‘It’s okay to not be okay’: A Harvard psychiatrist talks about why anxiety around this election feels different

With policy issues at stake that have real impacts on people’s lives, Tuesday’s election is an understandable source of worry. Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni emphasizes focusing on what’s still within our control.

The 2024 election is upon us and anxiety levels are running high. The polls seem to swing back and forth, while campaign pleas from both candidates are increasingly fraught. Yet, despite the anxiety, most of us have to carry on with life as usual—showing up at our jobs, showing up for our families, all the while knowing that some of our friends and neighbors don’t share our political views. Not helping, we don’t even know when we’ll get the results. (In 2020, it took five days to have a clear outcome.) What’s a person to do?