Grief and The U.S. Election

Americans grieve peaceful elections

November 5, 2024 election day in the United States is finally here. Many Americans have been expressing anxiety about the outcome of the election as the tension and campaigns have mounted.

But overshadowing even that has been the grief that even more have felt over the actual election process itself.

While most Americans are happy to have greater engagement in voting and the electoral process, there has been an increase in the amount of grief people are feeling over what used to be a simple day of doing one's civic duty.

Our grief groups have been sharing and supporting each other - in a non-partisan way - over the loss of ease, calm, and peace that our election process has generally had over the last decades.

If you notice you've been feeling upset, distressed, sad, or down about the election, please know you are not alone. You're experiencing grief - feeling a loss of what used to be. It's normal and natural. There isn't anything wrong with you.

What to do about it

If you're trying to set the feelings aside with statistics or rational arguments but don't feel better, know that you're not alone there, either. Your heart is broken and no amount of rational information will offset that.

Take some time to grieve. Allow the feelings. Share them with people who are safe to talk to. By that I mean talking about your feelings, not about politics. Getting into "bumper sticker" blame games isn't going to help your feelings. It will simply cover the grief with anger. You can tell that you are doing this if you are blaming "others" for a situation that "causes" your feelings.

However, sharing with people who you can be honest with about your feelings, even if they are confusing and conflicting, is a helpful thing.

Use a book like "The Grief Recovery Handbook" by James and Friedman, join a grief group like ours here at Sea & Z, or gather some people together to walk through this to get complete with it.

Come together. Right now.