Midterm Elections Prompt Political Anxiety

America the Beautiful, Anxious, Depressed, and the list goes on…

Build Back Better? Make America Great? How about easing U.S. political anxiety? We have had enough of the chaos. 

Midterm elections have arrived. And once again, U.S. voters are left with concern about politics and elections. No matter the party or ideology you identify with, there is a collective experience of dreading elections that is indicative of the decreasing trust that citizens have in political institutions. 

This is the first national election since Jan. 6, 2020. We all know what happened. I was scared, panicked, sad or just about any adjective with a negative connotation. These overwhelming feelings continued during the subsequent 2020 presidential election. What I didn't expect in the aftermath is the lingering sense of apprehension I continuously feel toward our political institutions and elections in the U.S. 

Political anxiety and depression is an extremely prevalent and pervasive experience. It feels like paralyzing stress and worry about governmental affairs. It is even considered an approved condition of depressive disorders as defined by the American Psychological Association. We do not know how to respond when politics are out of our control. 

I should not turn in my ballot and feel so enervated about the outcome of propositions and candidate races. The polarizing battlefield that American politics situates itself on forces voters into these difficult feelings. 

How are we supposed to trust a system of elections when we consume news headlines like “Putin Ally Says Russia is Interfering in the Midterms,” “What Has Happened to My Country?,” “How Bad Are Things? I Asked Some Election Workers” and the one that takes the cake: “Dancing Near the Edge of a Lost Democracy.” Professionals say that one should read more about politics instead of watching them via television to ease these feelings. But how much better is that when some of the most prominent news companies in the world are publishing pieces on how the principle of elections – democracy – is “lost?” 

Voters feel as lost as their democracy may be. Politics in the U.S. today are so dichotomized and performative that sometimes it comes across as disingenuous and it's invalidating. 

These anxieties are symbolic of the limited respect and trust voters have for political institutions. Of course, no election comes without anticipation, but Election Day in recent history has been intensely disturbing: conspiracy theories, fake ballot boxes and misinformation are injected into our consciousnesses. These are manifestations of citizens not knowing what to do in the face of political upheaval and polarization. No wonder people are uneasy – on a day that determines our futures, it's hard to decipher fact from fiction on top of the depressive headlines that tell you it is all doomed from the start. 

After this midterm election, I only feel more apprehensive about the future. It seems like there was nothing too unprecedented in terms of riots or ballot-counting controversies, but only time will tell. Other than the substantive effects of who won and who has control of the Senate and the House this midterm election, it is important that we take a step back and see how all of this affects us. Politics in the U.S. are more volatile than ever and the 2024 presidential election will likely be explosive, as well.