Politicians Are Trying to Ratchet Up Your Anger
Here are some productive ways to cope
After the 2016 election results were tallied, I had a crazy thought: I need a gun. Mind you, I’ve never fired a handgun, let alone owned one — so this made no sense. And as a health writer, I know that statistically having a gun in my home makes me less safe, rather than more so. But good sense and rational thought were not top of mind. Fear was. Looking back, I was scared by the anger that had been unleashed on both sides of the political divide and of the resulting chaos that might ensue.
Two years later, the country is still on tilt. Anger is omnipresent. So is anxiety and alarm. Pipe bombs are being sent through the mail. Heartbreaking hate crimes are surging. The Russians continue to intrude in our elections. The president relentlessly belittles women, the media, and immigrants — basically anyone who is not on his side. Perhaps that’s why 69 percent of Americans are significantly stressed about the future of the country, up from last year, when it was already 63 percent, according to the annual Stress in America survey.
For many, the election was a traumatic experience. A recent study reported that one year later, 25 percent of surveyed college students still had high levels of stress over the election results. The survey, conducted at Arizona…
