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The Presidency is up for grabs, and with it, the destiny of the U.S., as well as the rest of our Earth. For me, the election is having a somewhat destabilizing effect. I can't speak for other persons who have mental illness, but I can guess.

Millions are frightened of what will happen to us when we have a new President. Most are particularly fearful of what will happen of Donald Trump is elected, and I am guessing that some are worried that Hillary Clinton could put us at risk.

Either way, we are looking at change. A counselor once said to me that mentally ill people are not good at handling changes. Yet, to be perfectly cliché, change is the only thing we can be certain of.  

We do not live in a dictatorship, but we could. It is conceivable that our democracy could dissolve and could be replaced by a malevolent dictator. For example, Russia has had several regime changes in my lifetime. Russia is bigger than the U.S., and this shows that the size of a country isn't relevant. China doesn't have a democracy--it is still communist and lacks the human rights to which Americans are accustomed.  

This is the sort of thing that runs through my mind. I am worried that, if there is a major change in government, my income and housing could be eliminated. I am also worried that I could face retaliation for exercising my First Amendment rights.  

When someone has a chronic condition of paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar illness, excessive anxiety, which can sometimes occur due to a difficult situation, can lead to mental exaggeration of a perceived threat, this can lead to increasing paranoid symptoms, and this can snowball into a relapse of severe psychosis. I have been practicing cognitive exercises to ease my anxiety level and prevent this scenario from happening to me. This election is more anxiety producing than any election I have witnessed.  

At some point, I might be forced, for the sake of my well-being, to mentally disconnect from the election. This is hard to do, and it would necessitate not watching or reading news. Watching the political contest on a daily basis is inescapable if I tune into or long onto the news whatsoever.  

I have been, in a small way, a participant, since I have written pieces for publication about the election. Anyone who votes is a participant. You are even a participant of you choose not to cast your vote, since that also affects the outcome.  

In general, when I face challenges, I don't let myself off the hook due to being disabled as often as I could. My standards for myself are high, sometimes unrealistically so. But, some of the time, I should be taking some time for myself on the basis of mental health.  

My guess is that a lot of people, not just mentally ill people, are getting continuously traumatized by the ongoing election, and that when it is over, we will all have a sigh of relief. This relief will only happen if we get leadership that is stable and competent, and that won't ruin all our lives or ruin our planet.