WESTWOOD, Mass. — It was an election night that brought suspense, tension, highs and lows for both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. It also featured, in the end, the one thing humans abhor: uncertainty.
“Humans are very uncomfortable with uncertainty,” said Dr. Ellen Slawsby, a clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Anxiety is when we perceive that we don’t have control over something.”
Debbie Zaza of Westwood has no control over the counting of the millions of mail-in ballots, and that’s causing her stress.
“I’m not confident that it’s going to be handled properly and I just want to make sure that everything’s honest,” she said. “That is my biggest stress right now, the mail-in voting that’s happened so extensively over the nation this year.”
Down the street, neighbor David Warshay is concerned about violent protests erupting if the presidential race isn’t decided soon.
“I’d say my anxiety level is very high out there,” he said. “I mean I always had in the back of my mind that given the high level of polarization in this country that there could be a delay. But the process is dragging out and the longer it drags out, you know, the more anxiety I feel.”
Post-election stress is nothing new, Dr. Slawsby said.
“In 2016 the stress and anxiety levels went up post-election significantly and it’s very clear that there’s good reason for that to occur again now in 2020,” she said. “In 2016 there was some data that showed there was an increase in hospitalizations post the election for cardiovascular disease.”
Anxiety, at its worst, can fulminate into a mental health crisis. The post-election atmosphere thus worries Dr. William Meehan, a psychiatrist at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester.
“If you feel you’re in imminent danger of taking your life call 911,” Dr. Meehan said.
Those less in crisis should remember what Meehan calls the three magic words of resiliency: I’ll handle it. He said to be disappointed is to be human, but it’s important not to dwell on that which cannot be changed.
“None of us can go into the past and change something,” Dr. Meehan said. “So once something has happened it’s usually best to find a way to accept it. It doesn’t mean you can’t have intentions about the future where you might change something. But there’s a saying: ‘Arguing with reality causes suffering, but only 100% of the time.’ So if something is real, accept it, trust you can handle it.”
Zaza said she’s trying to stay calm and focused during this uncertain time.
“I expected there would be some sort of postponement to a decision or declaring one or the other a president. I did not anticipate it to be this close,” she said.
Neither, probably, did millions of others.
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