Peak (Everything?) Stress Syndrome

[In her own Voice]

As a psychotherapist in private practice, and as a stakeholder in the
larger human community, I am participating in some upcoming training
offered by the International Critical Stress Foundation on "Changing
Perspectives on Disaster" and "Group Crisis Intervention". I am sure
the community-at-large will need my skills to weather the upcoming
storm arising from the combination of climate change, energy
depletion, population glut, and economic disruption (what I'm calling
the "Peak (Everything?) Stress Syndrome"). As individual and public
awareness dawns (by degree or by cataclysmic proportions), we'll see
varying effects on people of differing age and socio-economic status.
The ensuing crisis will require debriefing and crisis management.

I've been onto this for a while now, myself, reading and researching
all I can get my hands on and I've had my own personal-emotional
process going on around it. (I've been aware these times were coming
since the sixties, but how easy it is to live in denial of what is yet
invisible and unfelt!) Nine-eleven was bad. But Hurricane Katrina's
massive impact, both nationally and personally (my family suffered
loss of their homes and personal property), and the crazed disorder
here in Houston during the Hurricane Rita scare was a further clue in
my personal experience that we are living in new and unprecedented
times.

Then when I began to absorb all the information and research about
climate change and peak oil, and about our failing economy, I really
became overloaded! I became aware that all of this was affecting me
and the more knowledgeable of my boomer cohorts in a most personal and
oppressive way. Just as we were beginning to make that passage into
our "elder" years, those which normally signify decline and eventual
death, these very same characteristics of decline in energy, decrease
in wealth, loss of mobility, loss of physical and financial security
were being out-pictured to us in the world at large. Suddenly, as we
begin preparation and adjustment to our retirement years, the vitality
of our economy, along with our retirement finances, and the vitality
of the earth and humanity in general are found to be critically at
risk.

I've come to my own stage of dealing with it -- planning for my own
altered future, making what moves I can to prepare for these
inevitable changes, trying to prepare my own family, my adult
children. I think about how I can help others. I will continue to do
my writing, because community action is difficult until more people
become aware. The adjustment to awareness is better when it is paced,
of course, and when it is addressed in a supportive environment (i.e.
you are not alone in your "new" knowledge of the danger ahead). I know
I'm not alone because there are so many groups of knowledgeable people
"out there" equipped with the facts who have undergone this process
themselves. There are many websites on the internet (some based here
in Houston--The Oil Drum and Houston After Oil, to name two.) I join
with those knowledgeable in the netroots (young and old) by blogging
my heart out on the subject.

A dawning awareness in the mainstream is definitely indicated when one
can find a website on "peak oil blues" created by a psychotherapist
who is offering support. On Peak Oil Blues people are sharing their
personal stories of "first contact" with this information and
reporting on their corresponding psychological and emotional effects.
The online psychotherapist gives her own personal commentary about the
experience, answering the queries of those who write. Another most
recent indication that the mainstream media is beginning to be
activated is found in Texas Monthly's latest issue. The Future is its
theme and a number of articles acknowledge the critical conditions
ahead.

Anyway, I am intently aware of the need and I hope the training
sessions I've chosen to take with the Critical Stress Foundation can
be made applicable to the impending community crises I foresee. I
believe we need an ongoing multi-faceted program in each locality for
dealing with the associated social/psychological unrest arising from
these complex and interwoven change conditions as they steadily and
catastrophically affect us on all levels: physically, socially,
psychologically and emotionally, behaviorally, and spiritually.

[Cycling Instructor]

Ldathur,

I have always felt that the most difficult aspects of the coming
changes will be spiritual, physical, and emotional. You're right on
target for pursuing the training you mention. I just hope you can get
compensated for it in the future.

Peak Oil is mostly not a technology problem, although technology (and
I use that term in its broadest sense) will be a coping mechanism.

1. The worst of it will be a violation of the assumed entitlement that
is burned into the DNA of Americans; where is that anger going to go?
Who is going to be the whipping boy/girl? Various races / classes /
subgroups of people are going to carry the collective "blame" for what
happened.
2. Substance abuse is going to soar (self-medication for depression)
3. Sexual addiction as well (self-medication for depression)
4. Crime is going to go through the roof, to pay for drugs and also
food.
5. What happens when an overweight person in their 50s with high
cholesterol and high blood pressure (your average Baby Boomer) tries
to ride a bike to get things done? One of two things; they'll get
healthier, or they will drop dead in the road. I hope the former, but
I expect a few of the latter as well
6. But it's not just older unwell people who are going to face
problems; young people can be very unfit and non-physical these days
also. They have low physical aptitudes. How are they going to get
along in a low energy density world? It's going to be a tough
transition for them, too
5. I could go on, for a long time. But 1. - 6. are the immediate short-
term things I expect


Good things will happen, too:

1. The traffic will clear out. People in cars will be going slowly to
save fuel. I'll have a clear shot to work on my bike (I work for the
oil exploration industry, at hundreds of US Dollars per barrel, I
expect my services will still be required). My commute time and the
emotional stress of dealing with so many cars will markedly decrease
2. The air will be cleaner

Children are very inspiring. My kids cheered me up successfully in the
past when I had been lamenting the possibilities before us; they
chimed in, "Don't worry Dad, we know how to ride bikes!" That was a
needed lift.



Peter






On Feb 10, 11:05 pm, In her own Voice <Ldathur...@kingwoodcable.net>
wrote:

[In her own Voice]

Thanks for your thought-ful reply, Peter. You are "right on" in your
comments about "the assumed entitlement that is burned into the DNA of
Americans". I will be continuing to write on this theme of stress in
times of peak oil crisis and will certainly include that angle at some
point.

I have been posting on my own blog... http://inherownvoice.blogspot.com/
and on Daily Kos, Blogher, and a new site, Peak Oil
Blues...www.peakoilblues.com. You may have seen reference to this
site in the recent Texas Monthly magazine's feature on The Future (in
the article interviewing Matt Simmons).

Linda Thurman

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