Dealing with the Devastating Impact of Election Stress

As we count down to the last moments leading up to Election Day in the United States, the temperature this November feels hotter than a mid-summer day in Moab, and the stress and rhetoric have reached dangerous levels. It’s no wonder that the American Psychiatric Association reported that 73% of adults in the US are particularly anxious about the outcome of the presidential elections, among other significant stress triggers.

No matter who wins at the ballot box, however, we will all lose if we allow the stress and negativity to continue eating at us. We are surrounded by a constant bombardment of breaking news moments, a stream of polls interpreted by pundits in their own biased ways, and the latest unprecedented action or disqualifying statement caught in a soundbite and video clip. It's so easy to get sucked into the 24-hour news cycle that ensnares our attention like a drug that won't let us look away, while making us desperately doom-scroll through a sea of mis-information, dis-information, and click-bait to find the drops of good news we desperately need to keep going.

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Separating Fear from Danger

There is no doubt that our concern about these significant events is warranted and that we are rightfully invested in the outcome of the election, considering the impact on our lives. After all, there are real-world implications from the decisions made by our leaders and elected officials for us and our children. So, the stakes are very high, and the times are fraught with fear and danger.

But fear and danger are not the same thing. Danger is very real, and it can hurt us, if we don’t take care to address real risks. Fear, however, is our emotional response to what we perceive as danger, threats, and undesirable outcomes. This fear response is not always consistent or proportionate to the actual danger, since our worldview, experiences, and resilience will determine our response to danger and stress.

It can help to visualize our capacity to handle stressful situations as a sponge, and those stressful situations as water pouring onto our “sponge”. When we experience stress at a manageable rate, our sponge can absorb the water. But what if the water is flowing at a higher rate than what we can absorb? Then our sponge becomes saturated and struggles to absorb and contain the water. It becomes ineffective and can no longer handle the flowing water, rendering it, and us, incapacitated.

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Four Responses to the Stress of Uncertainty and Fear

In my native Greece, the lessons of the Stoic philosophers echo from antiquity and still resonate strongly. Their teachings remind us that while we can’t control what happens in the world, we can control how we react to it. We are robbed of our inner freedom, however, when we allow ourselves to be caught in a perpetual cycle of stress, and we give up control of both our emotional responses and the actions that can get us back into a more positive place.

There are four common reactions, or modes, to fear and uncertainty caused by sudden and uncontrollable change. Our own response may vary from situation to situation, and our stress levels can elevate significantly. Consider the following four typical responses that are all normal and legitimate:

• Victim Mode, where we find ourselves feeling angry or depressed, isolating and failing to ask for help, fighting and resisting change to our routines. We are flooded by emotions, plagued by feelings of “I don’t have much of a choice” and “poor me.”
• Critic Mode, where we are looking for reasons why the efforts to make things better will not be successful and we fail to see any positive outcomes from the situation. Playing the blame-game has never been an effective way to manage stress, and it expands the already negative rhetoric.
• Bystander Mode, where we feel reluctant to get involved, waiting for others to make decisions and take the lead. Our refusal to act until we don’t have a choice, or to actively participate and be part of the solution, can be detrimental to our physical, emotional, and mental health.
• Navigator Mode, where we look for ways to minimize the negative effects of the crisis on ourselves and others. Here we explore the underlying issues, look for opportunities to make things better, find ways to be useful and supportive to others, and form nurturing relationships with others affected by the events.

It’s common for our response to shift during very stressful times. We could start in the Navigator Mode when a crisis first hits, only to revert to the Victim Mode as we personally experience more of the effects of the crisis. What’s most important is not to get stuck in the Victim, Critic, or Bystander Mode – all of which inhibit forward movement. Instead look for ways to unlock your resilience, to become more assertive, and to move in a positive direction.

Note: Take charge of the things you can control, like exercising your right to vote and have your opinion count.

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7 Keys to Unlock Your Resilience

These were some of the topics and challenges addressed in my first book, 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics and Other Disasters, written with my good friend, Elia Gourgouris Ph.D.

The 7 Keys create a roadmap to help us deal with crisis, stressful situations, and unexpected change in our life:

1. Starting with?Self-care, the ability to put our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs first in order to be strong for ourselves and others during a crisis.
2. Practicing?Awareness,?self-reflection and listening to our intuition or inner wisdom will give us advance notice of what’s around the corner. Sometimes that can be a matter of life or death.
3. Choosing?Flexibility?will allow us to adapt, pivot when needed, and avoid unnecessary pain. The world is constantly changing and, if we stick to business as usual, we’ll be left behind.
4. Acting quickly and decisively requires good?Preparation?to mitigate risk and address likely issues before they happen. It enables us to move forward with confidence when things become difficult.
5. When faced with a crisis we must take?Initiative?by moving into action. Let us not be victims, critics or bystanders. Let us be navigators in the journey of our lives!
6. As with everything else in life, our?Positive Attitude,?filled with faith and hope, and bolstered by the confidence of past successes, will help us overcome any situation and any obstacle we face.
7. Finally, our humanity will be measured by the level and frequency of the?Kindness?we show to others. Our ability to remove hate and anger from our discourse and replace them with respect and empathy will help move us towards healing and unity in the days to come.

When used together, these 7 Keys unlock our resilience and our ability to cope with the mounting stress from uncertainty and unexpected change in our life. When we work on mastering each key behavior, it strengthens our resolve and confidence that we can overcome any challenge. We are not powerless, and we can choose how we respond to each new crisis – whether it is a personal, national, or global one. With each experience we have the power to learn and grow, to overcome past failures, and to gain confidence in our ability to handle adversity. That is part of our evolutionary human nature, and what gives me hope that tomorrow can be better than today.

That’s it for now. Until the next time, be great, do great, and have a great day!

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