The stress-inducing election season draws to a close

By the time some of you read this, the hellish 2016 election cycle will be over. Either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be headed to the White House in January, and we can pause for a moment to catch our breaths after a bruising, stress-inducing campaign season.

EDITOR’S LETTER

In the run-up to the election, I kept reading articles about how this election has caused post-traumatic stress disorder in many people. I’ve been a political junkie since I was a teenager, but I’ve never quite seen anything like the Clinton vs. Trump showdown. The boiling anger, reality show shenanigans and outright lies from both campaigns kept social media in a dither. I even lost a few friends over it.

I unfriended and/or unfollowed about a half dozen people on Facebook in the weeks before the election because they had somehow fallen through the trapdoor into bizarro world and were constantly posting conspiracy theory articles from fake news sites. Any mention of politics on my wall immediately led to arguments, name-calling and hurt feelings among my politically diverse array of friends.

I found myself obsessively checking poll numbers and visiting Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog multiple times a day. Watching CNN or any of the cable news shows sent my blood pressure soaring. I found myself agreeing with the funny internet meme that wished for a meteor to strike the planet and stop the political insanity.

I finally said “ENOUGH!” and turned off the TV and stopped looking at my phone and laptop.

I got through the end of this election cycle by taking long walks on the Eastside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine, going out to dinner with friends, writing poetry, reading books and finally immersing myself in the world of “Orange is the New Black” on Netflix. Binge-watching good films and shows is a great antidote for the real world – especially when the real world is stranger than fiction.

I was becoming so stressed out about the election that I also did something I’ve never done in my life: I voted early. Casting the ballot helped lift my mood; I had done my civic duty and now I could tune out the election.

The presidential race has been going on for two years, which is totally insane. We should adopt campaign rules like those in Britain, Canada, France and Mexico, which limit the madness to a few months or, in some cases, a few weeks. Now that would be some campaign reform I could get behind no matter which party endorsed it.

And while there will be celebration for some and despair for others on Inauguration Day, what I’m dreading is that it will signal the beginning of the 2020 presidential cycle. Definitely time for more Netflix and chill.