The Alcoholics Anonymous Approach Meets Climate Change
Ten people gather on lawn chairs as the summer sun slips lower. Laura Schmidt kicks off the meeting by asking that everyone share something they felt grateful for that day. Then, for the next 90 minutes, the group examines this week's step — being with uncertainty, perhaps, or breaking down perception and brain patterns.
Grounded in the healing power of ritual, Schmidt's peer-to-peer support group, Good Grief, mirrors the format of Alcoholics Anonymous. But those present haven't shown up because of their struggle with addiction. They're discussing their struggle with climate change.
Schmidt, whose parents battled addiction, spent years in the support group Adult Children of Alcoholics. Similar to AA's 12-step program, the Good Grief Network is based on 10 steps designed to help people navigate feelings of powerlessness in the face of climate change and other systemic social ills like racial conflict and gun violence.
Wildfires are ravaging California. Heatwaves sweep through the U.S. and Europe. Extreme storms erupt with increasing frequency. As the climate crisis deepens, psychological coping mechanisms for the loss of once-familiar weather patterns are emerging — accompanied by terms like "eco-anxiety" and "solastalgia." And for people who've made climate change their career, from biologists to grassroots organizers, Schmidt knows firsthand that it's easy to feel defeated. Just as aid workers or psychotherapists are encouraged to seek therapy to prevent personal roadblocks from impeding their practice, Good Grief invites participants to metabolize "collective grief" to build resilience.
Since founding the network in 2016, Schmidt, 33, and her partner, Aimee Lewis Reau, have facilitated sessions both face-to-face and digitally while training others to implement the program in their communities. Up to 250 people have participated to date, and the program will soon be available across three continents, with fall sessions offered from Australia to the U.K. to Berkeley, California. Meetings range from five to 20 people who are asked to pay $100 for the 10-week program — or as much as they can afford, including favors or services.
Most people who find their way to Good Grief, says Schmidt, have seen the writing on the wall yet feel ill-equipped to effect change. "We know we're going to see suffering, probably on a scale that many of us have not seen," says Schmidt. Their program pushes participants to find meaning in their daily lives despite external circumstances and to "help people build that inner fortitude to not break down."
Schmidt grew up in the small farming community of Shepherd, Michigan. Her father, whom she describes as an abusive alcoholic, lost custody of his three daughters after a drunk driving incident. Life with her mother, who also struggled with addiction, was unstable, so Schmidt moved in with her older sister to finish high school. During that time, her closest friend died from cancer and another was killed in a car accident, leaving the teenager no choice but to sit with her grief. "There was so much trauma that I never envisioned a future," Schmidt says. Instead, she focused on her most pressing concerns, asking, "What's the next best step to make so that I don't perpetuate the system from which I came?"
A desire for order and consistency led her to the hard sciences at Central Michigan University, where she earned a degree in biology in 2009. The next year, she moved to Louisiana to work with an AmeriCorps-affiliated nonprofit; there, she saw fishermen and oil workers struggling to bounce back after the BP oil spill. "That took it out of the textbooks," she says.
We don't have any equivalent for processing grief over a concept as future-oriented and unspecific as climate change.
Wrestling with the connection between climate and human action, she shifted to the environmental humanities, which incorporate psychology and sociology, for her master's program at the University of Utah. Later, after she worked on air quality reform in Salt Lake City, politics left her demoralized. Her voice rises, thick with frustration, as she describes the slow pace of change compared to the urgency of the problem. She redirected her energy toward Good Grief, a concept she'd begun to explore in her master's thesis.
Through talking in activist circles, public radio and social media outreach, the program attracted others searching for ways to translate paralysis into agency. Dick Meyer, who owns a landscaping business in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, felt burdened by existential angst after working for a park conservancy in New Mexico. "We have a recognition in our society that grief is a legitimate response to the death of a friend or the death of a family member," he says. Yet we don't have any equivalent for processing grief over a concept as future-oriented and unspecific as climate change, he notes.
Good Grief offered that language. After participating in 2016, Meyer invited Schmidt and Reau to live rent-free in his home in Scottsbluff so they could focus on building it out. The program is still not financially secure, and the couple works other part-time jobs to get by, but profit isn't their aim. The goal is to be "a network in the truest sense," Schmidt says, by putting out useful material that can be tailored to any community. They've submitted a book proposal and are in talks with a publisher.
As with any support group, there's a risk of triggering subconscious feelings if someone taps into personal grief that goes beyond the group context. Peer-to-peer groups must be carefully managed and are not a replacement for therapy, says Renee Lertzman, an environmental psychologist and strategist. Establishing clear protocols is essential to preserving boundaries, Lertzman notes. Schmidt, who is not a certified therapist and has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, agrees, insisting that Good Grief participants sign a form saying they're of sound mind or seeking professional help, and that the program is not a forum for addressing personal trauma.
Kinde Nebeker, a wilderness rites-of-passage guide who mentored Schmidt, says giving people an outlet to work through anxiety can spark action. "If everyone, or at least a critical mass of people, were to turn toward the realities of what climate change could mean for us, and properly grieve our situation, things would radically change," Nebeker says.
