Former President Donald Trump decisively won the first GOP primary contest of 2024. While some Republican voters are elated about this outcome, many of their Democratic counterparts are grappling with profound anxiety at the prospect of another four years under a Trump presidency.
Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid believes this anxiety is more than justified. Reid forecasts that a Trump victory in the general election would bring on a new wave of acute stress that humans may be ill-equipped to manage.
Allostatic overload. It refers to a state of just chronic stress, ongoing fight-or-flight response that, simply put, humans are just not built to endure without becoming ill in one way or another, from substance abuse, ulcers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, immunodeficiencies…
In evolutionary terms, imagine you saw a bear, and your adrenaline spiked and gave you the means to run away faster. That’s great. That’s what our stress response is there for. But these past few years have been just too much. Economic fears, quarantine, various global crises, and our front-row seats to all of it, thanks to the 24/7 news cycle. I feel the effects in my body. You might, too.
I remember feeling very acutely for years, that if I didn’t wake up and instantly go check the news cycle, the first thing in the morning, everything would fall apart. It’s the type of “magical thinking,” this hyper-vigilance, and it’s something that many Americans can relate to.
A University of Nebraska study found that approximately 40% of adults consider the political sphere to be a source of significant stress. And 5% have reported having had suicidal thoughts relating to the political realm.
And now Trump might get elected again. He really might. I don’t even want to say it out loud but we simply cannot run the risk of sticking our heads in the sand now. It is absolutely possible that we will endure another four years of a person who presents a danger to this country that frankly defies description. We don’t know what he’ll do. And I don’t think I’m being alarmist when I say that we don’t know what more of this will do to us, simply from a stress perspective.