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Resetting yourself after this political season
FOX 5's Portia Bruner explores how one can detox follow this continuous election season on today's Your Take
The U.S. Senate runoff extended an already contentious election season by an additional two months here in Georgia--which means the ads just kept running and the political arguments just kept going. Clinical psychologist Dr. Rebecca Johnson Osei said those ads have taken a toll and even ignited other conflicts.
"There's a lot of attack ads going on so, it can feel personal to people and that's really exhausting and then interpersonally we have a lot of issues," said Dr. Johnson Osei. "Take masks, for example. People are running into issues because they believe in wearing masks, but may have a family friend who doesn't and now they're having to say 'I can't see you.'"
Dr. Johnson Osei said the barrage of political ads, the texts from unknown political operatives and the arguments can have a negative cumulative effect on your emotions.
"There's a lot of things that are happening that are emotionally laden for people and are causing a lot of distrust when we're actually having a difficult time connecting because we can't see each other anyway."
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Dr. Johnson Osei has told her patients at Concierge Psychology and Psychiatry it may be time to reassess their values and their relationships with friends, family members and loved ones.
"This year has kind of put some relationships through the ringer. I do think its ok to walk away from some relationships, but that's not to say it's ok just to run for the hills from anyone who didn't agree with you. It's just time to look at those values and see if there's room for compromise for the sake of maintaining important connections," she said from her tele-med office on the day of the U.S. Senate runoff.
The bottom line, according the clinical psychologist, the political debates are over and now, it may be time to set the personal debates aside as well.
"It is ok to want your kids to have their grandpa in their lives, but we're just not going to talk about politics with grandpa. It is ok to have those boundaries. Valuable, healthy relationships revolve around being able to say, 'I feel this way' and having the other person say, ‘I can hold space for that,’" said Dr. Johnson Osei.
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