How Political Chaos Is Affecting Americans’ Mental Health

A person blinded, and someone else shot in the leg. Children taken, families separated. A person dead, then another. A February Gallup poll shows “American Optimism Slumps to Record Low,” with the percentage of adults who can imagine a future good life dwindling. If you’re a person who sees the United States in polycrisis, you may see that poll and find it rather obvious. A future good life may seem far away, more a windfall than a certainty.In the United States, it’s common but wistful thinking to believe politics can be separated from the rest of our lives. You may “want to keep politics out of it”—out of conversations with friends and family, out of pop culture, or sports. But to understand the mood in America, and what that means on an individual level, we need to think of politics as something that is inseparable from everything else. Mental health can be a political outcome, and mental health can influence politics.

Understanding the complex relationship between politics and emotional well-being may help you judge yourself less and steady yourself more.

The emotional consequences of politics

One way politics impacts mental health is as an external stressor. For example, when researchers investigated how political stress in 2023 and 2024 influenced the mental health of women living in Georgia, they found that those who were more stressed about politics generally were more stressed, anxious, and depressed overall. These results were published in the journal Social Science & Medicine; in a related press release, senior author Stephanie Eick explained that the findings “really put data behind, and in many ways validate, what a lot of people are feeling right now.”

Kevin Smith, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his colleagues surveyed 800 people in the U.S. in March 2017—about two months after President Donald Trump’s first inauguration. The survey showed that nearly 40 percent of the study population was stressed by politics, with 11.5 percent reporting that their physical health had declined as a result. One in five said differences in political views had damaged a friendship, and the same proportion reported fatigue.

A follow-up paper in 2022, which used data from the initial study as well as new survey data from October 2020, found that people continued to report that politics was taking a toll on their health. People who were young, politically engaged and interested, or on the political left were the most likely to report negative effects.

If he ran a similar study now, in the wake of the 2024 election, does Smith think he would get similar results? “Yes, I very much do,” Smith says.

That people would feel bad because of current events, says clinical psychologist and author Bruce Levine, makes sense. ICE violence, “has obviously created an extremely high level of anxiety for many people,” says Levine. In addition to anxiety, some might feel embarrassment or shame over how the world views their country. People are contending with rising authoritarianism, which relies on insecurity, instability, and inequality.

“People who aren’t directly affected might feel something related to survivor’s guilt,” he says. “They might think, ‘Well, I haven’t been directly traumatized by the offense, maybe I shouldn’t feel as bad as I do.’ It is a different feeling than thinking, ‘Oh God, this could happen to anybody, including me, anytime.’”

What response you have might depend on your proximity to what you’re seeing that’s causing the distress—your physical proximity, or how similar you are to people being hurt. Regardless, a myriad of reactions can be a fair, valid response to political conditions, Levine says. It’s how well you cope with them that matters for moving forward.

One nation, in distress

The consequences of poor mental health for democracy in the United States remain uncertain, but the established correlation suggests our democracy isn’t as healthy as we’d like it to be.

There are, however, hints of the effects on civic engagement in the short run. For example, recent research on Gen Z suggests this generation is both increasingly negative and scared, and steadily more cynical about their ability to change the world. This cynicism and their negative view of politics are linked.

Just as politics can lead to worsened mental health, poor mental health can influence politics. Christopher Ojeda, an associate professor at the University of California, Merced and author of The Sad Citizen, argues depression can be viewed as a political phenomenon. In part, this is because the sources of depression can be political, but there can be political consequences to depression as well. Reduced motivation and energy can, in turn, decrease the likelihood that someone will get involved politically, he explains.

“People who have feelings of depression are less participative, they’re less satisfied with democracy; they’re less trusting of government,” Ojeda says. “They think they cannot participate, and that elected officials are less responsive to people like them.”

However, we can’t say that everyone reacts to politics in the same way, Ojeda cautions. Some see events and feel depressed; others may feel angry. Some might feel afraid, while others feel proud.

“There’s a lot of individual-level variation,” Smith agrees. “Quite a bit of research suggests that having negative emotions can be motivational.” People who feel they can make a difference are more likely to try to engage and change things.

“Different temperatures have differing default responses to threats,” says Levine. This could be summarized as fight, flight, or freeze. A desire to protest, a need to leave the U.S., or a want to shut down and hide are all equally possible, depending on the individual.

Practically, Smith recommends avoiding politically related mental burnout by avoiding doomscrolling and engaging with people you disagree with civically and constructively. He acknowledges that it’s easier said than done, but this practice has been shown to lower the political temperature and reduce individual stress. “The point of the conversation isn’t to win,” he says, “It’s simply to get to understand the other person a bit more.”

Doomscrolling can increase feelings of helplessness because it can showcase “an endless list of losses,” Ojeda explains. “I think this is one reason why people who are primarily consuming the news are feeling pretty down by what’s going on,” he adds. “The whole situation can feel kind of helpless.”

People might feel greater control and be more likely to believe they are making a positive difference if they focus on local politics rather than federal politics, Ojeda says. There may still be plenty of hurdles and struggles, but the emotional reactions could be more varied—wins along with losses.

“You can have a bigger impact and feel like your voice is heard in a way that’s empowering,” he says.