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November. Just the word itself sends shivers up my spine. And I’m not alone. In a poll by the American Psychiatric Association, nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents said they're feeling anxious about the election. Another poll by Myriad Genetics found that nearly 40% said they are feeling anxious and/or depressed about the election season, as NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee reports.
It’s important to pay attention to those feelings, especially stress, says Lynn Bufka, a psychologist and deputy chief of professional practice at the American Psychological Association. "It's probably telling us to pay attention to some extent to what's happening in the world so that we can be prepared to act in ways that are consistent with our beliefs and our values," she says.
Underlying the stress and anxiety is uncertainty, according to Krystal Lewis, a psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health. And when the future looks uncertain, our thoughts tend to spiral out into worst-case-scenarios. Bufka says it’s important to ask yourself questions that ground your fears in reality. Questions like: "How likely is that worst-case scenario? Can I manage to cope with that? What are the kinds of things that I might again have some control over to try to manage a situation that would look like that?"
It’s also important to do things that give you a sense of control in the here-and-now, says Lewis. And that can include limiting your intake of political news and social media. Yes, even NPR! (We won’t take it personally…at least not at the Science Desk).
Cultivate social connections, and make sure not to isolate yourself from people who have different political views from you, Bufka recommends. "We don't have to dive into political conversations with everybody that we meet," she says, "but connecting with people who might actually have different points of view than us [and] seeing our shared humanity can help us to lower the temperature about what our feared outcomes are."
Learn about more mental health strategies for times of political uncertainty, and when to seek help.
What stresses you out? What helps you cope? This fall, NPR's health reporting team is planning a series on how to build resilience in the face of stress and skills that help you cope with difficult situations. And we want to hear from you. Fill out our short questionnaire. And thanks!
Podcast Pick: A Braver Way – How to navigate political fear |
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Wild Card with Rachel Martin Part-interview, part-existential game show – this is Wild Card from NPR. Host Rachel Martin rips up the typical interview script and invites guests to play a game about life's biggest questions. Rachel takes actors, artists and thinkers on a choose-your-own-adventure conversation that lets them open up about their fears, their joys and how they've built meaning from experience – all with the help of a very special deck of cards. |
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Heather Charles/Tribune News Service via Getty Images |
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When it comes to cancer risk, the line between prudent preventive medicine and panic-inducing false positives can be a tough one to straddle, as Ronnie Cohen reports.
For the past 28 years, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which helps physicians and insurance companies set guidelines – has been flip-flopping in its recommendations about when women should begin mammography screening. In April, the task force released new guidelines urging all women to get screened every other year starting at age 40, citing a rise in breast cancer rates among women in their 40s.
Breast cancer surgeon Laura Esserman thinks women should be given more information about both the benefits and risks of mammograms before choosing when to get screened. “We're not being honest with people,” she says. Those risks include false-positive results, unnecessary biopsies, anxiety and debilitating treatment for tumors that left alone would do no harm.
In a study published earlier this month, researchers asked almost 500 American women in their 40s about when and if they wanted to get screened. Only 8% initially said they wanted to wait until they turned 50 to get a mammogram. After researchers informed the women of the benefits and the harms, 18% said they would wait until 50.
Esserman and others recommend that women talk to their doctors’ to assess their individual breast cancer risk to determine when to start getting mammograms.
Learn more about the squishy science of breast cancer screening.
Also: We're not dying of metastatic breast cancer. We're living with it
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Sara Moser/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis |
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism online.
All the best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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