By Avi Klein | Apple News
Every election season, our merciless news cycle starts taking people hostage. I’ve been a therapist for about ten years, and many sessions that would normally revolve around my patients’ personal struggles suddenly acquire a political flavor—an argument with a racist uncle, nightmares about getting fired because of a rant posted on Twitter, excessive drinking after checking Nate Silver’s latest election analysis.
My patients are not an anomaly. In a survey by the American Psychological Association after the 2016 election, 57 percent of respondents said that politics stressed them out. In another survey, from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, about a fifth of people reported doing or saying something they later regretted as a result of feelings related to politics. Another 20 percent said that politics had negatively affected their relationships with friends and family. I’m thinking of more than one wedding that was almost called off because of things said around the dinner table.
Why do we get ourselves into this state, and how does it happen? There are plenty of theories about that, but no matter what gets us to this place, I can tell you what’s happening inside all of us. It might start with a push notification that drives you to Twitter to see what people are saying, then someone’s ridiculous comment catches your eye, your blood pressure rises, you text a friend to vent, and now you’re off to the races. The whole system has us stuck in a feedback loop seemingly designed to push our buttons and activate our stress response.
Having that response on high alert 24/7 isn’t just bad for your relationships and your social-media feed; it can be disastrous for your health.
We keep looking at the news or talking about politics in the hope that it will relieve some of this anxiety. But staying engaged can make it worse, since we’re powerless to change the political narrative of the moment, and there’s always more bad news.
The more we feel threatened, the more our body relies on the hormones cortisol and adrenaline to survive. Constant exposure to cortisol leads to major health problems: weight gain, poor sleep, heart disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety—and that’s not even a full list. And, no surprise here, the worse we feel, the more likely we are to lash out at friends, family, and strangers—or “add to the conversation” with a witty tweet or comment. We seem to collectively whip ourselves into a frenzy with no way out.
But take a deep breath. There’s hope for surviving this upcoming election season, and it doesn’t require giving up your smartphone and moving to the woods. The truth is, there’s no escape from partisan politics. People have disagreed about politics since the first government was formed, probably even before that.
Defining the problem is the first step toward dealing with it. And in this case, the problem isn’t political conflict; it’s what we do about it. With the right habits and mind-set in place, you can make it through the 2020 election with your sanity and your relationships intact.
—Avi Klein, L.C.S.W, psychotherapist in New York City and cohost of Hey, Man—The Advice Podcast for Men.
