By Natalie French | Reporter
With less than two weeks until the presidential election, tensions are high across the country.
A February 2024 poll done by the Pew Research Center found that 65% of Americans are exhausted by politics and 55% become angry when they think about politics.
“Democratic elections need to inflame passions in order to ensure people turn out to vote,” said Dr. Matthew Anderson, assistant professor of ethics and theology at Baylor and associate fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life at Oxford University.
“I think our political environment tempts us to over-invest ourselves in national politics,” Anderson said. “We should argue in public, vote responsibly and be happy or sad with the results without losing our balance.”
In an article from the American Psychologists Association, Dr. Brett Ford, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, said there’s a link between emotions and political engagement. In fact, the link is so strong that it’s called election stress disorder.
Anderson said that those who struggle with this election stress and their mental health during this season need to consider their actions for the rest of the year.
“A life full of friendship, hard work, quiet prayer [and a] connection to nature and with creative expression will tend — over time — to become a very stable and secure life,” Anderson said. “We should fill our life with so many goods that have nothing to do with what is happening in election cycles that we only give the election the attention it requires to fulfill our responsibilities as citizens and no more.”
Memphis, Tenn., junior Tyler Ybarra has worked on more than 10 political campaigns in the last three years as a campaign consultant and activist. He said that he believes elections affect mental health because of the consequences that can arise out of the decisions citizens make at the voting box and because of the media.
“The people we elect in November will determine the next two, four and six years of leadership,” Ybarra said. “The media also creates an overwhelming environment and can amplify negative emotions.”
Ybarra saide that setting boundaries in relationships and with media is important.
“I have to remind myself that we are more united than we are divided,” Ybarra said. “The media wants to divide us, but I believe that we can find more common ground if we open up more spaces for political discourse.”
Anderson encourages these conversations as well because they provide an opportunity to “learn more about how our friends or family see the world, and to sharpen our own understanding in the process.”
“Questions are always the right way to go about conversations with each other, but they are especially valuable in the midst of contentious seasons, so use them freely and frequently,” Anderson said.
This election season, Ybarra encourages his peers to vote and have these tough conversations.
“We must emphasize kindness and understanding during this election season,” Ybarra said.
