As the 2022 election comes nearer, several Pinoy celebrities shared their experience of election anxiety.
On Twitter, Chynna Ortaleza shared that she’s one of the many people experiencing election stress disorder.
Her tweet was in response to James Banaag’s tweet asking “Who’s having election anxiety?”
https://twitter.com/ChynsOrtaleza/status/1521479209129979904
Aside from Chynna, Kapamilya star Maris Racal also admitted going through election anxiety.
Racal shared that she’s experiencing nightly anxiety in her Tweet as the May 9 elections draw nearer. She then advised everyone to vote in the coming election.
https://twitter.com/MissMarisRacal/status/1521102378661183488
Radio DJ Tin Gamboa also reacted to James Banaag, saying she’s also experiencing election anxiety.
https://twitter.com/suzy899/status/1521348851399274497
Chynna, Maris and Tin are known Kakampink celebrities.
Meanwhile, according to the Mayo Clinic website, election stress disorder or election anxiety “isn’t a scientific diagnosis, but the concept is real.”
Dr. Robert Bright, a resident psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic, said it’s an experience of overwhelming anxiety that can manifest in a number of ways.
“We notice it in our bodies, the tension in our shoulders. Sometimes people get GI (gastrointestinal) upset or headaches. People have trouble sleeping. There’s a lot of sleep disturbance going on right now — tossing, turning and worrying, and not being able to get to sleep — or having bad dreams about the election.
“There’s a lot of fearfulness and a number of mixed emotions ― people with fear and hypervigilance and constantly searching the news and being on whatever social media outlet you have, and getting these messages. I was watching the television this morning, and every commercial has this catastrophic message, ‘If you vote for this guy or that guy, horrific, catastrophic things are going to happen.’ And that constant message creates a sense of anxiety and fear and diffusely feeling overwhelmed in ourselves. And it affects our emotions after a while. So we start getting irritable and short and snapping at people, not trusting people, and seeing people as the other or as the same. And that starts affecting our relationships at home. It starts affecting our work.”
Dr. Bright also added that the major cause of election anxiety is the feeling of being out of control.
“We’ve got to figure out how can we control what is controllable. What is within our control? What can we do? One thing we can do with this election is we can vote.
“We can take personal control, and our voice is just as loud as anybody else’s voice. And that’s the wonderful thing about living in a democracy. We each have an equal stake.”
