How can voters process their Election Anxiety moving forward?

As people headed to the polls, there was a sense of panic or stress about the uncertainty of what’s next. Election anxiety is not a new phenomena, but it is important to find ways to process the stress.

According to three separate surveys from the American Psychological Association, 1 in 20 people reported being so distressed about politics that they had suicidal thoughts. But how we can identify and help people struggling this election season.

Mary Morehouse a psychotherapist with Insight Counseling Duluth says the stress of a Presidential election cause some Americans to undergo changes.

“It’s okay to feel this anxiety. These elections are important. It’s okay to feel that,” Morehouse said. “We’ve gotten through hard times before. We will get through this also.”

There’s usually a shift in their eating and sleeping patterns, says Morehouse. Along with bouts of panic, and shortness of breath, because they can’t think about anything else.

“When it starts to hit some of those core things. Some of those biological: eat, sleep, exercise,” Morehouse said. “If it’s interfering with your sleep, if you find that your mind just can’t stop going down, I call them rabbit holes. People really focus in on that without being able to find some sort of balance.”

One tip people with Election Anxiety can do is processing their thoughts on things they can control. Morehouse says one helpful measure is limiting our time on social media.

“Social media is a huge part of the election anxiety. The way that the algorithms work, we tend to see things that we want to see,” Morehouse said. “Yet, I think sometimes when it comes to election, we can kind of get a little bit too far in our own corners. Try to find ways that we can impart the values that we want on a daily basis within our own lives.”

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America recommend voters to maintain a normal day-to-day routine. Also making an effort to identify common ground outside of politics to help manage election anxiety.