(WXYZ) — This election people are dealing with the ads, the Facebook posts, and uncertainty, so I wanted to find out what people are anxious about and how they are dealing with it.
"I do have anxiety," one voter, Pam, told us.
"My overall response and feeling is overwhelmed," Martin Chirez said.
"I felt it at the beginning of the year I just knew this was going to be a tough one because everybody is on opposite sides," Linda Brown said.
Anxiety is one thing many Americans – no matter what side of the aisle – seem to have in common this election.
"What is it for you, is it the ads? The conversations? Or is it the prospect that your policy decisions won't be enacted?" I asked Kai Anderson.
"I would say its the ads, the advertisements. Those always hit home and around election time they play more and more ads," Anderson said.
"So there's like no escape?" I asked Brown.
"Absolutely no space. You go on TikTok, Facebook, it's everywhere," she said.
"If you study history this could be historic in the worst way and I don't think we realize that, so of course I have anxiety and I'm exhibiting that right now," Pam said.
Those feelings, according to trauma psychologist Dr. Arash Javanbakht, are a symptom of fear. A tactic he says campaigns have recently been weaponizing more than usual.
"Fear is what sells and they have learned that negative emotions attract our attention," Javanbakht said.
While some fears are legitimate, Dr. Javanbakht said in order to experience less anxiety around the election, spend less time consuming and more time connecting.
"If you watch the cable news, you think your whole world is going down in flames. If you go out you go downtown, you go to your neighbors, you talk to people, you see that people are living their lives and things are not that terrible," Javanbakht said.
From now until November and even after, Javanabakht said voters should try to find their balance.
"Understand that we are not running for election ourselves. The political identity is a small part of my identity. It's very important but it's a part of me. I have so many other aspects of my being and so do you and so does my neighbor," the doctor said.
"Focus on the positive and see that there's a bright light at the end of the tunnel," Anderson said.
"There has to be an alternative way on how to approach these differences," Chriez said.
