Dear Climate Therapist: I may need to pivot because the burnout is real

Clinician Caroline Hickman guides a climate professional on how to approach their predicament

We are humbled and thrilled to bring you the very first installment of our new bi-monthly advice column, “The Climate Therapist”. Many of you wrote in about how the climate crisis is affecting your daily life, emotions, parenting, wellbeing and so much more. Thank you for your openness and vulnerability, and please - keep ‘em coming. Our form is always open and completely anonymous.

Design by Gen Dread.

Dear Climate Therapist,

I'm an engineer in my early 30s who has been working in the climate space for nearly 10 years. Driven by the magnitude and importance of the issue, I dedicated my career to reducing carbon emissions, often at a personal and financial cost (environmental-related careers tend to be intense and not especially well-paid). Ten years later the burnout is real, to the point where I have lost all feelings of excitement for my chosen field and find it increasingly difficult to work every day.

While I try to find comfort in the growing conversation around climate in the public sphere, I find much of it to be empty and feel a certain resentment to having spent most of my career dedicated to something that I feel ultimately won't make a difference. How can I either regain interest in the climate field or face the fact that I need to pivot into something new and potentially unrelated?

- "At a Pivot Point"

Climate-aware therapist Caroline Hickman weighs in on the situation

Dear “At a Pivot Point”,

Firstly, thank you for writing in, I think your story is one that many can relate to, and whilst it might not be of huge comfort to know this, the first thing I want to say is that you are not alone, and your feelings of frustration and exhaustion do make complete sense. But that is not enough is it to say that you are not alone (I can almost hear you saying, ‘well great, so lots of us feel fed up, how exactly is that helping me?’). And you would be right, so, let’s look and see if there are other things that might be helpful.

The next thing I want to say is that I can only respond to what you have told us, and I am aware that there may be lots more to you and your story that we just do not know, so bear with me, I can only respond to the part of your story that you shared. 

A few things stand out for me in your letter.

Let’s look at the feelings first. You describe yourself as having burnout, you have lost excitement and struggle to work every day. This is a horrible emotional state to be in, so let’s see if we can help you to feel differently about yourself and your situation (because you and I both know that we will not be solving the climate crisis here today between us, but we could aim to change some of the ways that you feel about it). You sound understandably angry and depressed. You do not name these feelings, but I am doing that. You say you feel resentment and empty. I suspect that you are either not allowed (by others) or you are not allowing yourself to express this anger which is leading to the depressed disillusionment. You come across as a ‘good person’ – of course, you have dedicated yourself to this work and given your 20’s to this work (you say you have paid a personal and financial cost), and you have not seen enough impact from that to feel it was worthwhile. Not a great surprise that you are now asking ‘was it all worth it?’. 

Again. You are allowed to ask, ‘but how is this helping me, she’s just telling me how angry and depressed I am, and I know that!’. The thing is, I do want you to feel that anger and frustration. I suspect that your burnout stems from not allowing yourself to feel this (and it can be difficult for us to find ways to express anger safely without worrying that it makes us sound aggressive). But if you suppress that anger it will turn in on yourself. I suspect your loss of excitement goes hand in hand with loss of all feelings. If it’s not safe to feel, then we often shut down all feelings. You have every right to feel frustrated and angry and let down. Find a way to get those feelings out, and your other (earlier) feelings of determination, passion, hope and resilience would return to you.

If I look at your question from a more practical point of view, you seem to be giving yourself two options, to regain interest in the climate field, or go into an alternative area of work. There is a lot to consider there, and I’m not going to give specific career advice, but I would suggest that you do not make any big decisions about your career when you are feeling so burnt out. You might feel temporarily better because you would have a sense that you were ‘doing something’, but because you do not express any direct unhappiness with your career, but unhappiness with the state of the climate crisis which your career is aiming to tackle, the risk is that any relief of the frustration would be very short term and you might feel worse afterwards. I would tackle your feelings of burnout first, alongside which you need to examine the argument you make that you feel it ultimately won’t make a difference, because I would say ‘how do you know? How can you be so sure’? And that isn’t denial from me, just an argument that in this work we all need to find ways to sustain ourselves from inner determination and passion alongside outer evidence. Just because you do not see the world changing as quickly as you would like it to (and you are right), that does not mean that we should give up.

Then ask the question, why is it an either/or decision that you need to make? How about finding a job that reignites your excitement but stays within the climate space? Any decision made right now risks being a flight from painful feelings, a temporary respite. I would wait.

In short:

I would address the burnout first by allowing the anger, sadness, and frustration out somewhere safely. Do not get stuck in those difficult feelings, do not set up home in them, the burnout is most likely due to you using up a lot of energy suppressing them.

Then take a view on your work. If the job is oppressive or treats you badly, then look for another one, but if not, stick with it and try to change the way you feel about it.

And also make sure that you have some other things going on in your life that are meaningful, so you have not sacrificed all your life to this work (friends, relationships, etc).

I know it’s a cliché, that working in the climate space is a marathon, not a sprint. But it’s true. We need emotionally sustainable ways to cope with this, and you should feel proud that you care enough to have given so much for so long. Don’t throw that away.

If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏🏼

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Making Waves

• In this episode of Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question podcast, Jade Sasser talked to Britt about how climate emotions and mental health impacts intersect with reproductive anxieties - and how parenting can be a way of committing to joy and rejecting fear.

• Next Tuesday, May 14th, join Britt and a panel of leaders sharing valuable resources and insights for prioritizing mental health and equity. “Connecting Climate Change and Mental Health: Impact & Hope” shines a spotlight on the profound connection between climate change and mental health. Presented by Kaiser Permanente and the World Economic Forum, you can register and watch live on We Don't Have Time.

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