Election Anxiety Feature
The 2020 Election has nearly arrived, and with that comes an increasing wave of anxiousness about the future of the country.
By: Marcy Wilder | Web Editor 19 FAU students were asked questions about their general outlook, the pandemic, climate change, and politics. All quotes from students are from this outreach project. Answers are not indicative of the entire school population.
Now with the pandemic and the election happening at the same time, as well as the majority of students going to school online, a major increase in mental stress has occurred, said Kominars. According to 21-year-old Kyle Arking, taking classes online is a “headache.”
The next presidential election is right around the corner, and for many students, this is the first election they will be able to vote in. This election is different from any other that these students have seen before, with a pandemic that has put life on hold, increases in depression and anxiety, and the current tense political atmosphere.
“It’s challenging for absolutely everyone,” said Kominars. “Things are very uncertain, and in our current political climate I think it’s very challenging to be an undergraduate [and] see the political dialogue being so charged and uncivil.”
Kathryn Kominars, the director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), is a licensed psychologist who has been working in the mental health field for 30 years. When she began her career, she said, depression was the number one major health issue that students identified with having. Anxiety now joins it in the top five. “Depression, anxiety, [and] stress, they’re all very connected, because when people are depressed, they’re anxious about being depressed often. And when people are anxious, they’re frequently depressed about being anxious,” said Kominars. “Lots of times [when] people identify depression and anxiety, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their level of distress meets a diagnostic category for an illness.”
“The actions taken by the government have been too little and too late,” said 21-year-old Vanessa Van Der Linde. “If they had mandated masks and quarantine earlier and more effectively we may have been close to how countries like New Zealand and others are doing now.” Arking states that the pandemic has caused him to be depressed and “scared for my life and the lives of those around me.” Other students believe having most or all of their classes online is a good thing. “I think FAU’s decision to put most of the classes online was the best they could have done and is better than resuming all in-person classes, so the students are less at risk,” said 21-year-old CC Carson.
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