Solving the biggest issues of our time will require excellent leaders working at the peak of their abilities. But with many politicians reporting poor mental health, what can be done?
Everyone’s logged in. Quick intro, then over to the report’s author for her presentation. Everything going swimmingly. Then, mid-flow, yikes, ‘Esc’ ‘Esc’, explicit porn starts flashing across the screen.
It takes a lot to shock Rebekah Ison. After months researching the lived realities of serving politicians around the world, she’d heard it all: the social media abuse, the online trolling, the long hours, the demanding travel, the hostile press.
Little wonder that today’s parliamentarians feel in a fragile state. According to Mere Mortals, the illuminating 94-page report that Ison helped write for the Berlin-based non-profit Apolitical Foundation, 41% of those working in political life rate their mental health as ‘low’. The ‘high’ quotient: a measly 4%.
For all her intellectual understanding, however, being hacked midway through a live online event was the first time she got a taste of what it must be like to be an insider in today’s increasingly polarised and abuse-laden world of politics.
“It was kind of a horrible and frustrating, but it was also a real-world kind of immersion into the topic that we were actually talking about,” she reflects.
As with many career choices, a degree of stress comes with the territory for politicians: there are the elections to win, the tough decisions to make and the constituents to please. Yet add in social media, 24-hour rolling news, and an upsurge in across-the-aisle breakdowns in civility, and the stress levels of the job are fast becoming intolerable.
A common good: the health of democracy may partly rest on the mental health and psychological wellbeing of our elected representatives, say experts. Image: Ming Jun Tan
As former Labour spin doctor, Alastair Campbell – himself the survivor of a stress-related mental breakdown – told listeners to his hit podcast The Rest is Politics: “If we’re not careful, the sense of the life of a politician is going to become so relentlessly negative that nobody in their right mind is going to want to be a politician. And that’s dangerous.”
Dangerous, why? Most obviously, for the wellbeing of the individuals concerned. Some (although not all) jump before they crash. New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern is one. The world’s youngest female head of government when she took office in 2017 aged just 37, she resigned early citing exhaustion. Her remark at the time was telling: “I know what this job requires …”
Same with Mhairi Black. When the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South was sworn in, aged 20, she was the youngest MP to be appointed since 1832. But Black quit the Commons at 29, and recently described the weekly travel back and forth to London and constant last-minute schedule shifts as “hellish”. The former Tory minister Rory Stewart recently recalled feeling briefly suicidal after a well-publicised gaffe as an MP.
If we’re not careful, the sense of the life of a politician is going to become so relentlessly negative that nobody in their right mind is going to want to be a politician
But, as the Mere Mortals report makes abundantly clear, mental ill-health also endangers democracy: either elected officials struggle to do the job as well as they might; or, equally worrying, good candidates opt to give politics a wide berth.
“The health of democracy may, to an extent, depend on the mental health and psychological wellbeing of those we elect to represent and take decisions on our behalf,” wrote Matthew Flinders and other contributors in the Governing under Pressure? The Mental Wellbeing of Politicians report in 2018.
Fortunately, some committed public servants still throw their hat in the ring. And, at least for the Apolitical Foundation’s research cohort of 100 or so politicians, most are “generally resilient” and “high functioning”, and thus get the job done – albeit “against all odds”.
Mhairi Black recently described aspects of her stint as an MP as ‘hellish’. Image: David Woolfall via Wikimedia Commons
So do today’s aspiring office holders just need to grow thick skin and ‘suck it up’? Or might it be possible to enter the lawmaker trade without signing away your mental wellbeing? With more than 50 elections worldwide this year, such questions are justifiably in the minds of thousands of political candidates and freshly elected legislators.
Fortunately, help his at hand. Not oodles of it, admittedly, but at least some. Mere Mortals, for example, flags examples of peer-to-peer support and mentoring through to life coaching and therapy.
Talking to fellow politicians can be especially effective, notes Kimberly MacArthur, chief operating officer at the Apolitical Foundation, given the empathy and “realistic, practical insights” they can offer.
The health of democracy may, to an extent, depend on the mental health and psychological wellbeing of those we elect to represent and take decisions on our behalf
Support within parliaments and political parties tends to be far patchier, however. A rare example of good practice comes from the UK, where the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group in Westminster offers mindfulness training for serving politicians and staff.
Tessa Watt, who currently runs the training, advises participants to just “take a minute or two” to feel their breath and generally “re-centre”. Parliamentarians can easily become “overwhelmed”, she notes, quickly losing sight of “what brought them into politics in the first place”.
But the burden of protecting parliamentarians’ mental health shouldn’t rest on their own shoulders alone. We, the wider body politic, also have a role to play. Most importantly, remember that politicians, just like us, are also mums, sons, friends, uncles (AKA “mere mortals”), says Kelly Dittmar, author of Rethinking Women’s Political Power.
“There’s often a perception that these people aren’t real people and have some kind of armour against public abuse,” she observes. “If we can humanise them, hopefully that will curb some of this treatment.”
Under scrutiny: journalists and publishers should approach political reporting from a constructive and solutions lens, say the authors of the Mere Mortals report. Image: Ross Sneddon
It’s an encouraging thought. Will it stop the angry man at No.54 firing off an offensive email to his local councillor? Might it persuade the grateful constituent to sit down and write a letter of thanks? Here’s to hoping.
The media has a role to play, too. The authors of the Mere Mortals report recommend that journalists and publishers approach political reporting and commentary from a constructive and solutions lens. “While holding politicians to account must remain a part of a free press, it’s important that politicians are able to change their mind, do their job and live without fear for themselves or family,” it reads. It mentions The Solutions Journalism Network and the Constructive Journalism Institute as good places to start for ideas on improving reporting culture.
For her part, Olson is in no doubt: politicians’ mental health is a “systemic and societal issue” that directly affects the level of politics we all enjoy. “Ultimately, it’s not enough just to say: ‘Oh, go and do some yoga,’” she says. Like voting and jury service, making politics endurable falls within the civic duty of each and every one of us – disruptive hackers, especially.
From surviving to thriving
We asked experts from around the world: What one piece of advice would you give to a new politician about safeguarding their mental health?
“Be absolutely clear with themselves and their diary managers what to say ‘no’ to.” – Matthew Salik, head of programmes at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
Image: Unsplash
“If they’re going through a difficult time, they should have a trusted person they can talk to.” – Jonathan Andrew, public affairs manager at Rethink Mental Illness
Image: Christina Morillo
“Snap out of doom-narratives to take a walk, to play, to help, to learn, and most importantly, to transcend the ego.” – Dr Victoria Hasson, founder of The Silent MP, a platform that promotes a ‘more humanised and authentic political society’
Image: Venus Major
“Make your family and friends aware of the likely demands on your time if you win.” – Dr Ashley Weinberg, senior lecturer in psychology at Salford University
Image: Ben Collins
“Prioritise forming alliances with colleagues from different parties to exchange support during challenging times.” – Jana Degrott, elected official and social entrepreneur as co-founder of We Belong Europe
Image: Chris Liverani
“Take the time to disconnect, smell the roses, and talk about ‘normal’ things with those you care about.” – Charishma Kaliyanda, member for Liverpool, government of New South Wales
Image: Unsplash
Main image: Deagreez / composite
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