Advice for Democrats Who See Red: Beating Post-election Blues

Newswise — The presidential election occurred nearly a week ago, and you’re still having a tough time accepting that your candidate lost. You probably weren’t surprised or really concerned you felt upset the day after the results were announced, nor even when your mood stayed down the day after that. But those feelings are lingering – long after you thought they would, and perhaps deeper than expected, too.

“Feeling sad, depressed and let down goes with the territory,” says Joan Lang, M.D., chair of the department of psychiatry at Saint Louis University. “It’s not necessarily a sign that anything’s wrong with you. In fact, it may be just the opposite. You felt passionately about this election, which is good, but then big disappointments really do hurt.”

For John Kerry supporters who felt strongly about the election, the loss may involve fear as well as disappointment – fear of what might lie ahead during the next four years.

“For those who had hoped for a change in administration and were committed to what Kerry planned to address, it’s not just disappointment that their candidate lost. It’s dread that the socio-political agenda will veer in a direction that seems to contradict their values,” Dr. Lang says. “It’s not like the Cardinals losing the World Series and thinking that they can come back next year.”

The challenge, Dr. Lang says, is not allowing disappointment to become despair. She suggests these strategies for dealing with the loss, which she believes has hit many Americans harder than previous election defeats.

· Be patient with yourself as you come to terms with an outcome that you find disappointing. “The things you are feeling are really very understandable. This is the risk of caring and it is imperative that we not allow ourselves to become so embittered that we lose our passion. Pain will come and go in waves, much like the grief of mourning, but shouldn’t become the lens through which you view the world.”

· Don’t demonize those who voted for the other guy. “Most of the people who voted for President George Bush are the people next door or those we work alongside. Many, many people you know, who you might hang out with and have a beer with after work, weigh and balance the package differently than you do. We can’t get into demonizing or seeing them as evil.”

· Remember that we live in a good place. “Where could you move that would be better, that has more opportunity and more freedoms? Realize with all its flaws, this is still a great country. After all, we want a democracy to be comprised of citizens who care and people who have different voices.”

· Focus on the candidates who were elected who you do agree with. Even the candidates you didn’t vote for probably favored some issues you support. Look for areas where you have common ground. “Find allies and mobilize grassroots support around the things that you care about. People will group and regroup around different ideas. Just because a politician is a Democrat or Republican doesn’t mean he or she necessarily stands one way on all issues.”

· Think about the record number of people who voted. “A truly good thing that happened from this was to stand in line and see all ages – young people who were voting for the first time, mothers with their twins in strollers, old people with their oxygen tanks. It was democracy in action.”

· Do things that remind you there is life beyond politics and after the election. “Go to the gym, turn off the television news, talk to a friend. Take a break from politics so you can process what happened from a fresh perspective.”

· Recognize when your feelings of depression signal a deeper problem. If you no longer enjoy the things you used to love – “getting together with a friend for a morning walk or going to a movie, for instance” – or feel irritable or distraught for more than two weeks, talk with a mental health professional.