Managing Election Stress Disorder -By Patrick Iwelunmor

Election stress disorder refers to the anxiety or stress that is associated with a political election to such an extent that it tampers with a person’s emotion or mental wellbeing. Though not a known medical diagnosis, its existence and the threats it poses to public health cannot be ignored. The term was first credited to psychologist, Steven Stosny, who had described the 2016 US elections as full of stress and distress. Writing in The Washington Post, he had explained how the 2016 elections took a negative toll on his patients, to the extent that it distorted their personal lives.

Generally speaking, elections have a direct impact on the emotions of not only the contestants but also on their supporters. This is largely because the concepts of winning and losing leave very long-lasting impressions and emotions on the minds of contestants and their followers. In most political elections, the winner takes all while the loser is left to reflect on his or her loss.

In Africa and especially Nigeria where the political terrain is replete with a lot of malpractices, elective positions, whether at the local government, state or federal level, are always tied to the influence of money, so that, it is only the affluent and persons with fat purses who eventually get into the corridors of power.

Those who cannot muster the financial muscle are often relegated to the dustbin of oblivion. Such persons could fall sick due to failure to actualize their political ambitions, having invested most of their savings in the process. For such persons, managing election stress disorder becomes very expedient because their mental and emotional states could become compromised easily. In 2014, there were reports of a Malawian Deputy Local Government Minister, Godfrey Kamanya, who committed suicide after losing parliamentary elections. The Malawian example underscores the reality of the impact of election stress on political contestants and even their supporters in Africa where political office is mostly seen as a means of enrichment or escape from poverty rather than an avenue for selfless service to the community, state or country.

The monetization of the political electioneering process in Africa and other parts of the world has made the quest for political power a do-or-die affair, in which party faithful engage their opponents in bloody altercations, leading to deaths and serious injuries. It is important that psychologists are involved more in the counselling of political aspirants so that the level of desperation they bring into the electoral process is reduced to its lowest ebb. No politician whose real interest is to serve his people would resort to violence and irresponsible behavior or become depressed even when he loses in his bid.

This writer was actively involved in arguments and permutations that trailed the last presidential election in Nigeria where the context was primarily between the Batists (supporters of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu) of the All Progressives Congress and the Obidients (supporters of Peter Obi) of the Labour Party. It was a very tensed context that witnessed a lot of mudslinging and personality attacks amongst the supporters of both contestants. In fact, at some point, the campaigns took the turn of an ethnic war.

Though this writer was not personally disposed to the candidacy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he was prepared emotionally and psychologically to live with the eventuality of a BAT victory. The simple antidote to any future feeling of disappointment or depression was in liberality and a philosophical mindset. “Who knows, the man whom we dislike so much may emerge victorious and could be used by God to bring unprecedented prosperity to Nigeria,” I had muted several times. Today, I remain my normal self; no hard feelings or regrets about the election and because I am not God, my opinions about a particular political candidate bear no finality and have neither come back to haunt me nor give me sleepless nights.

It is against the background of the foregoing that it becomes germane for politicians and their supporters to eschew overconfidence, desperation and the propensity to use money rather than popularity as an enabler of their political status. Money politics will always yield bitterness, frustration and depression, especially in situations where a politician spends so much money and ends up losing. Some politicians do not survive such a development. Those of them who do live with mental health issues for a very long time.

To this end, the best panacea to election stress disorder is ensuring a selfless mindset built on the principle of service to the people and not on personal aggrandizement. Those who borrow money to run for political offices must be reminded that if they fail to win, the moneylenders would surely come after them. Therefore, in order not to trouble one’s mind with the anxiety of being juxtaposed by money lenders and the sad reality of electoral failure, politicians should stop seeing elections as do-or-die affairs.

Patrick Iwelunmor is editor of Pharmanews, Nigeria’s leading health journal.