Are you spending hours a week anxiously consuming content about the elections?
You could be experiencing election stress, a phenomenon that sucks your time and spikes your anxiety levels to crazy new heights.
Between sensationalized mainstream media content designed to outrage you, social media posts where strangers bicker, and contentious family gatherings that end in political shouting matches, the stress of elections takes a toll on all of us.
After all, it feels like so much is on the line. And as a good citizen, you care a lot about who represents you in government. Which is fantastic — really.
The problem becomes when the time, energy, and worry you’re spending on the election is “misdirected.” That’s when it has little impact on the outcome of the election and a massive negative impact on your personal productivity, health, and overall happiness.
No one wants that!
So here are ways you can redirect that energy in a productive, positive way — and experience an election cycle free from unnecessary worry and anxiety.
Key takeaways:
- Election stress and anxiety refer to feelings of tension and worry that you might experience during the period leading up to, during, and after an election.
- You can care about the election while being more productive, including focusing on things in your control and having better and more constructive conversations. (We’ll look at these and 8 other steps below.)
What is election stress and anxiety?
Election stress refers to the anxiety and psychological strain that people experience in response to the uncertainty, polarization, and high stakes associated with electoral processes.
This stress can manifest as:
- Heightened anxiety
- Sleep disturbances
- Other mental health issues
These symptoms appear particularly during contentious or highly publicized elections (like the 2024 U.S. Presidential Elections or the 2016 Brexit vote in the UK).
A paper in Economic and Human Biology detailed how the 2020 U.S. Presidential elections led to increased cases of depression and anxiety, particularly among those who felt their preferred outcome was at risk.
Election stress is more wide-spread than you might think.
The American Psychological Association published a study in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election showing that 52% of Americans report that the campaign is a very or somewhat significant source of stress.
The highest levels of stress were seen in college-educated white women.
And election stress – or anxiety – disorder became a phenomenon recognized by psychologists who began treating patients coming in experiencing panic attacks, mental overwhelm, and even thoughts of self-harm.
What are the symptoms of election stress and anxiety?
Election stress and political anxiety can affect us all in vastly different ways. You might find that your overall happiness is simply a bit lower, or that you find yourself worrying more. Or, you might be having full-blown anxiety attacks and thinking about moving abroad!
The most common symptoms are:
- Difficulty Concentrating: Trouble focusing on tasks due to preoccupation with election-related thoughts.
- Obsessive News Consumption: Compulsively checking news or social media for election updates, leading to heightened stress.
- Heightened Anxiety: Persistent feelings of worry, fear, or unease when you think about the election outcomes.
- Sleep Disturbances: Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or restless and unsatisfying sleep.
- Fatigue: Persistent tiredness or exhaustion, potentially exacerbated by poor sleep.
- Increased Irritability: Becoming more easily frustrated or angered due to political discussions or news.
- Physical Symptoms: Headaches, muscle tension, or gastrointestinal issues linked to stress.
- Mood Swings: Fluctuations in mood, ranging from sadness to anger or hopelessness.
- Social Withdrawal: Avoiding conversations or interactions with others to escape political discussions.
- Increased Alcohol or Substance Use: Using alcohol or other substances as a coping mechanism for stress.
10 ways to deal with election stress and anxiety
While sensationalized news and social media clickbait can be a fun distraction sometimes, it’s obviously an issue when it starts affecting your happiness and wellbeing.
You’re worried about the election because you care — which is fantastic! But we get to direct that care in a productive and impactful way so that we can be the best citizens we can be.
So, here are 10 ways you can cut back on the election stress you’re experiencing and get back to living your life.
1. Decide in advance how much time you’ll spend consuming election-related content.
Most people consume news content as it comes. If it seems like an interesting article, or it grabs our attention — well, there goes 30 minutes!
But election content is not worth infinite amounts of your time.
After all, when you’re shopping online or picking up your groceries, you always do the mental work of making sure what you’re paying is worth it for that item. But when it comes to your time, you don’t think about what it’s worth to you.
Pre-allocate how many hours per week you’ll dedicate (aka “pay”) to the election, and cap it at that.
Then, block that time in your calendar and turn off any phone notifications you have enabled for news apps.
This can be done during your weekly pre-planning session. If you don’t have a habitual planning process, download ours below (it’s the same one we teach in our WSJ bestselling book!)
2. Make a plan for what you’ll do in the event of all possible election outcomes.
Election anxiety can spring from the wild uncertainty of the outcome, particularly in elections where the country seems split down the middle. That’s why we greedily review the latest poll results and jump at new headlines, hoping to divine some insight into the future.
Instead of desperately hoping for the outcome you want, go ahead and imagine a future where your candidate wins. How do you feel? What will you do? Write a short paragraph about what life will be like for you over the next year in this scenario.
Now, imagine that your desired candidate loses the election and the opposition wins. Again, think through how you will feel, what you’ll do, and what life will be like for you in the next year.
It can seem hard to even imagine those futures right now, but putting pen to paper and making a plan of action is a concrete way to get rid of that feeling of uncertainty surrounding the election and post-election anxiety.
3. Create two lists — one with the things you can control, and one with those you cannot.
Ask yourself: what are the things I can control, and what are the things I can’t?
This is the crux of Stoic philosophy, an ancient Greek practice to live a happier, more fulfilling life. Stoics actively identified what was inside their sphere of control and listed the factors beyond their control.
This way, they could let go of worry and frustration associated with people, decisions, and events that only fate could control.
For example, you can’t control which candidates are up for election. And you can’t control if your political party wins.
