How to Get Through Election Day with Your Mental Health Intact
Exactly what are you going to do with yourself on election day and the days after, other than doomscroll, stress, hope, and worry? We turned to some of our favorite mental health professionals and asked them what they are planning to do to manage election day.
Here's what they're doing, not doing, and how they recommend the rest of us manage our anxieties and our schedules.
"I'll be intentional and have a contingency plan."
This election will be intense for the many who feel strongly about the outcome. We have to self-monitor and respond to those emotions accordingly.
I would estimate that 75% of our well-being is about being intentional. That means knowing that not having a plan is an emotional setup. Once we're in the middle of our angst, it's hard to just “back our way” out of it. This week, when things remain uncertain, it's good to come up with a contingency plan for what we might be doing to cope with election stress.
For those who feel stress as physical tension in the body, it's especially important to be aware of that. Those folks may want to get a good workout in on Monday and Tuesday so there will be "room" to manage the physical strain of election day and the days following.
If my emotions get too high, I'll distract myself with work or reading (I'll be sure to have a book downloaded ahead of election night), and I may do some writing if my stress level calls for that. I do recommend writing/journaling because there will be a lot of thoughts and emotions and a sense of helplessness for a lot of people (regardless of the outcome of the election). Writing allows us to get those thoughts out of the "hamster wheel" of our minds and on the path to figuring out what we can do to settle our fears. Problem solving and having a plan that emerges from writing can ease overwhelming feelings of powerlessness and anxiety. At the end of the day, simply being intentional rather than hoping for the best can go a very long way.
—Rheeda Walker, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of Houston and author of The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health.
"I'll watch until the last polls close. I don't want to wake up in fear."
I’m working on election day, so I won’t start watching the news until after I have finished and eaten my dinner. In the past, I have gone to bed after a certain point, but this time I will probably watch until the last polls close to see how the results are handled and see who gets to accept the win. I don’t think I will be able to sleep well if I go to bed without knowing. I don’t want to wake up in fear. I also don’t want to wake up and find out there was a huge disaster (like destructive protests or bombings, etc) that I didn’t know about.
I will be watching with my family for the support—I wouldn’t want to watch alone. If I lived alone, I would arrange to watch with a friend so we can virtually hold hands. I think that given the isolation we’re all having to deal with, this is something that is too big to face alone. It’s helpful to be able to process your feelings with others and share reactions (the idea of collective suffering or collective celebration).
This is the first year ever that I’m taking the next day off to either mourn or celebrate. If election day turns into $%*show, I’ll spend the next day focused on self-care/soothing activities like binge-watching a series of something I like in order to escape for a day.
Although meditation is excellent for managing stress, it doesn’t help much as a last-minute anxiety reducer if you never use it any other time. It needs to be something you work into your life to bring down your baseline stress level so that when something big happens, your reaction isn’t as intense as it otherwise would be if you were not regularly meditating.
So for the people who don’t have a disciplined meditation practice (likely the majority of people) I usually recommend to engage in self-soothing activities. So for election day/night/day after, find a few activities that you enjoy—even if it's watching Tik Tok—and make a note of them or have things ready to be able to do them. It’s like you want to pair the potentially unpleasant activity of watching the results with your pleasant, soothing activity.
—Tracey Marks, MD, is a psychiatrist in Atlanta, GA., who also produces educational videos on YouTube about key issues including what depression really looks like and how to stop ruminating.
"I will have the news on in the background. I do not recommend this."
On Election Day—as during most days, though with notable breaks—I will have the news playing mutely in the background as I work.
I do not recommend this.
This year, I’m not recommending how anyone else should manage their anxiety. Our election is too personal for many of us, our emotions too high, for there to be a single anxiety management solution.
However, there are some basic principles that I will honor, and I think can help others:
Stay connected to reliable news sources. Information is one proven antidote to anxiety. However, particularly during a time when disinformation is accessed at four times the rate of factual information, I will stick to sources that I know to be reliable and that minimize the sensationalism that often accompanies false or highly partisan information.
Avoid arguing with those who hold opposing viewpoints. I know that I am not alone in loving others who hold radically different perspectives on this year’s election and subscribe to viewpoints that I have struggled to comprehend. At the end of election night or shortly thereafter, the anxiety we respectively feel will abate or ratchet depending on the outcome. I will work to maintain focus on our personal relationships, rather than on the political differences that we have not been able to bridge.
