Stressing the vote — anxiety over US election peaking

This year has been very stressful for many Americans — and that anxiety will reach a crescendo on Tuesday as results from the presidential election come in.

First there was the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic upheaval, which began to intensify in March. Since May, there have been nationwide protests over social injustice along with violent outbreaks in many cities over the deaths of black men in confrontations with police, which started with the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Protests have persisted in cities such as Portland, Oregon, New York and Philadelphia, and now, in preparation for the election, many cities across the United States have boarded up storefronts over concerns about violence related to the election results — an unprecedented move in recent American history.

Cynthia New, who walks through midtown Manhattan on her daily commute, told WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York that the boarding up of stores to prevent vandalism and looting has unnerved her.

"You walk down the street as I do every day and you see this plywood. It's very scary," she said.

"I'm sure everyone is going to be watching closely. Everyone, I think, is on pins and needles a little bit. You know, we're all on edge and hope it's quickly over," said another commuter.

Dr Harris Stratyner, a clinical professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told the radio station that the nation is on edge.

"I've never seen in all my years practicing, which is about 40, I've never seen anything like this in my life," he said.  "They're self-medicating, not just with alcohol. They are self-medicating with drugs. They are self-medicating by taking an extra Valium."

NBC News aired a national report on Monday evening about "election stress disorder".

According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, 68 percent of respondents say the election is a significant source of stress, compared with 52 percent who felt that for the 2016 election.

Election stress disorder isn't a scientific diagnosis, but its effects are palpable, according to Dr Robert Bright, a Mayo Clinic psychiatrist, the clinic's news network reported.

"We notice it in our bodies, the tension in our shoulders. Sometimes people get GI (gastrointestinal) upset or headaches. People have trouble sleeping. There's a lot of sleep disturbance going on right now — tossing, turning and worrying, and not being able to get to sleep — or having bad dreams about the election," Bright said.

"Waiting on news like election returns (or even just for Election Day to arrive) combines two unpleasant states: uncertainty and powerlessness. Each are deeply uncomfortable emotions. Put them together and it feels like torture," wrote Charlie Wurzel in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Monday.

"Deep down you think your candidate will win, but you're telling yourself they won't, so when the actual outcome happens it'll hurt less. But that's not how it works. So really you'll be paying the price twice. Once for (the) anticipatory period and again if the results don't go how you want," Art Markman, a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, told Wurzel.

Pennsylvania, more than any other battleground state, is generating the most attention for its possibly decisive role in this year's election. Adding to the stress factor is that the Keystone State will allow mail-in ballots to be counted up to three days after the election.

"They made a very dangerous situation, and I mean dangerous, physically dangerous, and they … did a very bad thing for this state," President Donald Trump said Sunday of a state Supreme Court ruling that granted the extension. It was appealed to the US Supreme Court, which in a deadlocked 4-4 ruling last month, enabled the votes to be counted after Election Day.

"Please don't cheat because we're all watching. We're all watching you, Governor," Trump said in reference to Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Tom Wolf.

In the 2016 election, Democrat Hillary Clinton was upset by the Republican Trump.

Scientists from Duke University and the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed nearly 500,000 adults who took part in nationwide household surveys after the 2016 election.

In December 2016, people who lived in Democratic states reported a cumulative 54.6 million more days of poor mental health compared with October. The blues largely persisted in the six months after the election. No such rise was observed among residents of states that went for Trump, the study found.

Now, another Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is leading Trump in major polls, but there also is uneasiness in Democratic circles due to the number of people turning out at Trump rallies — 57,000 estimated at one in Pennsylvania.

Another stress factor is uncertainty about the result, last experienced in 2000, when the Supreme Court decided the election for George W. Bush over Al Gore after a delay over the ballot count in Florida.

Clinton said in August that Biden should not concede the election "under any circumstances", while the president said Monday that he was sending lawyers to Pennsylvania to monitor the election results.

"We've got to figure out how can we control what is controllable. What is within our control? What can we do? One thing we can do with this election is we can vote," said Dr Bright. "We can take personal control, and our voice is just as loud as anybody else's voice. And that's the wonderful thing about living in a democracy. We each have an equal stake."