Politics Anxiety: What to do when politics scares the hell out of you

Hey, love, it's good to see you. It is Wednesday, January 20th, and oh, my goodness, it's good to see you. It's Wednesday, January 20th, and it's a big day. Right. I wanted to get on here and be real with you and talk with you about politics, anxiety, and I want to talk about what to do when politics scares the hell out of you. We're going to talk a little bit about the role of psychology in politics, the role of psychology in mental health. If you're stressed out about politics, if you're scared about what's going on in our political system, we're going to talk about that today. And I hope to leave you with some wisdom that will help you get through your day, your week, your month, your year, that will help you turn this incredibly tumultuous time into something that feels manageable and, and maybe even empowering or positive. We'll see. And so I'm really grateful that you're here and you're going to hear a little bit about my heart in this live in this video, and I hope that it's beneficial for you. And I want today's conversation to be an opportunity for an open dialogue on how in mental health, how is that interrelating in how we see politics and how can politics impact mental health, and then what do we do about it? And so I think about 2020, and I reflect on how 2021 has become. And there's a lot of reasons to be anxious. We have the COVID 19 pandemic. We have economic instability, climate instability. We have the war on terrorism, unemployment, extreme, extreme civil unrest resulting in looting and violence, and questioning the fundamental tenets of democracy. And these are all reasons to be anxious. And I imagine that in addition to these giant things that you have stuff going on too, whether it's in your family, your personal life, your relationships, your health, your finances, or whatever is going on in your microchasm is also being impacted by the greater gestalt. The gestalt being society, the world around you. In the ACT method, we talk about this as the social cast of characters. And so we actually have a study that was conducted by the American Psychological association in the beginning of this year. And they said in this study, it's called the Stress in America survey, and they found that 56% of participants reported that the 2020 election was a significant source of stress and anxiety. According to this study is three times higher right now than it was a year ago. And this number is rising. I'm actually writing a book on this Topic. And one of the studies that came out of Harvard was discussing how psychiatric medication prescriptions skyrocketed in 2020 so drastically that they were concerned about having medication shortages. So we're anxious, our country is anxious, our people are anxious. And it's just the beginning. And so I ask, how are you dealing with this? I can tell you, for me, a big thing thing that's coming up is existential anxiety. I. I think about existential anxiety about safety, who I am in this country, how can I contribute what is happening to humanity? I see people that I've known for years, that I admire and trust. I see them going down rabbit holes, and I miss the relationships we used to enjoy. I see families being torn apart. Some people haven't seen their families or spoken with their families because they just can't get along politically. They can't agree, and it becomes so personal and so volatile. I see friendships and families being torn apart. And when I hear someone going on a rampage with a perspective that I feel like is completely off the wall, it terrifies me. I think, who is this person? Do I even know them? Did I know them? How can we disagree on something so profoundly important? How did they come to these conclusions? Am I the one that's wrong? And if so, how have I been so brainwashed that I literally and fundamentally believe the opposite of this individual, whom I believed had a good, intelligent, wise, and loving heart? And so then I start to question the sanity of myself, my own logical brain, the sanity of the opposition, and it just creates chaos. Do you resonate with that? Can I get, like, a raised hand here? Are you experiencing this, too? Where you look at people that you respect and love, and their perspectives are so on the opposite end of the continuum. You're like, how could. How could both realities be true? Like, somebody is going off the deep end, and I hope it's not me. But how could it be them, right? Everything right now is amplified. The stakes feel unsurmountably high. It's life, it's death, it's freedom, it's imprisonment, it's speech, it's censorship. It's who we are as fundamental human beings. All of our fears, our insecurities, our vulnerabilities or weaknesses are the fires that the discord of politics is just inflaming with gasoline. And so then anxiety comes up, right? Anxiety attempts to protect you. Anxiety protects you by giving you data. And it can present in a few different ways. One is fight. Then we have flight, fear in the form of free freeze. And then we have Flop and flawn. So fight, flight, freeze, flop and flawn. And if you're awake, you're probably using at least one of these strategies to deal. And so which one do you resonate with? Let's break it down together. When stress mounts, when it accumulates, when it builds, it activates the nervous system, your nervous system, your brain, your spinal cord, which then communicates to the rest of your body, your gut, your nerves. And all of these symptoms come up. I'm in a lot of anxiety. Facebook groups where I go in and I try to provide hope and education, and I see so many posts where people are like, my gut is a mess and I'm so anxious. Is this normal? And the answer is yes. Yes, there's a link between the gut and the brain and stress and anxiety. Other people are saying, I feel these nerves and jumps and twitches and tinglings and numbness and then clumsy. Are these normal symptoms for anxiety? And the answer is yes, all of these things can be normal responses to feeling overwhelmed. And our nervous system, when stress mounts and accumulates and builds, it activates by releasing chemicals that go to different parts of your physical, your emotional and your mental body, creating a core chorus of responses that are designed to protect you. Fight is a response where you're feeling threatened and unsafe. And people who are in this fight response experience a chemical change that may provoke them to be aggressive to their self or to others. These are people who kick the dog, break windows, conduct acts of violence, scream, throw things, or maybe they even harm themselves. But how do we fight a huge political system or environmental turmoil or racism or the economic instability in this country with rage? We hear all this information on social media, news sources, people in the grocery store line talking about it, and how do we respond? We can rear end the guy that finally cuts us off in the parking lot, but that doesn't solve the problem with the environment, politics, unemployment, resentments, and on and on. So it stirs and stews. Does anybody get this? Does anybody resonate with this? If so, the way your nervous system is responding to this prologue is to produce chemical reactions and changes that make you want to fight to protect yourself and your loved ones. The next is flight. And this is where we have the urge to run away, to escape, to get out. The response, naturally, is designed to get us away from a dangerous tiger that's ready for lunch. But how do we get away from politics, from the election, how do we get away from climate change? We're stuck on this planet. How do we escape Australia when the entire continent is on fire. How do we protect ourselves from political unrest? Violence at the Capitol threatens democracy. The fear of our future futures, the futures of our families. We can't run away, not really. And so we feel stuck and the anxiety builds, right? Does anybody relate to that? That's my body's go to is when I feel overwhelmed and when I feel stuck, it's just this desire to. To get away. I feel trapped. I can't. I just need to get out. And you can't, right? The flop response is where we just give up. Have you ever felt that way? The opossum is known for playing dead. In fact, when I was a little girl, I remember going into my brother's bedroom with my mom and she was going to wake him up for the day and he was playing possum and she thought for a moment that he was dead. And it was that response that stuck into my mind. As an example of what the flop can look like is the possum just plops down and tricks the enemy into thinking it's dead so that the enemy gives up and goes away. Another example of this is where we just lay down and don't engage. We turn off the news, we put earplugs in our ears, we stick our head in the sands, we shut off our phones, we refuse to engage. And it helps protect us from the debilitating surges of panic and fear and powerlessness. But the cause is still there. This doesn't really create more safety, it just helps buffer your nervous system from the onslaught of the dangerous feeling. And then we have freeze. And this is where we feel paralyzed. We don't know what to do, we don't know what to say, how to respond. And I remember feeling this way when 911 happened. I remember feeling speechless. I didn't know how to cope, where to go. I'd never experienced anything like this in my life. And I'm watching this on the television stations live. And so I froze. And the chemical patterns in the freeze response spiral through the nervous system, building and building and building, where we feel completely immobile emotionally, physically, mentally. And terror has taken the wheel. Fun is a strategy that has been more part of our recent conversation. And I think of this particularly of importance given what's happening in politics. And the fawn response is where the victim attempts to diffuse conflict by pleasing the oppressor, making peace, trying to douse the flames. These people may give up their power by aligning with the dominant abusive force. These people cannot escape danger, so they self preserve by aligning with the Abuser, have you resonated with this in your past, or do you resonate now? Have you felt silenced? Have you felt like you have to make peace with your others in order to make peace with yourself or with your loved ones? Are you making compromises for survival? And are these compromises a sign of empowerment? Or they assign that you're going into that fawn trauma state. And so we are. We're right here, billions of anxious people struggling with stress, fear, uncertainty, a sense of existential fear so powerful that we're turning to alcohol, prescription medications, supplements, psychotherapy, and all sorts of other strategies to cool the heat just a little bit. And so I made this case that anxiety is big, anxiety is real, anxiety is huge. And we're using all these strategies, but it doesn't get to the. The problem, but we can't change the problem. So I've painted what feels like a dismal story, but there is a solution, and the solution comes from the ACT method. And what I want to have you start doing is to begin to write your prologue. Your prologue. Your prologue is everything that has happened up to this very moment. The moment you're in right now, as you read the words that I type, type of this vlog later, or as you listen to my voice. Your prologue is everything that you have heard, that you have read, that you've thought you've experienced, endured, struggled through up to this exact moment. The prologue explains why you feel the way you feel. The prologue validates your experience and gives you context to how your mind and body are responding. It takes it out of the automatic and puts it into your will. It gives you your power back. And then you get to choose to turn the page. Our political system may not get better, maybe it will. But regardless of what is happening outside of you in culture, in economics, in health care, in human rights, and everything else that is gasoline and the metaphorical dumpster fire that's going on right now, you have power of your internal experience. Here's what I want you to do. Number one, is I want you to write your prologue. Write your story. Write the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful. Write down your fears, write down the activators. Write down everything that feels relevant to you that got you to where you are in this exact moment. This is acknowledgement. We can't solve a problem. We are not willing to acknowledge that we have. We have to acknowledge our story, and then we can write the next act. You can't write a story that you're not even willing to participate in. Write your Prologue do that today. And secondly, we have to learn effective tolerance skills. These are skills that get you through so that your nervous system doesn't have to run your life via its particular flavor of crisis management. I'm going to teach you some of those effective tolerance skills today. First of all, mindfully and intentionally consume information and then shut it down. This is the opposite of doom. Scrolling more isn't better. There is too much of a good