Election Stress
Are you struggling with election stress? Many people are. You might have an anxiety response when you hear about the election. Never before has an election been this contentious. Perhaps you have strong feelings about the candidates either positive or negative. If just hearing about it raises your blood pressure, then the best thing for you to do is stay away from social media or newspapers. If people around you are talking about it, then leave the room.
Other people may experience a trauma response. This is especially true if a woman has experienced some sort of sexual trauma or unwanted sexual experience. Reading what is written may trigger a bad experience from the past.
The election issues have been going on for such a long time, even as the primaries were going on. More people paid attention and voted in this year’s primary election. There are strong feelings about the candidates. So all the contention has been going on for a longer period of time than usual.
Being in limbo is the worst place to be. So all the news of the gloom and doom can cause your blood pressure to rise. Realistically, once the candidate is chosen, the level of stress will most likely decrease. People are focusing on the worst-case scenarios. This is called catastrophizing. Rarely does the worst-case scenario occur.
No matter who wins the election, you will survive. Most of our lives will not change dramatically. There are also some other things you can do if you are anxious. First all remember the election is not that far off, so your heightened level of anxiety will decrease soon. You can also practice some other basic stress management techniques if you feel overwhelmed. Exercise is probably the best thing you can do to relieve stress. Another thing you can do is some deep breathing. As your breathing slows down, your heart rate will also slow down. Go for a walk, phone a friend, watch a silly TV show or movie.
The Houston Chronicle recently asked me about this topic. Here is a link to that article if you’d like to read more: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Rancor-of-presidental-campaign-dislike-of-9975117.php?t=76e59a5f05438d9cbb&cmpid=email-premium
Stress and anxiety are the biggest reasons people come to therapy. If this is something you struggle with, don’t hesitate to call me at 713-304-6554. There are many stress management techniques that I can teach you.
Take care,
Debbie Grammas, PhD