For Schmidt's part, she's long known how to sit with heavy feelings; her challenge is learning where to find peace — and how to protect it. A favorite respite is sitting with Reau at Lake Minatare, Nebraska, watching their dogs swim freely. Overlooking a reservoir that brims in early summer, receding as the months stretch into fall, they wonder what will happen when the lake overflows, or there isn't enough water to fill it.
Schmidt has come to accept that the answers she seeks may be out of reach, but her quest will never evaporate.
20 Best CBD Oil Drops for 2019 [With Lab Results] - CBD Hacker
Consumers have few reliable sources for information about CBD products and companies. That's where we come in.
CBD oil drops that are made to be taken sublingually, or under the tongue, are among the most popular formats for cannabidiol. But the industry's lack of transparency makes it difficult to find the best CBD oil drops for you, especially if it's your first time shopping for CBD.
We're here to remove the guesswork and trial and error from purchasing CBD oil. Our updated and expanded ranking of the top CBD oils includes the latest information and new, up-and-coming CBD brands.
We evaluated each company's business practices and customer service, sent samples out to a third-party lab for testing, and compared the potency and price for each product.
We also used a blind tasting process to eliminate bias and get our authentic reactions to each product.
Ready to learn more? Read on to find the CBD oil drops that are right for you.
Editor's Choice Awards - August 2019
Every month, we highlight a few brands that we found to be overachievers in specific categories.
This August, we're focusing on cannabinoid potency. Whether you're looking for a product that is free of tetrahydrocannabinol, or seeking the full benefits of CBD's entourage effect, we've got you covered.
But first, we'll take a look at who earned the highest scores overall.
Skip to the full ranking to get the full reviews.
Best All Around
Best THC-Free CBD Oil
Best Full-Spectrum (TIE)
When it comes to whole-plant potency, two brands stood out from the rest. We selected the winners in this category by analyzing our third-party lab results and comparing the ratio of other cannabinoids to CBD.
If you're looking for a full-spectrum CBD product that packs a hefty cannabinoid punch, you can't go wrong with NuLeaf Naturals or 4 Corners Cannabis.
Table of Contents
Choosing the best CBD oil drops for 2019 was no easy task. Not only did we have to taste every single sample, but we also called each company's customer service reps and sent samples to a third-party lab for analysis.
Let's just say there was a lot of math involved.
So, we have a lot of ground to cover! Here's what you can expect to find ahead:
- Methodology: How we ranked the top CBD oil drops
- Value: CBD oil price comparison
- Potency: Cannabinoid profile comparison
- The 20 Best CBD Oil Drops of 2019
Click on any of the list items above to skip to the relevant section, or just keep reading!
Our Methodology
- Product quality and value
- User experience
- Customer service
- Reputation
- Transparency and accuracy
We want to make sure that our CBD oil reviews are as relevant as possible, for as many different people as possible. That's why we incorporated feedback from our readers into our scoring metrics this year.
Product Quality and Value
As always, the product category carried the greatest weight in our final scores. That's because it included some of the most important questions for consumers:
- Quality: What are the ingredients in this oil? What extraction methods did they use?
- Sourcing: Where does the hemp come from? Was it grown organically to ensure that it is free of pesticides and heavy metals?
- Value: What is the price per milligram of CBD?
- Flavor: Can I stand to take this regularly?
It was important to us to eliminate bias as much as possible, so we used a blind testing process to evaluate the products for taste, aroma, texture, and appearance. Every sample was decanted into an identical container labeled only by number.
We've also updated the way we award points for flavor in this ranking, to account for the increased bitterness that is typical of higher-potency full spectrum products.
User Experience
A company could be offering the best product out there. But if the webstore crashes every time you try to make a purchase, then it doesn't do you any good. That's why we closely evaluated each company's website for performance, design, and accessibility.
We also checked to see how easy it is to find important information, from shipping and return policies to the ingredient lists for each product.
Customer Service
We only want to recommend companies that stand by their customers. If you have a question or a problem with your CBD product, you should be able to count on quick, friendly, and knowledgeable customer care.
In addition to using secret-shopper-style research to see how each company's customer service measured up, we also checked to see how consumer-friendly their policies are. For example, we looked at:
- Shipping policies
- Return policies and satisfaction guarantees
- Assistance programs
- Loyalty or rewards programs
Among the top brands, the quality of their customer service was often the deciding factor that determined a higher score.
Reputation
For the reputation category, we looked at each company's track record. We scoured the web for reviews to see what customers have been saying over time, and to look for any red flags.
We also looked at how each company interacts with customers. Do they respond professionally to critical reviews?
Transparency and accuracy
Finally, in an industry that essentially regulates itself, transparency is massively important to building trust for consumers. For this category, we looked at the types of information that each company was willing to share. We also evaluated how easy it was to access that information.
Most importantly, we sent samples of each product to a third-party lab for CBD and THC potency tests. While some variation is to be expected, no products that tested more than 10 percent below the advertised amount of CBD are included in this ranking.
We compared our lab's analysis to the CBD quantity listed on each product's label. And where companies made their own lab testing public, we looked at how extensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-find their lab results were.
Value: CBD Oil Price Comparison
Looking for the best CBD oil deals? Here's our price comparison of each brand we evaluated.
CBD Oil Potency: Cannabinoid Profile Comparison
If getting the full entourage effect is important to you, or if you're trying to avoid THC, cannabinoid potency should be a big part of your decision-making process. These are the results of our third-party lab's analysis of each sample.