PORTLAND, Maine — If you take a look at any polls in the past few years, it's clear the majority of American adults aren't happy with the state of politics.
In January, some 67% of respondents polled through Reuters said they were "tired of seeing the same candidates in presidential elections and want someone new."
It's on par with a CNBC All-America Economic Survey in 2022 that found that most Americans did not want to see a Trump-Biden rematch this election season, with 61% saying former President Donald Trump should not seek re-election and 70% saying President Joe Biden should not run again.
Pew Research ran its own poll last summer, which showed that 63% of U.S. adults expressed not too much or no confidence at all in the future of our political system, and 65% said they feel exhausted when thinking about politics.
It's clear there is political fatigue. Combine that stress with the global unrest of two wars breaking out since 2022, and the world can feel overwhelming.
How stress impacts health
NEWS CENTER Maine spoke with a licensed clinical psychologist about the effects of that constant stress "when we are feeling stuck, helpless, hopeless," and she offered tips on how to protect your own mental and physical health.
"Our body and brain decide that we are experiencing a threat, and they flood our body with stress chemicals, with adrenaline, with cortisol, and that’s good. It makes sense if we’re trying to run away from a bear in the woods or we need to fight an assailant in the dark. But if that’s not happening and there is no specific threat, if the threat is ongoing, then the chemicals just stay in there because there is no resolution," Dr. Colleen Cira explained.
"That is chronic stress, and that is very corrosive to our body and mind and soul," she said. "It’s the root of inflammation, and inflammation is the root of all sorts of terrible, terrible things."
Tips for taking breaks
That heightened fight-or-flight response needs breaks, she said, and those often need to be forced. You can try meditation and deep breathing to calm your thoughts. Sometimes quieting those feelings of stress can be as easy as unplugging from the news or social media for a while.
"I think it’s easy to feel like, 'Little old me, what am I supposed to do in the face of all of this?' But we do have power, we do have agency, we do have voice and choice," Cira said.
She said that checking in with yourself might sound simple, but the effects can be profound. Consider asking yourself the following questions:
- How am I taking care of myself?
- Am I taking care of myself?
- What do I need?
"I think we put a lot of stock in other people to take care of us, and [for] some of that is great, but we forget that we too should be taking care of ourselves," she explained.
She also said it's good to consider broadening your focus by expanding those questions outside yourself:
- How am I taking care of my community?
- How am I being the difference or the change I'd like to see in the world?
What does that look like in a day-to-day setting?
It can be as simple as volunteering for a cause that's important to you, helping plant trees in your community park, or putting time in at your local food pantry. Doing something good will make you feel good, Cira said.
That said, she encourages people to focus less on what isn't working and instead think of what could work and how you can help to make change.
"If what we have doesn’t work, and it’s clear that a lot of people think it doesn’t work. That can be scary and cause uncertainty," she said. "But it also opens up this whole big other question about what else might work. What is the system that could be different or could be better? And what if we spent some time getting excited about that? It leaves a vacuum, but we can fill it with something better, maybe."
To learn more about Dr. Colleen Cira click here.