Maintain connection. The mainstreaming of extremism and disinformation during the current election cycle is correlated with an increased risk of violence during what should be peaceful protests and even when exercising one’s right to cast a ballot at a polling place. I plan to group-text those I love to lower my anxiety regarding their safety.
Maintain perspective. Although this election is momentous for me, I also recognize it as but one aspect of our democracy. As Election Day and night proceeds, I will remind myself of my power to contribute to strengthening this important institution even after the day concludes.”
—Diana Concannon, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist and Dean of the California School of Forensic Studies at Alliant International University.
"I’ll Keep My Routine Steady"
My news strategy: In general, I watch the debates. I've turned off all alerts and check the news in the morning and after work. No live news. Election day, I'm booked solid with patients. They'll fill me in.
I am going to endlessly scroll through Instagram. It’s election day!
My strategy for discussing what’s going on with others: Listen better. That is such a challenge for all of us right now. I've also found that radical acceptance is very helpful.
My recommendations: Keep your routine steady in unsteady times. Channel anxiety into self-care, like exercise. I do walks in nature daily with ¼-mile lunges. I ride horses weekly at a local barn.
Worship sleep and track it. I added a sleep tracker a month ago. I'm crushing the sleep game now. Recent statistics indicate people are drinking more and this is a real challenge now, so try trading a glass of good wine or martini for kombucha, tea and deep breathing.
I imagine both election outcomes and visualize things being OK no matter what. No matter who wins, it's important to set our intention and visualize our capacity to keep things stable. Envisioning how you'll respond in any situation keeps things from feeling so catastrophic when they do happen.
How I deal with hearing about others’ challenges all day: Being a therapist now is really centering. This is what we train for. Yes, it is tough as people are suffering. But I also get to see all the triumphs. I get to see people’s hope and determination and also that people still fall in love and move across the country.
—Drew Ramsey, M.D.,is a Men’s Health psychiatry advisor and has an active clinical practice in New York City. He’s also an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
"I’m taking the lessons I learned the last time around."
Before I describe what I’m planning to do this year, I’ll divert for a second and describe what happened 4 years ago. Hopefully, I've learned some lessons this time around. I was up very late, and then after the results, I was stunned. So stunned that I couldn't sleep. I was sitting on the stairs in my house. I called my dad in Houston in the middle of the night, he was up, too. I showed up to work the next day with maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep.
One of my unlikely favorite patients, an older woman (one of those, "I always hate coming to see you Dr. Brown," but she kept coming back anyway patients) came to the office the day after the election wearing her MAGA hat, and smiling devilishly at me during our session. I don't talk politics with patients, but my countertransference silently screamed “tired and annoyed.” She knew and I knew, even though there weren't any words exchanged.
Fast forward to 2020. This year, I'm choosing not to see patients on election day. In my view, election day should be a federal holiday, and I admit that I'd probably be distracted if I were working. I voted early, so I'll make it a mental health day instead. I’ll have some family time, go for a run, do some yoga, take some time to relax and recharge.
I'm not going to allow myself to be glued to the news all day. I'll watch the returns that night, and I'm turning it off at midnight, regardless of whether there's a definitive outcome. I've told myself a million times that on election night this year, I'm getting sleep even if my candidate loses.
I'm not taking the day after off because some patients have requested visits with me specifically for that day. I'm prepping mentally for those discussions, because I suspect some of those patients will be on the opposite side, and that's why they want to see me that day—they may be anticipating disappointment. I'll try to listen better this time and avoid any snarky glances. This time, I've also lowered my expectations bar and I realize there is a possibility that I may be disappointed in the outcome as well—I was stunned 4 years ago, but this year I'm better prepared from a mental standpoint.
I'm a bit more concerned about the days and weeks after the election. That will be the time to apply the lessons learned in the classroom of the Summer of 2020. The country will be sharply divided, and this year, race is mixed into the political strife. Win or lose, we're going to have to communicate; to try to understand. We’ll need to practice some radical acceptance and then find peaceful and adaptive ways to advocate for what we believe in.
—Gregory Scott Brown, M.D., is a Men’s Health psychiatry advisor. He’s the founder and director of the Center for Green Psychiatry in Austin and is affiliate faculty at the University of Texas Dell Medical School.
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