Politics Taking Mental, Physical Toll on Americans

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 25, 2019 (HealthDay News) — U.S. politics has been incredibly divisive in recent years, and will likely only grow worse since President Donald Trump faces possible impeachment over the Ukrainian scandal.

So it is no wonder the strain of ugly federal politics has begun to affect the emotional and physical wellbeing of some taxpayers, as a new study indicates.

Almost two out of every five Americans state politics is stressing them out, and one in five are have had friendships damaged over politics, the researchers found.

“A surprisingly high number of American adults perceive their engagement in politics as having adverse effects on their social, emotional and even physical health,” said lead researcher Kevin Smith, chair of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that the House of Representatives will start impeachment queries, accusing Trump of a”betrayal of his oath of office” in asking Ukraine’s newly elected president to investigate a Democratic rival for the U.S. presidency.

Matters only intensified Wednesday after the Trump government published a memorandum of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump pressed his counterpart for an investigation of presidential candidate Joe Biden and offered U.S. support for such a probe.

The new survey of 800 people nationwide, conducted prior to these most recent revelations, suggested that politics are creating a burgeoning public health crisis in the United States, Smith said.

One of the survey’s other findings:

• More than one in 10 individuals felt politics had adversely affected their physical wellbeing.
• Nearly one-third said they’d been driven crazy by media outlets that encourage views contrary to their own personal beliefs.
• Three in 10 Americans said they’d lost their temper .
• A quarter of people said that politics has led them to despise some people, and to think critically about moving away in their community.
• About 22% said they care too much about who wins and who loses.
• Around 15% said that they wish they would have controlled themselves more in political conversations or have posted things online that they later regretted.