Emotions are high for Harris voters Wednesday. After years of campaigning, the 2024 presidential election is settled. President-elect Donald Trump is heading back to the White House.
“It didn't go the way we wanted, and that's very disappointing. Yeah, I don't know,” said one Harris supporter.
“I think, just a little sad day,” said another one.
“It's numbing. It's really numbing,” another said.” I guess maybe I've been brought up and lived in a bubble.”
“Some people this is actually going to be a grief reaction,” said Lorenzo Norris, chief wellness officer and associate professor of psychiatry at George Washington University. “A lot of things: denial, anger, shock.”
He spoke to News4 on the heels of Harris’ concession speech
“A couple of things that people might have: The first is dread — that impending sense of doom,” Norris said. “When you have that, that's really going to get your sympathetic nervous system — your fight or flight — potentially into either overdrive or you could just become feeling completely helpless.
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Given the divisive nature of this campaign, Norris said it's understandable why many Americans are sad or afraid. And while you may want to pull away socially, he said avoiding others can make the problem worse.
“Probably the thing that I really get most concerned about is withdrawal, when you start to withdraw from others, when you start to withdraw from your life, when you start to withdraw from friends,” Norris said. “When you do that, you take away perhaps one of your biggest attributes as a human being: your ability to cope relationally.”
And if you need help dealing with those feelings of dread, Norris recommends turning to the American Psychological Association stress management resources, the American Psychiatric Association for tools to deal with depression, anxiety and PTSD, or by calling the 988 crisis hotline.
“We want to get your body modulated, so you can do that with just what's called abdominal breathing,” he said. “Hand on chest, hand on belly. You inhale, belly rises, exhale through pursed lips, belly falls. And when you do that, I want you to exhale, ‘I'm safe.’ You're sending your mind a message that you are safe.”
Norris also said it’s important to be realistic. Those tips,tools and resources won't necessarily make you happy, but he said, hopefully, the suggestions will help with regulating emotions.
