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Hiding from the environmental challenges that face us today is not easy. Spend some time on the internet, open a newspaper, switch on the television - the stories of what we will have to face in the coming years are sitting in there waiting for you. Coupled with this is the uncertain outcome of these challenges. It would almost be better to hear what was definitely in store for us, even if that news was not what we want to hear - at least then we would know, but right now we know nothing for certain.  Hearing this news constantly is not easy. We can find ourselves hav

ing to keep down a job, have bills to pay, family to look after...and meanwhile no one appears to be talking about the challenges ahead. We hesitate to say anything about our fears for the future in case everyone thinks that we have lost it. We don’t want to appear like the odd one in the pack who everyone talks about when we have left the room.

I wonder, though, how many other people there are out in the room who feel the same way as us? If there are others out there, why are they quiet? Do they have the same concerns about how they are perceived as us? Or would they rather just look the other way and hope that all this doomsaying would just go away?

For some though, a time comes when they can no longer pretend, even if they want to. It is as though their perception of the world has changed. They can no longer look back on the world with the same eyes as they used to. Talking to a person who doesn’t accept the environmental problems ahead can be like talking to someone who is looking out on a different world to you. The experience can be quite stark and real.

Sarah Anne Edwards and Linda Buzzel, both therapists who work within the environmental arena, have identified 6 stages that people go through as they “Wake Up” to the challenges that lie ahead. These stages are:

1. 1.Denial;
   

2. 2.Semi-consciousness;
   

3. 3.The moment of realization;
   

4. 4.A Point of No Return;
   

5. 5.Despair, guilt, hopelessness, powerlessness;
   

6. 6.Acceptance, empowerment, action.
   

In an article published in HopeDance they delineate these 6 stages, explaining what leads people to move into each stage. They call this process “The Waking Up Syndrome” and the article can be found here.

I have also created a pdf file of Edwards’ and Buzzel’s article. That can be download here.

The Waking Up Syndrome