If Your Election Stress Has Hit New Levels, Here’s What to Do

THE STATS ARE there—like how seven out of ten adults say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress in their lives—but you probably don’t need an official poll to know you’re feeling election stress.

In a panel today moderated by Men’s Health Editor-in-Chief Richard Dorment, mental health experts agreed that telling us all to “calm down” might be the worst words of advice ever. Instead, psychiatrist Samantha Boardman, MD, author of Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress Into Strength, and Chris Mosunic, PhD, RD, (“Dr. Chris”) chief clinical officer at Calm, offered some savvy strategies on what to do to take some of the stress, fear and anxiety out of the next week and more. Managing your newsfeed, your family dynamics, and a sense of uncertainty are just three of the issues the election is lighting up.

As anyone who’s touched a smartphone knows, as much as it’s an amazing tool, once you go into your newsfeed, it can be a stress machine. “The number one predictor of why you’re doing what you’re doing and feeling the way you’re feeling is the environment,” says Dr. Chris. “Being strategic about what you expose yourself to is job number one.”

The very scrolling that creates a feeling of doom also gives you a hit of dopamine that makes you want to keep at it. There’s no single prescription to how much news you need and when to cut yourself off. Instead, he says, ask yourself “How do we expose ourselves knowing that when we do, we’re putting ourselves at risk? We want to get to a tolerable amount of risk and stress.”

Of course, it helps to know what stress really is, points out Dr. Boardman. “Stress is a big, amorphous cloud. People say, ‘I’m stressed,’ but don’t dissect it. Ask yourself what you’re actually feeling—anxiety? Irritation?” Knowing what you’re dealing with helps you, no surprise, deal with it.

The panelists also made the point that knowing what you’re feeling doesn’t mean narrowing it down to just one thing. “We’ve been told to think that we’re good or bad, or stressed or calm, but we’re often feeling many things at once,” she says. “Those who recognize that feel more in control.” That especially goes for the things you’d rather not be feeling. “Toxic positivity is ‘chill out, calm down, smile,” she says. “You need to let those negative emotions into the party—but they don’t get to be the DJ.”

That’s also true in “discussions” with your family, the panelists said. Not hearing what you want to hear doesn’t have to be the end of a conversation (or a relationship). “We’re missing the beauty of arguing and having discussions,” Boardman says, because things quickly become polarized. Her recommendation for metabolizing some of the emotional distress is to “argue as though you’re right, listen as though you’re wrong.”

No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, what’s certain is that the uncertainty of it all is the root of so much anxiety. “Being able to think you can predict the future is what you treat a person with anxiety for,” says Dr. Chris.

To help manage extremes and uncertainty, Dr. Boardman recommends asking these questions: What is the worst-case scenario? What is the best case scenario? What is the most likely outcome? “This helps people find a piece of middle ground, and it helps keep you realistically optimistic.”

In working through election stress, don’t neglect your physical needs. What you eat and how you sleep are huge contributors to how you feel, Dr. Chris points out. And if you’re really getting your stress on, the panelists offered two quick relief strategies. Dr. Chris recommends clenching your fist tightly and letting it relax (a mini progressive muscle relaxation exercise), and Dr. Boardman recommends getting up and moving from one place to another. “Trying to get fresh air and moving outside helps me press that reset button,” she says.

See the whole panel here: