Anxious About the 2024 Election? Here's What Therapists Recommend

We’re almost there, folks. Two years of nonstop campaigning for the White House will finally come to a close this Tuesday, Nov. 5, on Election Day.

In 2023, the Pew Research Center found that 65% of Americans say they always or often feel “exhausted” when thinking about politics. And that was before all the dramatic twists and turns of 2024 that have given us the present circumstances: Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump deadlocked in the polls of every single swing state, leaving even the most experienced political analysts with little clue of who will be the next president.

But besides election exhaustion, there are other feelings felt across the political spectrum, from anxiety and frustration to straight-up fear. Among many undocumented and mixed-status immigrant families, for example, there’s a lot of nervousness about Trump enacting what he calls “the largest deportation program in American history.” After the former president survived a public assassination attempt in July at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, a large number of his most ardent supporters fear that Trump could be targeted again. And as millions of Gen Z Americans prepare to cast their votes for the first time, many have shared their frustration that neither candidate may do enough to protect the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.

If you’re feeling these big emotions, you’re not alone.

“Let’s normalize [feeling] anxious because it is a very high-stakes election,” said Kelli McLean, a California marriage and family therapist who works on issues relating to trauma, anxiety and depression with her clients. “This is anxiety-provoking.”

“A lot of times when we’re feeling a certain type of way about something, it comes out in other ways we don’t expect,” said Ioanna Angelakis, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in San Francisco. “So it’s really important to be honest and truthful with yourself and others about what’s going on and to formulate a plan, so you have something to fall back on — should the worst thing happen.”

Keep reading for expert advice on the things you can do before, on and after Nov. 5 to help manage anxiety about the 2024 election.

Try to consume less election news

When something is very important to us, it’s normal for us to keep checking on it as much as we can. In a presidential election as unpredictable as this one, we may have the TV on all the time or be constantly checking social media to see if there’s any tiny piece of new information that will give us hope that things will “go our way.”

But seeking out this feeling of control — in a situation that frankly cannot be controlled by any one single individual — can lead to us feeling even more helpless, McClean said.

“There is a direct correlation between how much anxiety people are feeling to what they’re watching,” she said. “The election is everywhere, and people are inundating themselves with this. It’s information overload.”

One recommendation McLean has been sharing with her clients is to stay away from social media as much as they can — or as much as they can bear — for the next few days. “They’re limiting their exposure to these 24-hour news cycles, which can be anxiety-provoking for people,” she said.

Remember, polls aren’t crystal balls

In the seven swing states that are key to winning the election, polls have switched back and forth between a Trump lead and a Harris lead for weeks now. While you may look for any sliver of hope in new polls, keep in mind that most recent polls have only changed by 1 or 2 percentage points, which is within a poll’s margin of error — the window of uncertainty your poll results may have. For example, in an Oct. 28 CBS News/YouGov poll of registered voters in Pennsylvania, Harris and Trump are tied 49%–49%, but the margin of error is 2.6%.

Polls are, after all, surveys of smaller groups meant to reflect a larger population. While Harris and Trump are tied among the smaller group surveyed, that doesn’t mean that in all of Pennsylvania, there’s a perfect tie among those who plan to vote for Harris and Trump. The margin of error tells us that the candidates’ numbers could actually be a little higher or a little lower — within that 2.6% range.

All of this goes to say that it’s probably a good idea to limit how much we look at polls. Remember: the 2016 and 2020 elections delivered many electoral surprises that polls didn’t predict. Since then, pollsters have refined their methods — but even they say that polls are not “perfectly predictive.”

That’s why therapists like Angelakis are reminding their clients to accept the uncertainty in this major event and work from there. “The future is unpredictable and unknown — it’s a mystery,” she said. “All we can do is just stay grounded.”

Enjoy the weekend before Election Day as much as you can

Yes, the first Tuesday of November could be historic for the country. But let’s not forget that the first weekend of November is quite special in its own right.

Diwali, the Hindu festival that celebrates light triumphing over darkness, begins this year in the early hours of Thursday, Oct. 31, and lasts until the next morning. Halloween is also on Thursday — a perfect excuse for families and friends to get together ahead of the weekend.

On Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2, Día de los Muertos will be celebrated across California, with cities like San Francisco, Oakland, San José and Los Angeles hosting community-led celebrations.

“Enjoy your weekend,” Angelakis said. “Don’t let these fears take you over because they’re just fears right now … they’re not your reality.”

Find some joyful things going on to distract you, and most importantly, find ways to laugh with your loved ones, she recommended. Even try to “poke fun at your fears,” Angelakis said, “and you can let out steam that way.”

You can also read our guide to the outdoor spots in the Bay Area that might bring you a little calm and peace in the run-up to Election Day and beyond.

Parents and caregivers: Keep in mind the needs of your little ones

Even if your family doesn’t talk too much about politics at the dinner table, there’s still a chance that your child may be hearing about the election from their friends or classmates. Whether they share this directly with you or not, they may be absorbing the anxiety of others around them.

“Kids are the spokespeople of their parents and their family’s fears,” Angelakis said. “When your child is acting out, or when your child is isolating, these are signs that your child is worried about something.”

This is when it’s very important to have age-appropriate conversations about what’s happening out in the world, McLean said.

“If you’re dealing with a small child, know that a lot of this is too much for them to fully take in, and it can be traumatizing,” she said. “You can explain to them the process without going into scary details: ‘Two people are competing and they have different beliefs. People can get very mad and nervous about it. But you’re still going to be safe in this home with your parents.’”

“We don’t want to lie to them or over-promise, but just not expose them to things that are not appropriate on the news or social media,” McLean said.

Read KQED’s bilingual guide on how to talk to kids during difficult or scary major moments.

Watch your anxiety levels on Election Day itself …

It’s Nov. 5. You — or those around — have already voted. And results of the presidential election start coming in at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, when the polls close on the East Coast.

Every major TV network will have nonstop coverage of the results throughout the night, and it’s very likely that most restaurants, bars and community spaces with a television will be showing this coverage. But remember: you can choose how much of this coverage you consume.

If you know that waiting hours into the early morning for the results of each swing state — which just a few thousand votes could decide — will really set your anxiety spiraling, take breaks from watching. What might be even better for you is making a plan with family or friends to do something completely different on Nov. 5.

Regardless of how much (or little) news you consume on Tuesday, remember: there will still be results at the end of the vote count — which could take days, like it did in 2020.

… and focus on your breathing

Another strategy that Angelakis recommends is giving yourself time for breathing exercises.

“Take two breaths in and one breath out,” she said, adding that you can do as many of these exercises until you start feeling a little more grounded.

“If you try that breathing, it feels really good,” Angelakis said. “It calms your nervous system down.”

She especially recommends doing these breathing exercises if anxious thoughts start coming in throughout Election Night. When you feel these thoughts rising, “visualize the best possible outcome in a day of your life,” she said, “from every last detail that you wake up until the moment you go to bed at night.”

Why: By bringing back our focus to our own lives and our own actions, we remind ourselves what is in our own control — and let go of worries about things out of our control.

Don’t forget the power you have in your own community

The results of this general election will not impact everyone equally — and this is true far beyond the presidential race.

When talking to folks from communities that are most vulnerable to policy shifts, McLean hears how folks sometimes feel disconnected from the decisions happening in Washington, D.C. “They feel powerless,” she said.

But ultimately, “we are not powerless,” McClean said. “Getting involved in grassroots activism, something local in your own community, can help with these feelings of powerlessness.”

And remember that even if you can’t vote — whether it’s because of your immigration status, criminal record or age — you still have a lot of power. In the Bay Area, for example, the labor rights organization Trabajadores Unidos Workers United (TUWU) has helped undocumented workers organize themselves for years to demand and gain higher wages, labor protections and social services at the local and state level.

“These are multi-year fights. They don’t happen overnight,” said Samuel Romero, organizing director of TUWU. “So many of these things wouldn’t have been able to pass without the support of the community that we organize with, the majority being folks that aren’t even eligible to vote.”

And as you work with your community to make change, don’t forget that a big part of that is also what happens in your home. “It is a huge election, and there is a lot at stake,” McClean said. “But it is important for people to ground themselves in their own lives and really take care of themselves first.”