Election stress disorder is real. Here's how to cope with 3 weeks to go

If you’re feeling increasingly anxious as the Nov. 5 presidential election approaches, you’re not alone: Election stress disorder is real, experts say, and the barrage of news, campaign ads, robocalls and text messages can be bad for your health. 

"Think about people across America: They wake up, they pump caffeine, they go to a job where 50% of people are living paycheck to paycheck," Matt Polacheck, a psychologist and mental health expert, explained in an interview with Battleground host S.E. Cupp.

"They come home to relax and they put on the news. They put on CNN and learn that if they vote for Trump he’s going to be a tyrant and the world’s going to end. Democracy’s ending. If you put on FOX News, the immigrants are going to take over the country. They’re going to eat your pets. No matter what you do, there’s stress here."

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According to Polacheck, the number of Americans with anxiety disorders is rising. In the past year alone, 25% of Americans met the criteria for anxiety disorder. 

FILE - Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris 

"We all have anxiety, but unfortunately, on that clinical level, higher levels of anxiety are becoming more and more common," he said. 

Why anxiety is bad for your health

When people feel heightened levels of anxiety, their cortisol and norepinephrine levels rise, Polacheck said. 

Higher levels of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that regulates stress and other brain responses, put you at higher risk of stroke and heart attack. 

Spikes in cortisol can attack your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness. 

"So there’s physical changes that happen to the body, and over a period of time, it’s putting us at great risk," Polacheck said. 

How to cope with election stress

Polacheck offered a few ways to help with your anxiety levels ahead of the election: 

-Be more open-minded: As humans, we tend to look for things that confirm our existing beliefs, or what Polacheck refers to as self-fulfilling prophecies. But how often do you consider the other side’s argument? 

Take immigration, for example: "You know, when we’re talking about immigration, our country was built on immigration, so there’s a lot of positives about immigration, but at the same time, we have an immigration problem," Polacheck said. 

The ability to hold two opposites true at the same time, to think about counterarguments, can help to calm election anxiety, according to Polacheck. 

"We stay in these silos. We can get out of them," he offered.

-Set boundaries (i.e. turn off the news): You don’t have to doomscroll for hours on end to keep up, and you don’t have to watch the news every night. Taking a break from it can be beneficial. 

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-Exercise: Exercise is known to reduce cortisol levels and release endorphins, "the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators," according to Harvard Medical School. 

-Socialize: Once you decide to take a break from the news, spend some time connecting with other people. 

"We’re very isolated, we’re very stressed, and we’re watching things that are telling us the world is going to end," Polacheck said. 

-Breathe: One of the easiest and most effective ways to counter anxiety is to "just breathe."

"Our nervous system works in a very simple way, it’s either parasympathetic (relaxed), or sympathetic (anxious)," Polacheck explained. "We can control that. We can control our environment, we can control our breathing, and we can do a lot to counter it."

The British Heart Foundation recommends specific exercises, like "box breathing," "4-7-8 breathing" and "alternate nostril breathing," to get the most out of deep breathing. You can learn more about those techniques here.