MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
I was out to dinner this past week - big group - when someone at our table asked for two glasses of wine. Now, I am not going to judge, but I do ask questions for a living, and her response to me was, I am so stressed about this election. She's not alone.
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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #1: Welcome back to CBS Saturday morning. We begin this half hour with anxiety over the coming presidential election.
UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #2: It seems like no matter where you go these days, you can't avoid it. You're flipping channels, ads for every...
UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #3: Yes, some doctors are reporting a growing number of people with election-related sleep issues.
KELLY: Well, one of those doctors is Lucy McBride, doctor of internal medicine with a private practice here in D.C., also a prolific podcast host and newsletter author, and she has just written about managing our election anxiety. Lucy McBride, welcome.
LUCY MCBRIDE: Thanks for having me.
KELLY: So the headline here seems to be that everyone is stressed out, and I will cite data. This is a new report from the American Psychological Association that finds almost three-quarters of adults - 7 out of 10 American adults - say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress in their lives. Does that square with what you are hearing from patients?
MCBRIDE: Absolutely. I think if you're watching the news, if you're paying attention, frankly, if you're breathing air, you are noticing a certain degree of anxiety in most people.
KELLY: Yeah.
MCBRIDE: And I'm seeing it in my office. I'm seeing it in my patients. I can see it in their faces. I see it in their blood pressure readings. And I hear it, based on the behaviors they're using to cope. Patients report having a gravitational pull to the Halloween candy and to wine and to other self-soothing behaviors that they really know they shouldn't do but can't help.
KELLY: Some of the guidance that you counsel is stuff that's not hugely surprising, but I found it so reassuring just to be reminded of it - things like take a walk, book a yoga class. What else?
MCBRIDE: This is the week to pull out the business card of the therapist that has been sitting in the bottom of your purse for a couple months. This is the week to book that yoga class. It's also the week to prioritize rest and to prioritize calm and doing things that are nonpolitical - watching a movie about cats or puppies or something benign.
KELLY: (Laughter) I mean, you also counsel something which I am professionally obligated to object to, but you say we should be taking breaks from the news?
MCBRIDE: Yes. We are not wired to take in all of this information, to interpret all this information. It's important to take breaks. You can stay informed and still dose yourself with enough news to keep you informed but not to agitate you, to keep you up at night.
KELLY: Your last piece of advice is - it feels more like advice to us as citizens than advice as a doctor to patients. It's to go out and vote. Is there a health benefit to this, or are you just asking us to fulfill our civic duty?
MCBRIDE: If you think about anxiety as the absence of control - right? Anxiety hates the absence of control. The way you can exert some control over our election is to vote, to talk to your friends, to talk to your neighbors, join a phone bank. To exercise your independence and your voice is one way to quell anxiety and to feel like you've made a difference.
KELLY: Meanwhile, have you eaten all of the Halloween candy?
MCBRIDE: Oh, my gosh. The Halloween candy is just...
KELLY: (Laughter).
MCBRIDE: ...Disappearing piece by piece. There are wrappers all over the kitchen counter, so I'm hoping we have some left for the trick-or-treaters tonight.
KELLY: (Laughter) OK. I will fight you for the last mini Snickers. Lucy McBride, thank you.
MCBRIDE: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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