Post Election Trauma Syndrome (pets); it is Curable!

Reflecting upon the “day after” election 2008, I found myself feeling like I was standing between my yesterday life and a vague facsimile of the life I had pre-campaign. I was still; and there was no movement of time. I discovered the promises I had made to myself that I would finally clean my house, do the laundry and get the shopping done just after election night, are still left undone. Yet, I mindlessly wander around feeling  an anxiousness, as if I was suppose to be doing something, but there was no motivation to do much of anything.

Over the last year or so my whole body, mind and soul has been focused on one goal; to do everything within my ability to be a part of history and see the first African American be elected as our 44th President of the United States. Now that it is a reality, I am discovering I was living an alternate life that ended quite abruptly on November 5th, 2008. The announcement that Barack Obama was the projected winner of the election was such a surreal experience but that event rapidly turned into an abyss of emotions.

Although, a day and night had passed, there seemed to be something going on. I was really mystified by my emotions and behavior, or in my case, the lack of behaviors until this feeling of familiarity bubbled up into my consciousness; I had experienced this before. Some time back, I had volunteered over 100 hours at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the days following the closing ceremonies of that very meaningful world-wide event, I meandered around my days as if I was in a thick fog, and no matter how much I tried walk around or out of it, the fog continued to wrap around my life.

There had been approximately 25,000 people volunteering for the 2002 Olympics, and most of them were in the same patch of fog that I found myself in. This phenomenon actually became a story in the local news media. The news media dubbed the volunteers’ experience as Post Olympic Blues. I was pessimistic about such a description because I wasn’t feeling depressed, I was feeling like my purpose in life had been ripped right from under my feet.

Since the 2008 election process began, most of us have been living on a constant flow of the hormone adrenaline. This hormone has helped us push our bodies to be super-human by living on little sleep, constantly walking, door knocking, and talking to exhaustion; motivated by the hope that change was on the horizon. After the election, the body no longer needed the constant secretion of adrenaline, and so we soon felt the physical and mental crash that occurs when the body stops producing adrenaline in constant high volumes. This crash most of us experienced is an inventible consequence of a swift transition from high motivation and energy to “nothing.” The nothing we are experiencing, is the beginning of what can now be known as the “Post Election Trauma Syndrome,” or (PETS).

PETS has similar features to a well-renown concept known as the Kubler-Ross “Five Stages of Grief” model. This model was developed for the purpose of understanding how people grieve and process a significant loss in their lives. Most people believe that “grief” only applies to the loss of a loved one through death, or the loss of a love relationship, or even to the loss of a beloved pet. However, any significant personal change in circumstances is considered a loss and the change does not always have to be viewed as a negative one. The change just needs to be significant enough to elicit the response of loss.

It is pretty easy to notice that all of us, who have had a considerable investment into this year’s historic election, have experienced a “significant personal change” in our lives that may have caused a cluster of symptoms related to PETS. Our collective and diverse efforts and experiences dissipated soon after November 4th, 2008 and most of us, to some degree, have had some feelings of this loss. Even though the outcome of all our hard work and prayers had a positive result, gaining an understanding that we are suffering these symptoms of PETS, may help us reintegrate ourselves back into our family, friends and the society in which we once belonged.

There are specific symptoms that are identified with the PETS disorder which are identified below:

Numbness (mechanical functioning and social insulation)

Denial (this isn't happening to me!)

Bargaining (If only, then I will be OK, if …..)

Depression (moping around, no motivation)

Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes)

Reorganization (re-entry into a more 'normal' pre-campaign life.)

We may recognize some of the above symptoms as something we are currently experiencing, or have recently experienced over the last many days. The list above is a collection of symptoms related to PETS and if we are able to identify with at least two of these symptoms we may be suffering from PETS.

Let’s examine each of these symptoms separately by starting with the symptom of feeling “numb.” If we are wondering around our daily life functioning as a mechanical robot and insulating ourselves from any emotions that may want to surface, then we are most likely suffering from the symptom of numbness. Eventually, the numbness will wear off and we may move toward a natural defense mechanism of denial to protect our psyche from the reality that our efforts and work are no longer needed; and the life we had been living for the last year and a half or so, is no more. We may feel some anxiousness as if we are suppose to be doing something but we are bewildered as to what that might be. If this sound like you or any of us, there is a high probability we are suffering from the symptom of denial.