You can control, however, how you vote, how much time you spend volunteering, and how much money you donate.
Choosing to let go of the worry around election results doesn’t mean you don’t care about the election — it means you know how to set powerful personal boundaries about how much you let that worry impact your personal wellbeing.
4. Focus only on what’s in your control.
There’s no red phone in your house where the candidates are calling you to ask your opinion on things (I wish!).
Those of us in the USA and similar countries live in representative democracies. You have one crucial job — to make a decision about your vote, and to go out and vote.
I’ve had clients who were SO STRESSED about the election, that they failed to actually register to vote and missed the deadline to vote!
We see this with a lot of our clients dealing with stress and overwhelm. The one thing they CAN control, they don’t do.
Here’s a list of the primary activities that have an impact and are within our control as citizens:
- Self-education
- Prioritization of issues
- Voting
- Donating
- Volunteering/Leading special interest groups
- Running for office
Outside these activities, we have little control or impact. And notice what’s not on this list: consuming sensationalized content, trolling strangers online, and biting our nails over the outcome!
5. Condense information instead of drinking from the faucet.
A trick I learned from Tim Ferriss is to use other people and resources to condense the information for you.
Rather than trying to ingest all the facts and information (which would be a fulltime job), find trusted people and organizations that are already doing this heavy lifting. Stand on the shoulders of unbiased people who already do this analysis and save all that time.
The key, of course, is finding people who are trustworthy. It’s worth investing time initially into identifying these sources, a process you’ll have to do just once but reap the benefits down the line.
6. Stop consuming political entertainment and start getting real information.
Sensationalized news content is really political entertainment, designed specifically to raise your blood pressure and keep you wanting more. However, this isn’t actual real information that will educate you on the issues and facts.
Here’s how to tell if you’re consuming political entertainment or real information:
Is the discussion about how “one person is winning and the other is losing”? It’s probably political entertainment and not a real conversation about the issues at hand.
Are you thinking “I am feeling enraged right now?” That’s definitely political entertainment!
Are the newscasters making blanket assumptions about large groups of people? That’s an indicator you’re listening to someone’s opinion rather than fact. You’ll notice with political entertainment there’s very little discussion of the facts and issues at hand and mainly commentary on the competition above the issues (much like the difference between reality TV and a documentary).
In contrast, “real information” feels emotionless, full of facts and statistics from credible sources, span longer time horizons (years or even decades), and potentially be boring to consume!
7. Use ChatGPT to create a daily or weekly summary of any notable updates during that news cycle.
Staying informed about the latest developments in an election is overwhelming, but using ChatGPT to create daily or weekly news summaries makes it much more manageable.
To do this, simply ask ChatGPT to “provide a summary of the most important election news from the past day or week.”
You can specify the regions or topics you’re most interested in, such as polling updates, key speeches, or policy debates.
ChatGPT will then generate a concise overview that captures the highlights, helping you stay up-to-date without getting bogged down in the details.
This approach is ideal for anyone looking to keep a pulse on election developments efficiently. Plus, it strips the emotion from events and keeps you from doom scrolling. You’ll probably find that nothing notable has actually happened!
8. Re-educate yourself about the facts on issues that matter most to you.
A major source of election stress is all the new information seeming to come at you, making it seem like updates are happening on the daily. In reality, however, big issues evolve over time — as in years and even decades.
The “slow news” movement refers to a news cycle that tracks these big issues (for example, migration at the USA border or the national debt) so that citizens can zoom out and get the full picture of that issue.
It can massively decrease your election stress when you choose to research long-term progress on the issues that matter most to you, rather than focusing on the latest updates.
9. Write down your personal values.
You could be experiencing election stress stemming from not knowing how to feel about a particular candidate or issue. You’re weighing the pros and cons and feeling very much split down the middle.
This happens when there’s a violation of your personal values that creates a moral quandary.
For example, how are you supposed to feel about a candidate who shares your religion but also accepts bribes, versus a candidate who has a different religious background but has demonstrated better character? There’s no obvious answer and you might find yourself in a complete state of indecision.
Moral decisions like these require you to decide what’s most important to you. Is it religion or is it character?
Just like in productivity, where you get to decide which projects and tasks are most deserving of your attention, when it comes to your personal values you get to decide which values rank the highest and which ones take a back seat.
10. Don’t engage in emotionally-charged conversations.
Our final tip is to make it a personal policy to not engage in emotionally-charged conversations. These types of conversations typically devolve with both parties communicating past each other instead of with each other, which deepens the divide instead of closing it.
These types of interactions also raise your cortisol levels and spikes adrenaline, which worsens your anxiety!
If you do choose to engage in an online conversation, make sure anything you say is something you could confidently say to that person’s face. Remember that posting snide comments or even ridiculing others makes you part of the problem. While it gives you a surge of dopamine in the moment, it’s not a healthy or constructive behavior long-term.
And if you want to learn how to have productive conversations with friends and family, we highly recommend using the communication tools outlined in Nonviolent Communication. This approach strips the emotion away from your arguments and helps you both understand each other.
What’s next?
There you have it! 10 tips to help you say goodbye to election stress and reclaim lost time and energy for good. Now you know how to stop worrying about the election in a harmful way.
Our final tip: Get back to your life!
Worry divorced from action helps no one. Plan the blocks of time you’re willing to spend on this election, and put up strong personal boundaries to defend your mental space the rest of the week.
To help you do so, get our FREE worksheet that shows you how to plan the perfect week, so that you stay productive throughout the elections.
Read more:
How to Practice Radical Self-Care
