Worrying About Elections Is Unhealthy

Worrying about political elections as well as anticipating stress related to the elections can cause adverse effects on your health, according to researchers with North Carolina State University.

What to Know

• Anticipating possible stress related to an election cycle was enough to make study participants feel worse and to have adverse effects on their health.

• Within 24 hours of an upcoming election, study participants reported having worse physical health and high levels of stress while anticipating the outcome and possible arguments over elections.

• Election stress was reported across all ages and all political orientations except among those who actively practiced problem analysis.

• Stress has long been known to have a negative effect on one’s health, but recognizing and anticipating the issue can help one apply methods to help mitigate the impact.

• Problem analysis may help people think of ways to avoid having an argument they’re anticipating or think of ways to make the argument less heated.

This is a summary of the article, “Combatting Election Stress: Anticipatory Coping and Daily Self-Reported Physical Health,” published in Psychological Reports on March 20, 2023. The full article can be found on journals.sagepub.com .

For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Source: Read Full Article