Insights during Mental Health Awareness Month and the U.S. Presidential Election
By Rin Lamey, Delta College Student Submission
We have less than a week until the presidential election of 2024 is finally over, and many of us are looking forward to the instant stress relief of casting our ballot and being done with it. This year’s election is especially tense, and the situation is incredibly out of the ordinary considering we have no incumbent president this time, and fear of the events that occurred after last cycle’s election repeating. With voting day coming near, and it being Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s look at anxiety and the US presidential election.
The Presidential Election Is Stressing America Out
The Pew Research Center released their findings of a poll on 8,480 members of the Pew American Trends Panel to find that when asked about politics 55% said they are often angry, and two-thirds said they were exhausted. From the rest of the survey questions, the American people are feeling very disillusioned with our politics, and the direction of our country. Another survey was conducted by Forbes Health and discussed in this article which showed that. Out of 2,000 people surveyed, over 60% reported their mental health has been negatively impacted by the presidential election.
It’s no secret that stress has many negative effects on our bodies, which become worse if we suffer from chronic stress. The fight, flight or freeze response tenses up our muscles, constricts our blood vessels, and floods our bodies with cortisol (commonly known as the stress hormone). If you suffer these effects often for a long period of time they can have negative impacts on the body. There is a large amount of evidence that political stress is bad for our health according to this Apa.org article, but to sum this article up: politics stress Americans out, and stress is bad for our health.
Voting may be good for our health
Oddly enough, with all the doom and gloom about the election being bad for our health, voting has been shown to be good for our health as discussed in this article on psychologytoday.com where long term studies have found that communities with higher civic engagement (activism, voting, volunteering) have lower rates of depression and suicide. It is thought that since political outcomes have such an impact on the services available in our communities, being engaged in politics and voting gives people a better sense of control over their lives.
On a final note
There are many ways of managing our stress in a positive way, and there is nothing wrong with having a good daily habit of personal stress management. Exercise, meditation, creativity and volunteering are just some of the ways we can manage stress in our daily lives. In the meantime, we can now exercise some control over our lives and cast our ballots for whoever we want, which has been shown to help mental health. Our politics are lurking around every corner, waiting to stress us out, but we cannot let it get to us. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, check in with yourself and your loved ones and see how they are holding up in this political maelstrom.
