ADAA Blog: Dealing with Election Anxiety?

[ADAATeamRachel]

Dealing with Election Anxiety? A Psychiatrist Explains how to Channel your Fears and Break out of Tribal Thinking

"Watching the news leaves people from both parties exhausted, sad and scared about the future. Each half of the country is made to believe the other half is stupid, deeply misguided, immoral, dishonest or maliciously plotting to ruin the country they themselves love," says ADAA member Arash Javanbakht, MD.

"Media organizations on both sides of the political spectrum recognize that negative news keeps the audience engaged. Whichever news channel you watch, when was the last time you turned away happy, energized and peaceful? More often you end up feeling the whole world is going down in flames.

You can care about your sanity and your country at the same time."

Here are some practical tips: adaa.org/learn-from-us/from...

[Catt02]

Yeah I sometimes wonder how the journalists get through it on a daily basis. I can see it in their face at times it's affecting them too. That trouble is, my anxiety is rational at least from my perspective. There is a false equivalents by design. We've seen this before in history and we know how it goes. There are reality based reasons why certain groups have a heightened level of anxiety. Again we've seen this in history, we know how it plays out. You just wish people would open their eyes. But as for the anxiety, well it may be natural as a response to danger, it needs to be dealt with in a situation where the danger is personally directed, based on hate and ignorance, that is something you can really use a lot of support, help with,