There are many ways to think about anxiety, but as a behaviorist I often focus on anxiety patterns. Some people worry in the mornings (daily pattern), some about Mondays (weekly), some about holidays with the family (semi-annually), some about the start of school (yearly), and some people tend to experience a four-year pattern to certain worries. You may have noticed that, like me, you are worrying about the US Presidential elections right now.
Elections are important and significant. Even though it's only a four-year term, an American president can make significant changes in that time that affect the average person. I believe it is good to be an informed voter and to vote, and to care about who wins. However, the vast majority of people I talk to about their worries about the election admit that there is a level of irrationality to their worries. And this is consistent with the nature of worry and anxiety. A challenging and dysfunctional part of anxiety is its irrationality. Either we worry about something that doesn't benefit from our worry (because there's nothing to do about it, etc.) or our worry is too intense for the issue.
Considering the US Presidential election is significant and we can't just forget about it, how does one address the worry of it?
Informed
A voter must be informed, but, really, there are only two viable options because there is a two-party system in the US right now. I think it is fine to vote for a third party or even to not vote. It's a free country after all. But most of the people I talk to with election worries are voters and understand that a vote for a third party is like a vote for the other party. Most people know who worry about presidential elections are worried if one of the candidates wins (not if one person loses or no one wins). So, I recommend gathering enough information about the candidates to make a binary decision.
Turn off/Pair down
I get interested in how the candidates are doing in the polls so I do look through news. Once I start to feel that twinge of apprehension though I stop reading. I have found that if I stop feeding my worries information they tend to calm down. Again, good news and bad news are both exploited by my irrational worries. Indeed, if I'm not reading political news, I think about something else. I think about whatever has most of my attention. If I'm not thinking about politics then I don't worry about the presidential election. A standard I place on myself at times is asking myself if the article I'm reading is informing my vote. Am I really trying to choose who to vote for? If so, I read on and evaluate the article for its ability to inform me. If I've already chosen the candidate then I stop reading and look at sports or something.
I've noticed that some news is more factual than others. I'm not talking about fake news. I'm referring to some news sources that are choosing a tabloid model of reporting. One newspaper I enjoy in non-elections years I have had to completely ban from my feed in election years because even the headlines make me anxious. It's a simple thing to make my algorithm in Apple News stop sending me articles from this particular newspaper. I look through my whole news feed and "thumbs down" every article from this paper regardless its content. It took me about two days to get to less than one article a week from this paper. If I notice any article from any source stoking my anxiety I will "thumbs down" it. I value my calmness more than being entertained (which is what most political news is in an election year after I have chosen my candidate). And again, if I have actual questions about the election, I can go look for them. The above method works well for passive news such as news feeds.
Social Media
Elections and the like remind me why I think social media is a bad use of time, in general. I think badness is the nature of social media and not any specific platform. People just cannot help but abuse social media because its whole purpose is to be used in excess, like cocaine and gambling. I encourage all of my clients, and especially those who have anxiety related to current events, to fast from social media and see what happens to their worries. This advice is not a risk for me because social media is designed to keep us consuming it by any means. It promises information that will help us feel better while subtly injecting us with toxins. Social media is the solution to and cause of our problems (to take a quote from Homer Simpson).
I tell my clients social media is like a dumpster. My uncle was a dumpster diver and found some really good things over the years. But how much trash did he have to sort? What's the ratio of trash to treasure in your social media? Is your social media really offering you something you couldn't get by other means? Is what it's giving you ultimately good for you? For many people, cutting social media completely leads to relief from lots of emotional problems, including boredom and loneliness, if you can believe it.
In conclusion, election years are very anxious times for lots of people. News and social media, however, can have a huge negative impact on us through our irrational worries, so considering curating, culling, cutting or just getting rid of it altogether.
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