Why elections are bad for your health

The excitement and anxiety was tangible during the election of 1997. Even as a child I was able to pick up on it. I saw the signs of stress in the adults around me: jiggling knees, bitten lips, my mother twirling hair around an index finger.

Elections are stressful and this can cause serious health problems – anxiety, obsessive compulsive tendencies and even depression. A senior editor of a British publication spoke to me about his ‘irrational’ and ‘obsessive’ behaviour around the American election in 2000, in which he was rooting for Dubya:

The internet just was just up and running and I found myself compulsively visiting websites to see if there had been the slightest change, especially after the weird outcome which meant that I didn’t know who was going to be president for three weeks.

I’d click ‘refresh’ every few minutes and every time some judge ruled in favour of Bush I’d get excited, or if something went against Bush.