Dealing with Election Day Anxiety
The irony of this post starts right away. While, technically, an election is a one day event, a day later, we’re still counting votes. Therefore, election day anxiety morphs into election days anxiety.
Looking election day 2020 updates, President elect hopeful Joe Biden currently leads incumbent Trump with electoral votes of 264 to 214. With major states still outstanding; if Biden wins Nevada or Pennsylvania, he’ll win the Presidency.
This election is a nail biter.
In my 42 years of life, I’ve never seen anything like it. For instance, mail-in ballots are making it a logistical nightmare to get votes counted.
Moreover, Trump is threatening to circumvent the Democratic process by bringing a lawsuit to the Supreme court to stop vote counting.
Lastly, armed Trump supporters are surrounding counting sites in an effort to impede or altogether stop the counting process. Absolutely ridiculous, it is our right to have our voices heard through voting.
Every vote must be counted; that’s the Democratic way.
Election Day Anxiety
Election Day anxiety is real. Regardless of what party you’re aligned with, to say this election is high stakes would be an understatement. Every “side” is feeling the anxiety.
In a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, it found that a majority of people on both political parties experienced stressed based on election results.
I felt that anxiety over the weekend, days before the election. My chest was tight for days wondering about the outcome.
This takes me back to the 2106 election. When Trump was announced as the Presidential elect my blood ran cold. I must’ve felt frozen for several weeks after that. The anxiety and aftershock I felt was all too real.
Coming back to present day, while working from home, I caught the Wendy Williams show with Dr. Drew. Wendy asks the good doctor the question I know I need to hear: “How do we deal with this election day anxiety?”
Dealing with Election Day Anxiety
Prepare Yourself for the Outcome
Dr. Drew gave words of wisdom. Preparing yourself for the outcome helps to ease anxiety. This is what I failed to do years ago. I was way too confident that America wouldn’t vote a racist and misogynist into the oval office over Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, I was wrong and the results jarred me. This year, I’ll manage my emotions to find positives in either one of the Presidential elects, no matter how it turns out.
Practice Self Care
Practice self care. Meaning, find something enjoyable to do in order to ease the anxiety. On election night, I ordered sushi takeout, spent the evening watching Guy’s Grocery Games with my youngest son and laughed. I turned a night potentially filled with worry into an enjoyable one.
Disconnect
It’s perfectly fine to disconnect for a while. Actually, this is a form of self care. You’re able to protect your energy by not exposing yourself to sources of anxiety – namely, election day updates. Put the phone down. Leave Twitter alone and opt for a Netflix movie with a nice glass of wine instead.
Really, that’s all there is to it. Prepare yourself. Find something else to do. Put the phone down.
Take a look at my YouTube video from the evening of election day:
Democratically Blissfully Single and Yours,
