Launching a worldwide effort to save the environment by making responsible choices sounds like a great idea. Who wouldn’t want to help preserve the beautiful land where they live?
The truth is, although the idea sounds great, not everyone is in a position to take action. Sometimes adverselife conditions can cause a person to become indifferent totheir impact on the environment:
Severe depression can make everything seem futile
Almost everyone experiences mild depression at some point, but most people bounce back quickly. Severe depression, on the other hand, can linger for decades.
Caused by various factorslike severe illness, medical conditions, personal loss, and chemical imbalance, major depressive disorder affects 14.8 million American adults every year.
People with depression are often unable to make decisions, which could be attributed to the sense of futility they feel. It’s tough to make environmentally sound choices when nothing seems to matter.
If you feel like your effort to help the environment don’t make a difference, consider these statistics provided by Examiner.net: By recycling one aluminum can, you save enough electricity to power a TV for six hours. Also, each person who stops buying disposable water bottlessaves 129 bottles from ending up in landfills each year.
Battling a drug or alcohol addiction blocks altruism
A person battling addiction doesn’t generally have the energy to worry about the environment. Addicts in recovery can’t think about other people – all of their strength is oriented toward their recovery.
For instance, they won’t have the capacity to spend time finding eco-friendly products with minimal packaging, and unless they’re an active gardener, they’re not going to compost. They’re in survival mode, and that could mean living on fast food, frozen pizza, and coffee served in single-use cups.
Once a person recovers from addiction, they’ll have more energy to consider other people as well as the environment.
Additionally, kicking the addiction to alcohol has its own positive impact on the environment.
Food choices matter
Eating habits play one of the biggest roles in environmental preservation since the majority of packaging waste comes from food.It’s not easy to change eating habits developed in survival mode. However, if an addict has been through a rehab program, they’ve been given a head start.
Rehab programs support recovering addicts by placing them on special diets focused on fresh, whole fruits and vegetables. Whole foods feed the brain and body, and can speed up the recovery process. Patients who continue this type of diet after leaving a rehab facility are not only more likely to avoid relapse, but their mood will continue to improve.
Once a recovering addict settles into a healthy lifestyle, they’ll have the capacity to consider the environment and make better choices for themselves and the Earth.
Struggling with finances
Being in debt and unable to pay overdue bills puts most people into survival mode. In survival mode, they can’t think about anything other than digging themselves out of that hole.
If someone can’t pay their electric bill, they’re not going to spend extra money buying organic fruits and vegetables. They’re not going to buy meat raised on sustainable farms, either.
On the upside, someone struggling with finances will often inadvertently make choices that do positively impact the environment. For example, if they can’t afford extra gas, they’ll ride a bike or take public transportation. If the heating bill is too high, they’ll come up with ways to stay warm without using the heater.
If you’re struggling with finances and think you can’t afford to make environmentally friendly choices, think again. Making eco-friendly choices isn’t about consuming more, but consuming less.
You can recycle your empty cans of rootbeer, but not buying the rootbeer in the first place saves both money and the environment. The same goes for any type of packaged food.
Being in a financial crunch is the best time to plant a garden and develop your green thumb. Organic heirloom seeds aren’t expensive, and the internet is filled with gardening guides for growing all kinds of produce.
Every individual effort matters
If you want to care for the environment but you’re dealing with life situations that make it difficult, don’t feel bad about taking care of yourself first. You really do need to help yourself before you can help anyone else, including Mother Earth.
However, you can still make small choices that make a big difference along the way.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
