The 2024 presidential election is breaking all kinds of records. It is the most expensive race in US history, with both campaigns are on track to spend nearly $16 billion.

This election is also causing more voter angst than any in recent history.

About 77% of people surveyed by American Psychological Association about stressors in 2024 cited the future of the country, and 69% cited the presidential election specifically. That’s up from 68% of respondents who worried about the 2020 election and 52% who cited the 2016 election that year.

In addition, 72% of adults said they were worried that the results of this year’s election could lead to violence, and 56% said they believed the results could be the end of democracy as we know it in the US.

And Texas voters are feeling anxious. And they find different ways to cope.

The future of the country

Like many of the adults surveyed by APA, Janet Ekezie, 28, worries that the presidential election could decide the future of democracy.

“There is so much at stake for democracy, identity, who we are as people,” Ekezie said. “Even if people choose to vote or not, there are so many ways these things could go.”

Ekezie is studying public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She followed the election closely because the results could affect her personally.

She recalled that after Trump was elected in 2016, she felt more nervous about being in public than ever before.

“I remember thinking: I have to travel at certain times of the day, I can’t leave my car after a certain time at night,” said Ekezie, a black woman. “I felt relatively insecure physically because of the color of my skin and what I represented as a person. In terms of my overall safety… I felt like my existence was in danger.”

Ekezie took steps to deal with her anxiety. She attended political events both on and off campus and encouraged her friends to vote.

He also started hosting his own podcast, called “I Am…”, where he invites politicians from outside of Texas to talk about politics and identity. In an August episode, she spoke with Kenny Nguyen, a city council member from Broomfield, Colorado.

“I was able to host a person from another state and talk about the broader national issues,” Ekezie said. “It was a great way, within the small platform that I have, to get people involved in the process.”

Therapists and other anxiety experts recommends similar adaptation measures, as the condition stems from feeling a lack of control.

“I can choose to ruminate or even go so far as to be upset about an outcome I don’t agree with, but in my current state, I can’t control everything,” she said. “As long as I put my best foot forward, I can sleep at night.”

Noise reduction

Kerry O’Malley Gleim, 24, said she was concerned about turnout, especially among her generation.

Glenn, who lives in Dallas, said systems like the Electoral College and gerrymandering make people feel like voting isn’t even worth it.

“I feel like people have used these loopholes to try to change these systems to work in their favor,” O’Malley Gleim said. “Also, both sides are totally guilty of this. But I feel like that definitely put people off.”

She said she also felt the pressure to stay hyper-informed. Gleim said he felt that in order to have a conversation about anything, he had to consume news about everything.

“This pressure also contributes to not wanting to vote, because … if I’m not informed about everything, then how can I vote?” she said. “Am I an informed voter when I don’t know everything about everything?”

Gleim said other Gen Zers feel the same way, especially since politics has become so divisive. She said there is more pressure to be politically active, especially through social media.

As a result, she has reduced her use of social media. She stopped using TikTok last November and deleted the Instagram app from her phone so she could only access it on a desktop. He’s also organized his feed to focus more on people he knows so he’s not constantly doomscrolling.

The evidence for the correlation between anxiety and social media is still mostly in place anecdoticalbut experts have found that young people report high rates of poor mental health related to social media use.

“I feel like my relationship with social media has definitely changed to be more focused on being a connector between me and the people I care about, as opposed to a way to interact with the world,” Gleim said.

Community building

Courtesy

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Marianne Richardson

Marianne Richardson has to keep an eye on the news for her job. As a 32-year-old research consultant in Austin, she constantly reads local and national news throughout the day. She describes herself as a news geek.

“I have less active anxiety about the election,” Richardson said. “That’s also because my life now is much more stable than it has been in the last five years.”

But she knows loved ones who are concerned about political polarization, so she’s trying to build more of a community around her.

“I care deeply about our special American values ​​and believe they make our communities better,” she said.

After being isolated during the pandemic, she felt the need to strengthen her ties to her own community. He joined the board of his local garden, started improv classes, and looked for more hobbies and ways to make friends.

Anyone who suffers from anxiety will tell you that it can be isolating. And experts say that the way to combat the so-called epidemic of loneliness in the USA is to surround yourself with others.

“People just want to work together to make the world better and make their communities better,” Richardson said. “So many good things can happen in the world around me that don’t require us all to agree on everything.”

This story was produced in collaboration with Texas Newsroom. A second story on tips for dealing with election anxiety will be published later.