Post-Election Stress Is A Real And Heavy Thing — And It Shows Up In Surprising Ways

Here’s what the election cycle is doing to our bodies and brains right now.

We humans do not do well with uncertainty we cannot control. Donald Trump, a coup-attempting convicted criminal, is set to return to the White House, and what this means for the future of the republic and the rule of law remains unclear.

If you feel like you are at your breaking point right now, you’re not alone.

A fall report from the American Psychological Association found that Americans are deeply worried about the consequences of the 2024 general election. According to a survey of over 3,000 U.S. adults, 7 in 10 U.S. adults said the election was a source of significant stress. More than half said they were worried this election’s results could lead to violence and believed the election results could be the end of democracy in the United States.

Iris Mauss, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said this election is uniquely stressful, partly because it can be destabilizing to feel like you are living in a totally different reality from how half of the country is thinking.

In this election, there is an “extreme divergence of realities where there’s almost no overlap. One party thinks Trump is basically sent by God. The other people think he’s the most evil human in the country,” she said. “There’s no overlap between those realities. And that’s, I think, really unsettling,” she added.