Sustaining the Conservationist

Environmental work is emotionally laden because of the struggle on behalf of ethical positions and the daily experience of loss and frustration. Such ongoing stressful experiences may be understood better within a trauma-based framework that acknowledges their implications, similar to clinical diagnosis and treatment of acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. This paper reports on two studies of the emotional experience of environmentalists, conservationists, and environmental educators working with profound awareness of how current human behavior is degrading the environment, some would say beyond recovery. It explores the question of whether these environmentally aware workers may suffer from a subtype of acute stress disorder and posttraumatic sequelae. The results suggest that there is reason to believe this subtype exists and is mediated by cortical assessments of salience and urgency. This paper suggests results that are ominous for mental health professionals—that indicators of depression, anxiety, and enervation are significantly elevated in those arguably most needed to help society come to terms with the problems we face in a degrading biosphere. We conclude that mental health professionals are urgently needed to help those who are at risk of becoming debilitated by their knowledge of the consequences of human impact on the planet and recommend that these professionals work to develop a new language, context, and treatment for this subtype condition.