Election Stress Disorder. Yes, it's a thing, and I have it. I'm guessing that many of you do too - the American Psychological Association states that more than half of U.S. adults say the 2016 presidential race is a significant source of stress for them.
There's been much about which to be anxious. To me, it seems that every election season has become a little more acrimonious, a little more bitter, a little more dirty. The term "mudslinging" has devolved over the years to "manure-slinging" ... or worse. True to this trend, the 2016 campaigning, advertising and rhetoric has become a cesspool around our local ballot decisions and our statewide elections, and, of course, around what's probably the most important choice being made anywhere in the world right now, that for president of the United States.
And we get to make this choice, you and I, as Colorado residents and American citizens.
I have voted in every election - local, state, national - since I turned 18. One November I was so sick with chronic (and no longer contagious) bronchitis that my parents came over, bundled me up in a coat over my jammies, and drove me to my polling place so I could cast my vote.
It's that important to me. And because it is, I study up on the issues and the candidates. In fact, I'm an information junkie, sucking in as much as I can. So much so that, in these final days before the election, I've stopped trying to win the Mindbender on MIX100 radio and have been getting up earlier to have an extra cup of coffee and flip through the morning TV broadcasts before I check online news.
I'm not sure what I'm looking for, though. Oh, I'm well aware of the cognitive bias that I and many others experience as we seek affirmation of own positions, or confirmation of why we have turned away from others'. But I yearn for something beyond that, some new information about the election that will inspire me or uplift me, and it's just not there ... either I've already heard it too too much, or the news just keeps getting worse.
There has been an upside, however, to my morning news fix. In the moments devoted to non-election coverage, I've discovered moving accounts of dramatic rescues across the country. Human chains pulling drivers from burning vehicles. Neighbors looking out for neighbors in flood disasters, strangers patrolling in boats to carry people and pets to safety. Onlookers rushing into collapsed structures to save those trapped, bystanders intervening to protect others from assault, verbal or otherwise.
This is the news I need, the news I need to feel inspired, to feel uplifted, to feel hopeful. To believe that we will rescue one another from the flames of an incendiary campaign, to carry one another out of the torrent that has become American politics. To intervene on the side of the vulnerable, and to dig out those crushed by fear and hate.
Even though the election can't come soon enough for me, there is still work to be done on the other side. I want to be part of the human chain that we'll need to uplift and inspire one another after the ashes settle.
Will you join me?
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.comhttp://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/Are-you-experiencing-Election-Stress-Disorder,238140?branding=15
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