As the dust settles from President Trump’s election and inauguration, Americans’ anxieties are still running high across the country. For many, the political climate has become a significant source of stress, anxiety and hopelessness.
Beyond social media, debates with friends and addressing their thoughts to their community, people are bringing these sentiments into more private spaces — including their therapists’ offices.
Mental health professionals are seeing an influx of clients battling political anxiety, struggling to process not only the election results but the greatly polarized environments they live in.
“90% of my clients brought up the election in the two weeks following it this year,” said Ramona Clifton, a licensed clinical social worker. “That was not the case previously.”
Clifton also said that she has worked though a number of elections.
“It’s definitely more heightened this year than it has been,” Clifton said, in reference to political stress.
“There seems to be evidence between partisan polarization or the degree to which people perceive there to be polarization and our physical and mental health compared to places with less polarization,” said Dr. Costas Panagopoulos, an author and editor of American Politics Research.
Panagopoulos, Timothy Fraser and Kevin Smith, have found a correlation between polarization and Americans’ election-related post traumatic stress through a survey. In their research, they found that the rate of adults with election-related post traumatic stress is 3.5% higher than the typical annual rate of PTSD in adults, due to the polarized environments they find themselves in.
Tasha Archibald, a licensed professional counselor, said that these polarized environments can take place at the workplace and even in one’s household, amongst family members.
“I’ve talked to them about family, there’s only so much time that you can limit with them especially when you live with them,” said Archibald. “But as far as the work place, try not to even talk about politics — because at the end of the day, you have to work with them.”
The presidential debate also played a role in polarizing these families and environments in general as anxiety heightened. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) reported that such political events can have short and long term repercussions.
“They often involve conflict between groups, which can have real-life social ramifications,” states the APA.
These ramifications include disagreements, making clients feel more anxious or argumentative in some cases.
After the presidential debate, Allegra Negro, a mental health counselor who described the event as “reality television,” offered the space for her clients to express their fears about the campaign.
During this time, she said, she emphasized the importance of community connection and “knowing your audience” to avoid conflict.
“So, a Trump supporting family?” suggested Negro. “Not going to be the safest audience to talk about your fears to.”
Negro added that finding people in your space who are unconditional and will listen to such fears was important.
The debate also coincides with the media, which is another issue therapists are seeing in terms of causing a divide.
Angela Avery, an LCSW, said that one of her clients has schizophrenia, and engaged with social media during the election season.
“Prior to the election, she had talked about the different voices she has,” said Avery. “And despite the voices not typically getting along, her auditory hallucinations, all agreed on one thing, Trump not being elected.”
After the election, Avery’s client still found herself engaging on social media, which heightened her sensitivity.
“She’s literally had physical altercations with people because of her rants and other people’s rants on social media,” Avery continued.
Healthline reported that “stress might play a role in triggering episodes of psychosis in people living with schizophrenia.”
Avery, well aware of the stress social media induced stress, said that although she tries not to encourage her clients’ decisions, in this case she recommended her client to remove themself from social media usage.
“I try not to sway them [clients] one way or another,” Avery said.
But she gives her clients the space to express and process in the therapeutic environment, “allowing them to vent and validate their thoughts,” Avery continued.
(Photo courtesy of Alex Green / PEXELS.)
Clifton works with her clients to manage their social media activity, such as avoiding it during times of vulnerability.
“Avoiding it around times where you might feel more vulnerable and more sensitive–like in the morning, obviously, because if that’s the sort of first thing that you put in your mind, then you might be triggering yourself to become more agitated and more upset,” Clifton explained.
But no client is the same and has to manage their social media usage differently, Clifton continued.
Politicized social media for clients has evidently been an obstacle post election. New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights wrote a report on the connection between social media and political polarization.
“Contrary to Facebook’s contentions, a range of experts have concluded that social media does contribute to polarization,” the report said. “Writing in Science, a group of 15 university researchers concluded: ‘In recent years, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have played an influential role in in political discourse, intensifying political sectarianism.’”
Asaisa Richardson, an LCSW, said that people want to be informed and use these platforms to pay attention to the election cycle, but it is also important to pay attention to how it is making them feel.
“They get so overwhelmed by the whole process, and that overwhelm can really push you over the edge to where you can’t engage anymore,” said Richardson.
Richardson recommends her clients put their phones down and do something different, to take care themself and feel more grounded so they are ready to re-engage.
In correlation with the social media frustrations comes a lot of fear and uncertainty, from the posts that are shared to the election results and the fate of America. Richardson approaches these emotions by bringing validation.
“I think a big part of therapy sometimes is just holding the space to feel what is that you feel so far, at this stage, post election, a lot of what I’m doing is validating those feelings, holding space where people can be as a honest and raw and maybe even messy with how they feel about it,” Richardson said. “This way they can work through their feelings and figure out where to go next.”
Similar to Richardson’s method of allowing clients to express themselves is Negro, the mental heath counselor, who uses trauma informed care. This method consists of having an awareness of trauma, and meeting the client at their own pace or more specifically at the pace of one’s brain and body, Negro describes.
“I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen post election, is everyone’s nervous system is just kind of foggy,” Negro said when referring to the election’s impact on some clients.
But therapists often encounter different types of reactions, according to Archibald. She sees mainly Black males and females, yet she has gotten reactions of relief from those who are happy with the election outcome.
As for the people who lack relief and have more worry, self care is something that the therapists agree is important this political season.
“Something I encourage people to do in times like this, post election or pre election, or whenever something major is happening, is to just be really intentional about your time and your energy,” Richardson said.
Negro doesn’t push self care on her clients because she does not want it to feel forced, but she does like to help people connect with their inner child.
“I think a lot of people feel very disconnected from that they had to grow up very quickly,” Negro explained. “So practicing that kind of kindness within self talk with yourself.”
Archibald encourages clients to focus on things that are in their control.
“We can exercise our right to vote, but ultimately when everyone is contributing to this outcome, we have to keep in mind that we cannot control everyone’s vote.” Archibald said.
In alignment with Archibald, Avery emphasized the importance that although there is a disconnect between people.
“There’s more to us than our political views,” said Avery. “There is more to us than that one layer.”
