WAXHAW, N.C. — Pro-Trump signs outnumber the ones for Harris outside of the Wesley Chapel volunteer fire department, an early voting site in Union County, North Carolina.

The lopsided ratio is the same across the county, a mostly rural community south of Charlotte, near the South Carolina border.

It’s also a sign of the darker side of election season: fear and anxiety, at least for liberals in this historically conservative area.

“A lot of people don’t want to put out anything supporting Harris, because they’re afraid of retribution,” said Lisa, a Union County resident who was campaigning for Democratic candidates this week. Even though she was wearing a T-shirt with a comma and the syllable “la,” referencing the correct pronunciation of the first name of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, she declined to give her last name because she said she was afraid of being targeted.

“My neighbor put up a couple signs” for the Harris-Walz ticket, Lisa said. “The next morning, they were crushed, crumpled up.”

Another early voter who did not want to be identified was so apprehensive about publicly expressing her choice for Harris that she simply whispered it before heading into the polling area.

Bryan Robinson, another Union County resident, echoed concerns about the potential for violence and retaliation.

“I’m more anxious about how divisive and bad things could get” if the Democrats stay in the White House, he said.

Mental fatigue is especially true for folks living in swing states that could ultimately be responsible for the election’s outcome: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

One nation, totally stressed out

Election-related dread is felt on both sides of the aisle, as well as among independent voters.

“We are seeing the highest levels of election-related stress” compared to the last three elections, said Vaile Wright, senior director of the office of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association.

The APA’s latest Stress in America survey found that a majority of adults, 77%, said the future of the nation is a “significant source of stress in their lives.”

The concern plagues all parties almost equally: 80% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats and 73% of independents.

Sixty-nine percent of all 3,305 U.S. adults polled in August specifically cited the presidential election as a stressor.

There’s a scientific reason for Americans’ heightened levels of stress, said Bryan Sexton, a psychologist and the director of the Duke Center for the Advancement of Well-being Science in Durham, North Carolina.

“Our brains are basically threat detectors,” Sexton said. “If you’re feeling stressed, it simply means you’re paying attention.”

That is, the brain is so focused on identifying threats, such as divisive rhetoric from candidates and highly charged political ads, that it’s missing everything else.

“If you’re spending all that attention span on noticing the threats, you don’t notice the good stuff that recharges you,” Sexton said. “That’s why it’s so exhausting right now.”

Media in the battleground states is saturated with emotional, visceral political ads that can punch any left- or right-leaning voter in the gut.

One ad in support of abortion rights describes in painful detail the story of a woman who, at age 12, became pregnant when her stepfather sexually assaulted her. Ads for conservative candidates work to demonize transgender Americans.

Such ads are running in nearly every commercial break, during national sporting events, on morning television and everywhere in between.

“It’s an absolute deluge,” the ad-tracking company Medium Buying wrote on X. This week, the firm counted 37 political ads that aired during a local morning news show in Georgia.

People living in swing states “are very stressed right now,” Sexton said. “They’re exhausted because those threat awareness systems have been on full bore for months now.”

Lost sleep, poor appetite

The mental anguish that Leigh Benish has felt because of the upcoming presidential election has, at times, overwhelmed her to the point of physical illness.

“I’ve lost sleep over it,” said Benish, 38. “There have been times where I haven’t been eating because the stress is just so heavy.”

Benish lives in Butler, Pennsylvania, a town that was the center of chaos after the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July. On top of that, Pennsylvania is one of seven swing states where residents are bombarded day and night with phone calls, texts and political ads that often prey on voters’ fears.

“I don’t like conflict, and so it just causes me to tense up,” she said.

The onslaught is so overwhelming that Benish, a church pastor in Butler, has begun to focus on election stress in sessions with her counselor.

Even as she tries to ease her own angst, her feelings are compounded by helping other people through the same issues.

“It’s so personal for a lot of people, especially those who were at the Trump rally,” Benish said. “They witnessed that, and the trauma comes out.”

Easing election stress

There is a ton of advice online about countering anxiety.

• Exercise.
• Explore nature.
• Feel the sun on your skin.
• Meditate.
• Have lunch with a friend.
• Get a good night’s rest.

Those are solid suggestions. But here we are in 2024, and those tried and true ideas aren’t doing it for the millions of Americans trying to get over the election anxiety hump.

The majority of people “don’t have time to go on a yoga retreat. They don’t have time to lose 20 pounds. They don’t have time to try meditation for the first time,” Sexton said. “They need something simple.”

Focus on 1 of the 5 senses

Does the scent of homemade rolls take you to a more innocent time? Turn on the oven and grab some flour to harness that sense of smell.

That one act can refocus an overwhelmed brain, Wright suggested.

“It can serve as a grounding technique because it’s engaging,” Wright said.

The other key, Sexton said, is to connect with friends or other loved ones. “Hearing their voice can actually lower your heart rate and make you feel better right away,” he said.

Lisa Quebedeaux, 40, also a Butler resident, said she’s been able to relieve her election-related stress by canvassing for Democratic candidates and LGBTQ rights.

“I always dreaded the notion of talking to other people about politics or the issues, and was very much a person who just wanted to be left alone,” Quebedeaux said. But going door to door and speaking to other members of the community has been a comfort ahead of Election Day.

“I was very scared to do it, but once I did do it, I felt like I was so much more in control of my fate, that I wasn’t just letting things happen,” she said.