Election, mental health, NOT POLITICS.

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Do you avoid anything to preserve mental health in the same way?

Today is the UK election and I do not plan on voting. I voted on the referendum and the last two elections, and I

have made sure that I am registered. I don't believe in voting unless you take a look at the main points of each of

the parties first and that's what I did previously and what I meant to do this year however I kept putting it off and

I'm writing this instead of doing that now, why? because I feel my mental health is more important (to me, not

the country) and I feel sick at the thought of looking into it all and have done every time I have meant to do it.

Admitting to myself I'm not going to do it has taken a huge burden off me. I was fine in previous elections and

my mental health is actually better now than then. What's wrong is that since the referendum, our politics and a

large part of our news has become toxic, I feel ashamed every time I see any of it.

Usually understanding things and having as much information about some thing really helps me, but not in this.

Do you do this in anything?

I can understand your feelings on this.

Personally, I feel like a strong anti-Trump turnout for the 2020 election is essential in defeating Trump.

I will be first in line at the polls.

I never, ever miss a vote.

Our last presidential election got so ugly that after it was over I had to just completely quit watching the news in order to reduce my stress level. I'll still vote, but don't want to get caught up in all the sensationalism again. You have to do what's best for your health and peace of mind.

Thanks guys. Making the decision calmed me down and I had a few minutes before work so I thought I'd just check

which parties were actually represented and what would be a tactical vote coincided with someone that didn't tempt

me to want to punch them in the face, so I took my voting card to work with me. In the end I trudged along in the

dark and the rain (ok,only 200 metres out of my way) and voted. But I only did this because I felt better about it all.

Something else I don't do anymore is go to weddings, I hate them and the thought makes me sick and I've been to

several but no more.

Thread reminds me, I don't know who won I got up this morning and never gave it a thought. I'm too nervous

to look, it'll be on the BBC website.

I voted precisely because not voting deliberately aids and abets those,in power, who want to make things worse for people who are mentally ill .

So voting made you feel more in control of something that affects you?

I often find making a decision makes me feel better when I feel helpless, even if it turns out to be the wrong one latter. By that point I'm in a better place mentally and can deal with the fallout. It's why primarily I deal with health issues myself.

Thank you for working it all through during the day and then voting.

I have found it a similar stressing time, with general opinion going the opposite ways to ones which appear to me to have the best chance of gurning out well.
It co-incides with a time of high stress as my mother has needed to go into residential care.

The polls and results were an excercise in looking the things which scare me in the eye, and then processing things in some strange dreams wben home and sleeping.

I also write as a candidate for one of the smaller parties, balancing some encouragement for an increase in my own result and my party nationally with the next five years with some increasingly urgent global issues which have formed my party's core philosophy with a government where thete may be little common ground beyond any post election speeches.

My vocation was all about providing alternatives to the current climate crisis, so I got out and volunteered in my last election even at risk of weather damage to my house. I did it even though the work felt pointless, and the candidate triggered my PTSD. We had nothing to show for it except our own education, but I'm still glad I got involved. Like Greta Thunberg, I have always found action the best antidote to depression.