contract (ugh, it was two years!), set a reminder two months before the contracted ended and cancel it in enough time that it wouldn’t revert to month-tomonth. number on their site and though they said they had several ways to contact them – Knowledge forum, WhatsApp, AI chatbox – nothing worked. No answers anywhere. It was frustrating but, like most people, I couldn’t spend all my time trying to contact this company.

I am now in month number four of trying to cancel my account with this company. I’m not on social media, but wound up signing up for Twitter just so I could try to reach someone there. One day, I finally sat on the phone for 45 minutes and finally got connected with a representative. They cancelled my account and even sent a confirmation email. Two weeks later – today – I received another bill for them. I am currently DM’ing with this company trying to get my money back and to finally – once and for all – cancel this account.

The moral of this story is that even though most Dutch companies have good customer service and are transparent with their practices, not all of them are. The mobile reselling business is cutthroat competitive. But at the end of the day, they are resellers of someone else’s service and the only thing they have is customer service. So do your research and make sure the mobile company you have – especially if it’s a reseller – has an easy way to reach them and a reasonably easy way to cancel your subscription. Me? “Ben” there, done that already.