Feeling election stress? Manage how you engage (Guest Opinion by Robert Kuehnel & Martha Viglietta)

Robert Kuehnel, Ph.D., of LaFayette, and Martha Viglietta, Ph.D., of Pompey, are psychologists and members of the Syracuse chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
If you’re feeling stressed and perhaps a little overwhelmed by the upcoming election, you’re not alone. According to a July 2024 article in Monitor on Psychology – a news and advocacy magazine of the American Psychological Association (APA) – “Politics is increasingly recognized as a significant source of chronic stress, affecting both mental and physical health negatively across a broad swath of the population.” As clinical psychologists interested in political and environmental issues that affect mental health, we would like to offer some guidance on how to cope with political anxiety this election season and achieve an important secondary benefit of the APA report: “… but the positive aspects of political engagement can lead to greater well-being.”
A February 2024 Pew poll found that 65% of U.S. adults “always or often felt exhausted” by politics and 55% “always or often felt angry.” For many people, politics has become a form of chronic stress associated with lost sleep, obsessive thoughts, shortened tempers and damaged relationships. But given that politics and elections are nothing new, why should they be having such negative impacts in the present era?
A study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine offers some support for a common-sense guess. People who said their state was becoming more politically polarized were also more likely to develop anxiety or depression. We are feeling estranged from others who do not share our political affiliations. Such differences as being Democrat or Republican, progressive or conservative, are becoming signals or markers for a deeper divide in culture. Estrangement breeds distrust, and a certain uneasiness comes into play when we encounter others of unknown political affiliation. People talk of leaving the country if one candidate wins; others talk of the impossibility of their candidate losing and disrupting the outcome if the election is perceived as unfair. These differences are highly visible atop flagpoles, on social media, and even in some of the mainstream news outlets.
One response to the problem of political stress is to disengage with news media and with those of differing political persuasion. But this response comes with a dire cost: loss of motivation to be politically active and to cast informed votes, and thereby forfeit an important right and responsibility of citizenship. A line of research conducted by Brett Ford, Ph.D., at the University of Toronto is taking on the question of whether there is a way of regulating the negative emotions associated with politics, while preserving our motivation to remain actively involved and preserving the positive emotions that can come with engagement, such as compassion for others and a sense of mastery over our lives and circumstances. The research is looking at whether such positive emotions can help keep people involved with less cost to their health and sense of well-being.
Other research has shown that social engagement, especially with those with similar attitudes, can increase our emotional resilience.
More general tactics for handling stress include a daily routine of physical activity, as well as taking breaks from routine to be present and mindful. Further, we will do well to limit our exposure to the 24-hour news cycle that emphasizes the extremes of hype and vitriol of political difference and the culture wars. A good way to preserve balance in our news intake is to read our news rather than watching it. According to Ford, “Reading gives you a little bit more control over what you’re ingesting, so you’re not being bombarded with scenes and images that may be intended to manipulate you in some way.”
On Earth Day, we wrote to encouraged readers to consider engaging in both individual and collective action to counter the hopelessness that can come with the recognition that our climate is changing in ways that are increasingly damaging to the Earth’s environment and inhabitants. We highlighted voting as the best single “collective” action a person can take to address the climate problem, because the seat in the 22nd Congressional District could very well tip the balance of power in the House of Representatives and thereby set the trajectory the government will take on the environment. Since that time, the election in the 22nd District has become even more pivotal.
For environmental voters who want to remain engaged in this extremely important electoral process, we encourage you to implement the above guidance: Focus on your positive emotions of wanting to help others and on your sense of mastery in doing so, engage with people who are similarly minded on environmental issues, and be selective of how and where you take in information on solutions to the climate problem. An excellent source of information on environmental issues is the League of Conservation Voters.
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization that uses a consensus of experts from environmental and conservation organizations to evaluate the voting records of elected officials at the federal level of government. The New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV) provides a similar environmental scorecard of the voting records of New York state legislators. The LCV scores the voting record of our current House member, Rep. Brandon Williams, as 8% pro-environment. In other words, according to the rating system used, Representative Williams voted against pro-environment legislation 92% of the time. The NYLCV scores Williams’ opponent, John Mannion, as 93% pro-environment in his votes as a New York state senator. In other words, according to their rating system, state Mannion voted against pro-environment legislation only 7% of the time. The slate of bills the two legislators voted on were obviously different, given the different levels of government, but the comparison may nevertheless be helpful.
Let’s manage our stress, cultivate compassion, and use our votes to guide our nation on a path that keeps the planet livable.