"Yes! Yesss!! Oh, let me taste your tears...mm, your tears are so yummy and sweet. Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! My-ymmuy."
Posted on 11/05/2004 11:04:00 PM PST by ambrose
Kerry Supporters Dealing With Stress, Depression
Psychologists Reporting Patients Distressed About Election
POSTED: 8:06 am EST November 5, 2004 UPDATED: 8:11 am EST November 5, 2004
NEW YORK -- It's a long way from the Manhattan office of psychoanalyst Sherman Pheiffer to the Cambridge, Mass., practice of psychologist Jaine Darwin. But both are in blue states that voted heavily for John Kerry, and on the day he conceded, they heard plenty of distress about the election.
"My patients were incredulous, depressed, angry, very frightened," Pheiffer said. "Everyone talked about feeling frightened (about) the future of this country."
Darwin heard the same kinds of reactions. At the end of the campaign, Massachusetts Democrats "kind of let themselves hope Kerry would pull it out," she said, so patients felt "the roller coaster had crashed. I think we all had a little post-Red Sox magical thinking."
And among Kerry campaign volunteers, of course, the loss was still stinging the day after the concession.
"If I happened to be on a tranquilizer or Prozac, I would have to triple my dose," joked Sam Feldman, a 75-year-old retired businessman who lives on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts but who volunteered for Kerry in Florida.
Elizabeth Marshall, a volunteer at the Centre County Democrats headquarters in Pennsylvania, said people there showed "bereavement, almost. People feel that something they had, which was hope for imminent change, has been taken from them."
The good news, mental health experts say, is that most Kerry supporters will get over their disappointment on their own. In fact, maybe sooner than they think.
"Right now you've got them at the depths of their despair," said Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist who has studied voters' emotional reaction to elections. "They're not going to feel worse in a week. They're going to feel better."
In fact, Gilbert said, his work has shown that voters get over their election-day disappointments faster than they predict they will.
"They don't think they'll be over it in a month, but they will be," he said.
Even now, Pheiffer, Darwin and other mental health professionals said they weren't getting any new patients because of the Kerry defeat. And Dr. David Rissmiller, chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine, said there's been no election-related jump in calls at two New Jersey crisis centers he's familiar with.
Temporary sadness, anxiety and concern about the future are understandable responses among Kerry supporters, said Dr. Charles Goodstein, a psychiatrist at the New York University Medical Center.
So when is it time to call a mental health professional? "When something goes on longer than you're comfortable with, then talk to somebody," Darwin advised. "You don't have to have major depression to talk to somebody."
Healthy reactions to post-election disappointment include talking about it with others and becoming or remaining politically active, experts said.
"I think it's important to give yourself a little bit of time to grieve," said Mary McClanahan, a psychologist in State College, Pa., who volunteered along with Marshall at the local county Democratic headquarters.
She described herself as "incredibly disappointed" but also galvanized.
Her fellow volunteers felt the same way, she said. And for both civic and psychological reasons, she said, such people should re-invest that energy in politics.
"Whenever we suffer a disappointment, and there's a chance to have a future success experience and we don't take advantage of that, it leaves people with greater regrets in the long run," she said.
Then I'm sure you know that most of them are liberals.
These people need to get a life! If they can't deal with a candidate (they don't even know) losing an election they are in big trouble.
A lot of them are very depressed because they were hoping for a Kerry gravy train of increased grants and programs for "social programs", more university research money to "study why America is so nasty", etc, etc
The political power of the Dem party rests on its ability to pay off its supporters, and impose costs on its opponents. That ability is diminished when they are out of power.
Remember how dependent they were on PAID voter registrants and "get out the vote" people? If they can't supply "walking-around money" to activists in the 2008 cycle, they are toast.
I don't recall 9-11 disturbing these folks this much...
Chilmark resident Sam Feldman, who spearheaded the small group, was pushed into action after his wife Gretchen contracted Lyme in June. Mr. Feldman, an indefatigable civic activist and donor to Island causes, most recently led the effort to ban mopeds and establish the FARM Institute in Edgartown.
Now Mr. Feldman has turned his attention and energy to the issue of tick-borne diseases. “We were struck by the number of our friends who had Lyme, or Rocky Mountain fever…” said Gretchen Feldman during a conversation in the couple’s home overlooking Chilmark Pond. “One after another, they were dropping like, er, ticks.”
Mr. Feldman began communicating his concerns and a group was formed. At its inaugural meeting on Oct. 9, members set several goals.
They moved to red states.
I'm Goin' Down from the Born in the USA album
I hope that hundreds of federally funded grief counselors are on hand to minister to the stressed out Democrat functionaries.
That's right. We would've bought more AMMO!
:-)
Ah, life is great is it not?
Better put some ice on that.
lol
"Yes! Yesss!! Oh, let me taste your tears...mm, your tears are so yummy and sweet. Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! My-ymmuy."
“The slogan known to all Palestinians is, ‘Saturday people first and Sunday people next’,” ... “It means if Israel and the Jewish people were ever defeated, Christians will be next.”
The stealth-commies & liberals should maybe try tinfoil hats & chant, 'Black Helicopters' over and over again!
Disgusting. Who are these people? Where/how were they raised? I was sad when Bill Clinton won because I knew the man from dogpatch would not be a good president but I didnt' flip out over it.
Huh, I guess it's another complete non-story from AP then. Imagine that.
One of the most bizarre aspects of this whole affair remains: Their hatred of Bush is utterly illogical. Setting aside character issues for a moment, and looking strictly at the legislation he's supported, etc., Bush is NOT that far right of Clinton! He worked closely on legislation with Ted Fricking Kennedy! For liberals to have this fervent, vitriolic hatred of him, far more than even the right had for Clinton IMO, is bizarre.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that it's truly a guttural, primitive reaction on their part, as simple as evil freaking out in the presence of good. Make no mistake about it, liberalism is founded in evil, no matter how shiny the coat of "good intentions." The same hatred they've shown for Bush for four years, is now being poured out on the Christians who dared to elect him. Maybe it's just as simple as that in the end, the way a vampire hisses when sunlight hits him.
MM
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