As an acupuncturist, one of the most common treatments people seek from me is stress relief. The reason—acupuncture is an excellent modality for reducing the effects of stress. With exactly two weeks until election day, my practice is busier than ever. Coincidence?…Perhaps, but I doubt it.
This presidential election cycle is the third my practice has been through and every four years my schedule sees an unusual spike in the number of appointments. Obviously people aren’t running to my office simply because they’re unhappy with their party’s candidate or disappointed with the election in general. As magical as acupuncture can be, if only it could fix such things! They’re coming for their usual aches and pains and whatever chronic conditions ails them. However, their complaints have been compounded with anxiety, insomnia and stress-related symptoms that have crept up as a result of viewing too many political commercials, debates and news commentary.
I’ve seen these stress symptoms sharply increase in my practice in the weeks leading up to Election Day and manifest in various ways. Some patients simply experience a little more irritability than usual. Some patients feel the need to digress their political views which often involves trashing the opposing parties then conclude by asking me about my views. To this I reply my office policy is to remain like Switzerland, neutral but welcoming to all.
Indeed, this presidential election has had a unique emotional effect on my patients. More people are telling me that they feel stressed but fewer people than usual are telling me about their frustrations related to the election, even though the mud slinging is dirtier than ever. I’m chalking that up to three possibilities: 1) These patients have listened to my past suggestions about decreasing their exposure to the news coverage provided they’ve chosen their candidate 2) They remember that my office remains as neutral as Switzerland 3) They’re disenfranchised by the process altogether. Perhaps it is a combination of the three.
However, there is a portion of my patients that come to my practice that are sensitive to traumatic experiences including those who have post-traumatic stress disorder. For these patients in particular this election cycle has been very stressful for them. For women who’ve been sexually violated, seeing a top contender for the highest office in the world brush off his rhetoric as “locker room talk” reminds them of their past. For people whose homes, businesses or places of worship were set ablaze by arsonists, they are reminded of their horror by the firebombing of a Republican campaign headquarters office in North Carolina.
I don’t care to go on and on about the traumatic aspects of this election, nor do I wish to get even close to discussing why these things are happening. The truth is mud will always be slung. Rhetoric will always get dirty. People will always protest and not always peacefully. No single person can control the tone of this election but every single person can control their reaction to it.
When I think about my PTSD and how I react to the things that trigger my symptoms, I am reminded that my initial reaction—the flashbacks—is very much out of my control. I get them no matter what. However, I have learned that I can always control how I deal with them. I can choose to stay stuck in my symptoms or I can choose to use the tools that I’ve learned over the last nineteen years to help me live with my PTSD. Essentially, every day my vote is for happiness and every day I get to make that choice.
As President Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
