After-the-vote depression: It’s not just for Republicans

By Brendan Buhler

Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Are you suffering from feelings of shock and alienation? Or of exhaustion and abandonment?

Not to worry, psychologist Gary Waters says: These are perfectly normal reactions to a presidential election.

Apparently for some, the election was all too much, and not because it went on for two years at a quarter of the cost of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. No, emotionally it was too much. And not the election itself. The end of the election.

Waters, who founded the Center for Health and Learning, a nonprofit mental health clinic, says that in the two days after the election, the clinic had counseled eight people for what he is calling “election depression.” Another three people have appointments.

(Before a recent expansion of services, the clinic specialized in counseling children and teenagers.)

Who are these people? Are they distraught Republicans?

The clinic doesn’t know, Waters said; it doesn’t ask patients’ political affiliation. He estimated about half of them are displeased with the results of the election and are asking themselves whether this is really happening, where they fit in now and whether America is still their country. They feel as if the country profoundly changed overnight with the election of a liberal, black president.

“The country isn’t a Norman Rockwell painting anymore. But we encourage people to try and visualize what it would look like if Norman Rockwell painted it,” Waters said. “We tell them, ‘Your country hasn’t changed because Barack Obama was elected. Barack Obama was elected because the country changed incrementally over the years.’ ”

If only half of the people upset about the election are upset because their side lost, who are the other half? Surely they aren’t Democrats, who after years of defeat and pitiful whining about moving to New Zealand finally won?

Actually, Waters said, many of them are ardent Obama supporters who, after pushing their candidate over the finish line, suffer from feelings Waters compared to postpartum depression.

Exhaustion. Hollowness. Stress from trying to live up to campaign rhetoric.

“One woman said, ‘I’ve been doing this for a year and a half. What do I do now? I feel abandoned.’ ”

Waters has distributed a set of talking points for use in counseling sufferers of election depression. Among them: “Remember time will indeed heal,” “Stay in the Positive Zone,” “Keep an open mind” and “Don’t overreact.”

“We’re encouraging people not to make drastic choices,” Waters said. “Don’t sell your house and move to Canada.”

How widespread is election depression? Could it become an epidemic?

There’s no way to know, Waters said.

“I think a lot of people kind of deal with it on their own.”