Obsessively scrolling through the latest polling averages? Overwhelmed by campaign ads about threats to democracy? Paralyzed with nerves about Election Day and what comes next?
You’re far from alone. More than seven in 10 adults say the future of the U.S. is a significant source of stress in their lives, according to a new report(link is external) from the American Psychological Association. About as many said they were worried this election’s results could lead to violence; more than half say the election could be the end of democracy in the U.S.
UC Berkeley News asked psychology professors and experts in mental health to explain where our political anxiety comes from, why elections are so nerve-wracking and what they personally do to cope. Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton(link is external) and Iris Mauss(link is external) are professors of psychology at UC Berkeley; Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas(link is external) is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center.(link is external)
What is anxiety, where does it come from, and why can it be so paralyzing?
Simon-Thomas: People get anxious when circumstances are uncertain and potentially threatening. There are two main ways that the body launches a stress response to threats. One is more active and involves readiness for escape or self-defense. The other is more passive and involves freezing, perhaps as a vestigial effort to camouflage or remain undetected by a predator.
Anxiety is the experience of “stressing about a stressor” or having a more prolonged stress response. It can be about more symbolic or existential threats. Anxiety about more remote, conceptual or symbolic things, like democracy or the unknown future — particularly when there’s a lesser sense of control or agency over how things proceed — may privilege the freeze response over the “fight or flight” response.