thing. Just like drinking water is important, being informed is important. I don't doubt, deny or want to take that away from you, but you can drown in that information. And this is when your nervous system takes over and your more reptilian brains start to run things. And then your higher order thinking gets shut down because it's in crisis mode and it wants to just escape. And you can't make effective changes in the political system, in relationships with other people if you are going from reptilian fight flies free spawn spot mode. Right, you have to mindfully consume information and then shut it down. The second is that we want to set up boundaries on what you're willing to discuss with who, when and for how long. This will change the amount of gasoline being poured onto the fire and who's doing the pouring. I want you to be mindful about what you're saying and to who and where your personal limit is. And for me, it's 20 minutes a day of consuming information and talk talking about these different things. There are people in your life who are able to provide you a perspective that's from the other side that can help you grow and learn. And there are other people who are so far down the rabbit hole that are not going to be rational or supportive of you. And those are people with whom it isn't worth engaging. They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. And you can engage in conversation with somebody who is so steadfast in their fight, flight, freeze, spawn, flop response that they just can't hear you. Their higher order brains are anxious and shut off too. So speak with people who you can speak with, intelligently, respectfully, who hear you and who you can listen to. We talk a lot about this in the house of boundaries in the act method. And there's something called the cable criteria that will help you decide who is good to talk with and in what form and in what ways, and in what level of vulnerability. Ask yourself the question, is this conversation helpful? And is this conversation real? Is this article helpful? Is this article real? If the answer is no, then Shut it down. Put up your boundary. Remember, information is power. Create actionables. If you consume information and you have a respons response, you are being called. But make sure that you have an outlet that feels doable and positive where you can make a positive difference. Instead of rear ending the jerk in the parking lot because your nervous system is telling you to, what can you do to make a positive impact? Maybe it's going to the batting cage and supporting local business and getting some of that rage out. Or maybe it's asking yourself, what can I change? What can I control? What difference can I make? And how can I move these feelings forward in a positive way? Let's go through those again. What can I change? What can I control? What difference can I make? And how can I move these feelings forward in a more positive way? Seek out volunteering opportunities. Donate time, donate money, donate information. Think of ways that you can make a positive difference. Put out into the world what you want to get back and then finally celebrate wins. It is so much more honest to look at the good and the bad, not just the good. And the human psyche needs it. Collect positive data. What is going well politically? What is going well in environmental impacts? What do you see? How are people standing up for truth and justice and kindness and love? Who's putting out information that you can share that is loving and good and true and real and powerful? Check out some good news with John Krasinski. Look at resources that feel like they fill your cup. When your cup is more full, it buffers the nervous system from putting you into those fight flight free spawn plot loads, right? And then finally the last thing I want you to do is to set it down. Consume information. Create actionables, good information, scary information. Strategize about how you can make a positive impact in this world. Create a tribe of people that can provide counter data to keep you checked and balanced and provide that for them and then shut it down. Take social media breaks. Take news breaks. Limit news consumption. Set. Set an alarm for when you hit your maximum quota on consuming social media and schedule a redirect. So after I finish up here with you today, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna walk in the sunshine with my dog. I'm gonna schedule a redirect. I'm gonna get out. I'm gonna get into the world. I'm going to get in that sunlight, I'm going to exercise, I'm going to move my body and I'm going to spend quality time with Shiva. What can you do? Listen to this record, strategize ways that you can identify how your body is responding. Write your prologue. Consume good information, talk to the right people and turn the page. We're all in this together. You are not alone. And I know that you're stressed and I know that you're scared and I've got your back. I'm here with you. But the good news is, is that everything that changes is changeable. It doesn't have to be like this forever. And you can make an impact. One small person, one small moment can make a massively huge positive impact. So let's do this together. If you need more support and you need immediate help for the stress in your nervous system, I get it. I have a free anxiety wellness springboard, and this wellness springboard has solutions that help with that immediate crisis. So if you're just like thinking I'm keen, I get you. When you were going through that fight flight, free spawn, flop thing, I'm all of those. At different times of the day. If your nervous system is so dialed up that you can't even think logically right now, and you just need to deal with the crisis that is before you, that's what the springboard is for. It is jam packed with solutions that I found over the past decade as a specialist in integrative mental health, as a naturopathic physician, and a private practice consultant with my master's in clinical psychology. With respect to the research, these are things that work and they're free for you. So make sure that you download that today and use your resources. We are going to get through this together and I'm going to be here every single week. And if you need extra support, then let us know how we can support you. Send us a dm, leave a comment and also check out, I have a ton of videos at my YouTube, Dr. Nicole Kane and also social media. And so make sure that you dial in and get that support and I'll see you soon. I honor you, I love you, I respect you, and I'll see you guys next time. Take care.