A 12-step Plan For What To Do If Your Candidate Loses On Election Day

Sometime this week, millions of Americans will learn that their candidate for president lost. Before we heal as a nation, we’ve got to start healing as individuals. So many people who voted for the losing side will have passionately supported Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or another candidate. How do we get over this? It will take patience, empathy and effort. To help with that, USA TODAY sought out expert advice on how to deal with post-election dejection.

Here’s the 12-step action plan:

1) Feel free to scream. Just don’t do it in a public place. “If you are really, really upset and want to yell, go in the bathroom and close the door and yell,” says psychotherapist Fran Sherman. “You have to get it out.” This type of “verbal vomit” can be helpful, she says: “I equate it to when you are sick to your stomach and you let it out and you feel better.” Not a screamer? Aerobic activity, which will release feel-good endorphins, is a good way to shed some angst, she says.

2) Practice acceptance. Feel better after that therapeutic scream? Good. Now you can think more clearly and face the facts. “You don’t have to like it to accept that it’s the reality,” says psychologist Vaile Wright, who is a member of the American Psychological Association's Stress in America team. “Say to yourself, ‘I don’t like this outcome, but this is the way it is and I’m going to move forward.' Fighting it is just going to prolong one’s disappointment.”

find out the rest of the 12 step plan HERE.

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