When Politics Make You Feel Helpless, a Sense of Agency is Vital to Mental Health

As a therapist whose speciality is EMDR, I work with many clients who have suffered from the consequences of their traumatic experiences. Traumatic reactions such as deep anxiety, panic, helplessness can be triggered by relatively ‘small’ events. For example, if you were treated unkindly as a child, feeling badly treated as an adult has the potential to reignite similar feelings. 

Unprocessed trauma always lives in ‘trauma time’ and as a therapist the most effective tool is to help someone come to the realisation that whilst they can never change the past, they are not living in the same situation. They are no longer a helpless child; it is over. 

As children we don’t have many choices, but adults do have options and agency. This realisation is incredibly important for maintaining mental health. A sense of agency is critical to our emotional wellbeing. 

So, bearing this in mind, it is not surprising that many clients are very distressed and anxious by events in the news and I include myself here. The recent scene in the Oval Office when President Zelensky was attacked and insulted in front of the television cameras is what can best be described as shocking bullying by a supposedly ‘friendly’ country, was deeply disturbing to witness. 

President Trump told him repeatedly he had ‘no cards’ to play which is another way of treating him like a dependent child with no options. Even worse, it is his fault he doesn’t have options because he didn’t say thank you enough. It was a blatant and disgraceful example of public bullying. The next few days saw European leaders coming together and saying all of us in Europe need to improve our current options but we do thankfully have them. Seeing Keir Starmer walk towards Zelensky as he entered Downing Street the next day and giving him a warm embrace sent a powerful and touching message. You are not helpless and you are not alone.  

So how do we as individuals make a difference? We cannot stop the brutality of the wars we see on our daily news but we do have options to make a difference. Individual adults have a variety of options for agency. For example, through our role as consumers. How we choose to spend our money is an individual choice. It is our choice. Elon Musk might be slashing federal budgets and removing protections on his platform X, but he cannot prevent sales of his Tesla cars from plummeting. The sales of American goods are dropping in Canada. A booming economy is made up of billions of individual sales. Consumption is an act with consequences and we all need to feel that our actions can have meaningful consequences. Our mental health requires it. Of course, consumption is not the only or even the most powerful weapon we have to maintain our sense of wellbeing. I will quote from a colleague Aaron Balick:

“In times like these ‘soft’ human values like kindness, generosity, love, respect, empathy, friendship, goodwill and hope may seem like dim flickers against a dark rising tide. Everything comes and goes in time, but when the long night comes, we need to work harder and more deeply with each other to sustain ourselves and others through it”. 

We all have a choice how we conduct ourselves and treat others. This is true be it through our everyday interactions, our relationships, our work, our online behaviour. Because by making a positive difference we keep our humanity. When we keep our humanity we can thrive.