On Nov. 5, 2024, the nation elected Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. For many Portlanders, that sentence instantly brings up dread, frustration and disbelief.
Political frustration can be hard to deal with.
Over the past few years, it has driven some Americans to take extreme actions such as storming the capitol and attempting assassinations. Neither of which is an effective coping mechanism. There are safer, more legal and healthier ways to process anger or sadness at the choice the country has made. Not all of them will work for every person, but they are a good place to start.
A very effective strategy is finding people you are close to and talking to them. Going to a trusted friend for support is a lot of people’s first instinct when they are upset — and it’s a good instinct. Talking to someone supportive is a great way to make yourself feel better quickly, whether that person is a friend, family member or actual therapist.
At Ida B. Wells High School, available mental health resources include the school counselors, Britni Locke, the school’s social worker and Emilee Refvem and Emily Doak, the school psychologists. All of their contact information is available on the staff registry on the school website.
When you are feeling frustrated, angry, or depressed, it’s not a good idea to try and talk to someone who would disagree with you. Refvem says, “Trying to speak with somebody who has very differing beliefs when people are in that place of frustration and anger can be nonproductive because it’s hard to think like with both sides of the brain and do perspective talking because I feel so emotional.”
One of the first things Refvem recommended was finding space to take breaks. “I think within political frustration there’s often grief,” she said. “In grief one of the stages is anger, and so, when you recognize that some of that frustration is coming from places of grief, and like taking moments for pause, it’s [an] opportunity to validate one’s own feelings.”
Taking moments throughout your day to take a break can help you keep your stress to manageable levels. If you don’t have time for a complete break, just taking a short moment for a few deep breaths is a good alternative. It may seem like a cliche, but deep breaths really can be quite effective at managing stress.
According to the Victoria Department of Health, “Shallow, upper chest breathing is part of the typical stress response. The stress response can be reduced by consciously breathing using the diaphragm. Abdominal breathing helps to control the nervous system and encourages the body to relax.”
Yet another seeming cliche is to spend less time on your phone. While unplugging greatly helps your mental health, just telling you to unplug likely won’t lead you to follow through. However, there are things that you can do to keep yourself healthy on your phone.
The feeling of ending a long doom scroll with a feeling of intense dread is virtually universal — and it always gets worse when you look at the clock and realize you spent much longer scrolling than you thought you did.
That feeling doesn’t mesh well with political frustration. Politically themed reels, shorts, or TikToks are also more likely sensationalist and trying to shock you, than well-thought-out, measured and researched videos. They also try to entertain you and can pop up in your thread when you are least expecting it, setting off any political stress you had at the back of your mind.
If you find yourself scrolling, but can’t bring yourself to just get off your phone outright, try switching to something longer in form and familiar. Watching a show you like, and have seen before, is intensely comforting and at the end of it, you feel better than if you had spent the same time doom-scrolling. Watching a show is also entertaining enough that you will have an easier time switching from scrolling to watching, than from scrolling to doing homework or something similar.
Sometimes, none of these strategies work, and you find yourself spiraling. When that happens, a key technique is to ground yourself in the moment. There is a classic technique to accomplish this, known as the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. To use it, when you feel yourself spiraling, find five things in your immediate surroundings that you can see. Then, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. This helps bring you into the moment and your body.
Refvem also has a piece of advice for when you are spiraling: “No matter how far doomsday perspective you go, that’s not the moment you’re in now.”
