July Was a Geyser of Political News; Polls Find Most Adults Either Exhausted or Angry Regarding Politics

Tuesday, July 30th, 2024 -- 11:00 AM

(Natalie Eilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) July has been a geyser of unprecedented political news: an attempted assassination, the sitting U.S. president dropping out of the race with little more than 100 campaign days, legal battles, an historic address to the nation.

According to Natalie Eilbert with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the stakes of this election, we're reminded, couldn't be higher. All that comes after a February poll from Pew Research Center found that nearly two-thirds of participants said they were mostly or always exhausted with politics, and 55% said they were often or mostly angry.

The mounting pressure and exhaustion, and all the uncertainty that comes with that, may be feeding into levels of anxiety not previously seen in at least three decades across the United States.

According to a new survey from the American Psychiatric Association, U.S. adults say they're 43% more anxious this year than last year, largely due, at 73%, to election anxiety. That's 10 percentage points higher than the APA surveyed U.S. adults for the 2022 Midterm elections.

On the topic of current events, U.S. adults also report heightened anxiety surrounding gun violence (69%), the economy (77%) and how to keep themselves or their families safe (68%).

In Wisconsin, one of the country's battleground states, there's been a surge of calls to 988 regarding the state of current events and the upcoming elections, said Erin Neilan Miller, clinical program manager at Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin, the state program behind Wisconsin 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Counselors at Family Services, Miller said, are increasingly talking to Wisconsinites about election anxiety and the general stress of living amid high inflation. More Wisconsinites are also calling with heightened fears about geo-political events, another flashpoint in past and, likely, future political debates.

But when it comes to socioeconomic concerns, nothing about the problem is abstract. Callers are telling counselors their stress stems from the rising costs of food and housing, as well as the scarcity of available housing.

Although food costs and prices in the United States have stabilized following the pandemic's volatile years, total food costs rose 2.6% between January 2023 and 2024. And Wisconsin's median housing price increased by nearly 7% between May 2023 and May 2024, according to Wisconsin REALTORS Association.

That comes at a time when, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state isn't building houses fast enough to match the pace of need. Suffice it to safe, uncertainty and fear are driving more people to dialing 988 for support, resources and proactive coping mechanisms to manage their anxiety, Miller said.

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