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As questions continue to mount over Sir Keir Starmer’s future as Prime Minister following last week’s unexpected local election shake-up, the latest headlines might be making you feel uneasy.
The relentless 24-hour news cycle and polarisation on social media can often feel unavoidable, but in times of political uncertainty it can be helpful to sometimes step back and think about how it might be impacting your wellbeing.
We spoke to Dr Chetna Kang, consultant psychiatrist at Central Health London, who explained what political anxiety is, identified six key signs to look out for, and shared some helpful tips on how to manage and overcome it.
What is political anxiety?
“Anxiety lies on a spectrum from general day-to-day worry which everybody experiences, right through to degrees of anxiety which lead to panic disorder or symptoms of PTSD,” says Kang. “It’s essentially concern and worry on the mildest end, and symptoms of a mental health problem on the other end of the spectrum.
“Therefore, when you affiliate anxiety with a particular trigger, like politics, for example, it will be levels of worry that are more than a day-to-day healthy concern that is particularly associated with a political climate.
“When the trigger is political, then we call it political anxiety, although political anxiety is not a diagnosis in itself.”
Anxiety can have a big impact on your daily life, so here are some common signs to look out for…
1. Pervasive thoughts
“If you are experiencing political anxiety, it’s likely that your thoughts about the concern are pervasive,” says Kang.
“Whilst you’re getting on with day-to-day life, your mind might be constantly ruminating about, or feeling anxious about in the background about, whatever political threat you’re worried about.”
2. Feelings of helplessness
“Politics can often feel far-removed and when our minds go to a topic which feels outside of our circle of influence, it can increase the feeling of helplessness,” says Kang.
3. Difficulty concentrating
“Your mind and thoughts might drift off to either the country where the political event is happening, or the future that you’ve created in your mind,” says Kang.
4. Mood changes
“Anxiety is an emotional and behavioural response to a threat, and you may find yourself becoming more and more irritable,” says Kang.
5. Struggling to sleep
“You might not be able to switch off at night and struggle to sleep because when we’re stressed and feel threatened we feel like we need to be on high alert,” says Kang. “This can create a vicious cycle because as well as the anxiety itself affecting your cognition, immunity, your health, then the lack of sleep perpetuates this and makes it worse.”
6. Headaches
“Your body will talk to you in different ways to tell you something’s not right, and some people will experience headaches when they are feeling anxious or stressed,” says Kang.
Here are her top tips on how to overcome this…
Focus on what you can change
“If our focus remains on areas which are out of our reach, we will stay in a helpless, fearful state. However, bringing the focus back to what we can change can help us feel empowered because when we take action and see results, it gives us confidence,” says Kang. ”
“It gives us motivation to continue focusing on things which are close to hand, and that rational experience helps neutralise the irrationality that anxiety brings.”
Move your body
“Anything that gets your body moving can help move your mind away from the future or the past that you’re dwelling on, and it moves back into the present,” says Kang.
“In addition, during exercise a lot of the tension that you’re holding in your body gets released.”
Become aware about when you tend to doomscroll
“Analyse what your peak doomscrolling times in the day are and try to steal back short blocks of time,” recommends Kang.
Try some grounding exercises
“You can use things like breath work or yoga or mindfulness to ground yourself,” says Kang.
She recommends trying the 5-4-3-2-1 technique.
“For this, you focus on five things that you can see, four sounds that you can hear, three sensations that you can feel on your skin (touch), two things that you can smell in the atmosphere around you and one thing you can taste in your mouth,” explains Kang. “This helps bring your attention back to the body.”
Talk to loved ones
“Confide in someone that you trust and talk to them about how you feel,” advises Kang.
Create a relaxing wind-down routine before bed
“In the hour before bed, try to keep your bedroom screen-free, and instead do calming activities like listening to calming and grounding sounds, reading a paperback book or taking a warm bath,” suggests Kang.
Seek professional help
“If your political anxiety goes on for more than a few days and starts going into weeks, then I would recommend seeking professional help,” recommends Kang.
“Start by going to your GP because they can get you access to talking therapies quite quickly, and if it escalates or gets worse, they can then refer you to mental health services to see a psychiatrist for an assessment.”