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News — Edward Hirt, professor of psychological and brain sciences in The College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, can speak to ways to cope when experiencing anxiety around the election.

Hirt is a social psychologist whose research focuses on people and their everyday behavior. His research focuses on identity, one’s social identity, the things that matter to them and the ways that they define themselves. His latest research looks at political ideology and how that influences the way people think about information and how they deal with each other.

“This election has been touted, on both sides of the aisle, as something that is of the utmost importance in terms of what the potential outcomes could be. I think certainly the rhetoric has been that there’s so much at stake. The stakes seem to be so high, and the rhetoric has been so confrontational, and in many ways nasty, to the point where I think for many people, the stakes seem so high that we're so invested. There’s that fear that it won't turn out the way we feel like it has to for us. That is certainly real and it's kind of unavoidable, too. There are a lot of people who aren't sleeping well and are really stressed. And so it’s definitely a real problem," said Hirt.

"Another interesting part of this is that people who are really engaged in the election and the rhetoric can't understand people who aren't. And so that may come with a lecture: How can you not be informed? How are you not following this? So that creates division among people, because people will seek out like-minded people who agree with you, and support the same candidates as you.

"That makes politics a particularly precarious subject, because there are so many different opinions, and they're so powerful and so intense that it just creates a lot of barriers in terms of communicating with people about your feelings. So, many people may just want to avoid it as much as possible."

“One of the hardest things is that as social media has proliferated, we can get information about this 24-7,and we check our social media fairly regularly.

"This creates an anxiety in people because they’re thinking about this all the time, and it seems unavoidable. But as with anything else, we need to achieve some type of balance in our life – To be able to find the ability to step aside, walk away from it for a moment, turn off your screen, do a little self-care, and try to think about other things and realize the world will go on, whatever the outcome of that election will be.

"I also think the tough thing is that most of the time we think of social support as being one of the best tools that we have to be able to deal with any stresses, anxieties and tragedies in our lives. But the problem is, people have differing opinions. And so you may have to be really selective with who you talk to about these anxieties, because many people have very polarized opinions on that. So, you may feel like there are certain people you can't reach out to, because it'll be an argument, or we disagree on these things, or you just don't want to bring up politics with them. And so that does create challenges.

You may want to find more of a detached observer, or someone who isn’t going to disagree with you, or is going to emphasize more easily with you, in order to seek social support that will make you feel less stressed.

"We also get caught up in feeling like we need to check social media all the time. And if people feel like they’re engaged, they also feel like they have to follow the news or the latest updates, because things are constantly changing.

"I think the biggest thing is to be able to step aside from that, and then find solutions. Some people say exercise, or going for walks, or spending time with something that doesn't care about the election -- like your dog! A pet doesn't have any investment in that election, and they love you regardless. That can be at least a little bit of a respite from the stress and anxiety of this.”