At some point denial will begin to dissolve into one of the other symptoms of PETS. Nearly all of us were ecstatic when we heard the announcement that the media projected Barack Obama had won the election. The extremely positive feelings we were having may have lasted for hours or even for days since our ultimate goal had been realized.  Eventually though, we all began to participate in the symptom known as bargaining as another way to cope with PETS.

This symptom translated into a worry of “if only” Obama’s Head Quarters doesn’t shut down the campaign site, we will be able to keep in touch with the many virtual friends we had made. This symptom became quite noticeable when all of us blogger’s began posting a very similar theme of concern. Many of us started to consider the possibility of losing the site and started posting “if only” the Obama Head Quarters could provide an alternative site we would all be “OK” because we would still be able to stay in contact with all of our virtual friends we made during the Obama campaign. The Obama Headquarters must have noticed all of our worried posts and posted a forum that stated they would not be shutting down the site and they also notified us that they had created a new sight so that we may continue on our journey of participating in our government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Even though we had been reassured by Obama Headquarters that they had not forgotten about us, some of us may have started to suffer from some level of depression. This may have started the day after the election or at any time after and co-exist with any of the other symptoms we were experiencing. Although this mild form of depression can be a natural part of the loss process, the symptoms should dissipate in a short period of time. If for some reason, someone continues to be depressed or the feelings of depression dramatically increase, it is important that we seek professional help immediately.

Eventually we will begin to accept this significant change in our life. At first, the symptom of acceptance related to PETS, may be tempered and we may be somewhat aloof about returning to our pre-campaign life. There will still be occasional waves of emotions that can be triggered by any number of experiences, which is very normal and is evidence that we are beginning to heal from what we perceive as a loss. As time passes, we will eventually reorganize our thinking by incorporating our loss with positive memories of the long, hard fought battle of the campaign. We will no longer be sad about this significant change in our lives, as the experiences are now a part of us and the feelings of loss will no longer keep us from functioning as we once did in our pre-campaign lives.

(PETS) is not a neat list of absolutes, it is a wide range of emotions and behaviors that are as individual and varied as those of us who are dealing with the disorder. What is important to remember, is PETS is not a pervasive condition and will subside as time goes by. Armed with the knowledge of PETS, we can now better understand ourselves and others who are going through many symptoms of PETS. Recognizing that we’re not alone in our suffering can increase our empathy and support for others and provide permission for us to go through the process in our own way and in our own time.

By now all of us may be wondering how we can help ourselves through this period of suffering from the PETS disorder. There is actually a barrage of activities that can improve our mood and increase our ability to recover faster. Just like people who suffer from PETS that will have diverse and unique symptoms, there are also as many unique ways of improving our ability to recover from this disorder.

Some ideas to promote our healing process may be to take a day to pamper ourselves in whatever way that we know how to pamper ourselves. Start making that scrapbook of your campaign experiences. Meditate/Pray, read both of Obama’s books for the first or second time. Give your pets’ extra special attention. Volunteer at an animal shelter, or a homeless shelter. Look for your local Democratic office and become acquainted with your local leaders. Begin emailing or writing letters to your state representatives about issues that you and our President-elect Obama have been passionate about.

It may be worth mentioning that the Obama Headquarters have already developed a new website to keep “we the people” involved in the restoration of our government. The site link is http://www.change.gov and may be a great way to start the process of reorganization and reentry into our pre-campaign life.

This is not the time of wondering where we go from here, but a time to adjust and move forward. Since this is a specialized disorder, it can be comforting to know we will eventually succeed in healing ourselves from PETS. This will become obvious when we are able to see ourselves stepping back into our pre-campaign life. The one difference between pre and post campaign involvement though, is that we will have brought with us a richer life filled with positive memories of our widespread involvement with our children’s and grandchildren’s history.

Although, we have all participated in making history, there is a possibility there may be another outbreak of PETS four years from now. However, next time we will have all been vaccinated and thus be armed by our understanding and knowledge of PETS disorder, which will greatly reduce the symptoms that we may suffer. If we decide to get involved in the political process once again, it will be inevitable that we will have that sudden and significant feeling of loss that will occur after re-electing President Obama in 2012. In the meantime, one way we can heal faster from PETS, would be by collecting all of the memorabilia that has been scattered around our homes that we thought would be cleaned up by know, and start making our scrapbook of memories we promised ourselves we were going to do as soon as this election was over!

(Loosely Based on the Grief Cycle model first published in On Death & Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 1969 and the Interpretation by Alan Chapman 2006-08.)