From the threats posed by austerity and the fears around global migration to the unsettled notion of resistance, our political world is permeated with anxieties. Emotions matter in politics- enthusiastic supporters return politicians to office, angry citizens march in the streets, and a fearful public demands protection from the government.
When the world is scary, when politics is divided, hatful, and full of emotions when the citizenry is anxious, do these politics resemble politics under more serene conditions? If politicians use threatening appeals to persuade citizens, how does the public respond? The answer to these questions arguably is that political anxiety triggers engagements in politics in ways that are potentially both promising and damaging for democracy. The effects of political anxiety on the psychological, physical, and political health of a society and individuals depend on how we consume political news, who we trust, and what politics we support. What is not uncommon in all these situations is that anxiety about politics triggers coping strategies in the political world, where these strategies are often shaped by partisan agendas.
Pakistan is experiencing significant instability amid political upheaval and economic crises. A coalition government of doubtful legitimacy faces allegations of violating the constitutional order in suppressing opposition. As the government moves towards controlling media and judiciary, Pakistan faces a tough poly-crisis in 2025 as the incumbent status quo has to manage the economic instability and the challenge of political legitimacy and beyond.
The rump parliament has swiftly passed laws favouring the agenda of non-democratic forces at the expense of the constitution. Pakistan’s constitutional order has broken down. The opposition is facing mostly frivolous cases, the media is being controlled through recently amended controversial PECA laws, and the judiciary has been controlled in the name of judicial reform packages. The weak-kneed, selfish politicians, who instead of engaging among themselves kowtow to the establishment to gain power, have failed to challenge the influence of undemocratic forces over Pakistani politics and economic and foreign policy-making processes.
Against this backdrop of political upheaval, the people of Pakistan are forced to live in constant and severe fear and anxiety. Fear of being uncertain about their political present and economic future in this poly-crisis state and anxiety of not being provided with their fundamental right to express their genuine socio-political grievances and resentments against the laws to be introduced to control media and to silence the critics of government policies.
The positive impact of anxiety and its key strength is that it mobilises individuals to potentially press the policy-makers for institutional reforms and challenges the notion of the status quo to consider urges and desires for political change
Politics is a stressor partly because it can trigger such a wide variety of emotions, ranging from worry, sadness, and despair to outrage, disgust, anger, frustration, and more. Political events can have both short- and long-term repercussions, and they often involve conflict between groups, which can have real-life social ramifications. This is a widely felt phenomenon, a shared experience that affects all people living in this country in one way or another.
Research shows the distress we feel around politics that may harm our physical and mental health—and it’s only getting worse. Amid this turmoil, Pakistanis are feeling increasingly stressed about politics and the economy. According to public health experts and World Health Organisation data on world mental health, around 75pc of people, especially youngsters are experiencing stress, anxiety, or depression in Pakistan. They say that their future or the future of our nation is a significant source of stress in their lives.
But what does this mean for our everyday political experience? Do governments provoke or encourage a sense of anxiety as a form of control and power? How do citizens react to, comply with, or resist, this sense of anxiety? And, is this ‘anxious politics’ a threat to our psychological, physical, and political life or is it good to promote democratic governance in the country?
Moving beyond the concept of ‘risk society’, the positive impact of anxiety and its key strength is that it mobilises individuals to potentially press the policy-makers for institutional reforms and challenges the notion of the status quo to consider urges and desires for political change.
Several insightful studies highlight that anxiety is a source of action for political and social reforms. One such study on political anxiety published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology emphasises reframing the negative thoughts about the politics-related outcome using cognitive reappraisal techniques for better emotional well-being. However, the benefits of this exercise come at a cost because those respondents who tried to regulate their political anxiety through the strategies (including distraction and reframing) improved their well-being but it was also noticed that their political engagement also reduced.
To cope with the negative implications of this political anxiety, we need not ignore politics around altogether but adopt some strategies to reduce our stress
It is said that this research has observed a trade-off between reducing negative emotions about politics, which is a perfectly reasonable goal, and the motivation to be politically active. This finding begs the question: ‘Is there a way of regulating the negative emotions politics triggers so politics doesn’t impair our well-being, but at the same time, doesn’t decrease our motivation to take action?’ The study answers this question in a way that ‘just as negative emotions help drive us to take action, so too do our positive emotions and these kinds of socially engaged emotional experiences appear to help push people to get involved in demand for institutional and social reforms.
Though the political instability in Pakistan is a source of stress for more Pakistani adults this year, they also plan to volunteer and contribute more to causes they value for the betterment of their future locally and abroad. In our polarised society and polity, bonds between similar people (in this case, politically similar), are linked with bridging ties—connections with dissimilar people or for people who were earlier politically isolated.
While there’s plenty of historical precedent for chaos and contention in Pakistani politics, some aspects of the last few election cycles are fundamentally different. The information environment has changed, making it much, much harder to ignore politics today. It’s not something we are getting in the morning with the newspaper and in the evening on the TV broadcast—it’s now constant, all the time. Keep in mind that social media platforms are designed to keep us engaged and push our buttons. That means it takes extra effort to limit chronic exposure, but finding a balance is important.
To cope with the negative implications of this political anxiety, we need not ignore politics around altogether but adopt some strategies to reduce our stress. The strategies may include tuning in when there’s something to be done like finding out where to vote or how to contribute to a campaign for a social change. Another tip is to consider reading rather than watching your news. Reading gives you a little bit more control over what you’re ingesting, so you’re not being bombarded with scenes and images that may be intended to manipulate you in some way.
Priorities include a deeper understanding of how politics affects health across various groups, and how to support individual well-being without harming collective goals, such as political participation. Put differently, we can’t ask people to sacrifice their well-being, so we need to understand what can work to reduce political anxiety, ideally without reducing engagement. It’s a tall order, but an important one as for some anxiety plays sometimes a positive and interesting role in social change and pushes for action to make our society better and prosperous. ‘I think anxiety is very interesting, observed Amy, eating sager, pensively’ as mentioned by Louisa May Alcott, an American novelist and short story writer, in her two volumes novel, Little Women.