A journalist recounts enrolling in a standup comedy course as a way of managing overwhelming anxiety about climate change and other existential threats, having found conventional therapy insufficient in the past. The piece highlights a growing recognition that humour can be a legitimate coping mechanism for "climate dread," and reflects a wider trend of using creative, community-based approaches to process fear about political and environmental crises rather than suppressing or being consumed by it.

The course, called Sustainable Stand Up, was created over a decade ago by improv consultant and comedy coach Belina Raffy, who worried that grim climate messaging was causing people to shut down through fear and guilt while those communicating it risked burnout. Raffy has since taught the course worldwide to Nasa scientists, human rights lawyers, Extinction Rebellion activists and humanitarian workers, with this particular session aimed at members of the Climate Psychology Alliance, a network of climate-aware therapists. The article notes emerging evidence that comedy training can support mental health by helping people reframe difficult experiences, build social bonds and gain confidence, and cites the UK's NHS, which has begun offering standup classes through its "social prescribing" scheme.