RUTHFULLY YOURS

How is your mental health holding up after the re-election of Donald Trump this week? Do you need some ‘grief’ counselling? Did you take a day off work? How about a visit from an emotional-support duck, or some time to play with Lego? Believe it or not, these are all options being offered to grown adults at their places of work or study, to help cope with their supposed ‘post-election depression’.

In the aftermath of the election on Tuesday, the Guardian offered its staff extra counselling and support. In an email to employees, editor Katharine Viner said that the result was ‘upsetting’ and urged UK-based journalists to reach out and ‘offer your support’ to their US counterparts. ‘If you want to talk about it’, the email went on, ‘your manager and members of the leadership team are all available’.

The Collective – a ‘queer-owned’, ‘sustainable, vegan bulk refillery’ in Iowa – went further and shut up shop for the day after the election. This was to facilitate ‘a day of collective grief’, as explained in an Instagram post, ‘to protect our crew and to feel what needs to be felt’.

Universities across the US were also busy ‘feeling’ this week. Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania gave some students the day off. Classes were cancelled, cut short or made optional. Many exams and assignments were extended or rescheduled. At Harvard, the dean told freshman students over breakfast that they should ‘let [themselves] feel a bunch of emotions’.

Campuses have essentially been turned into huge, open-air therapy sessions. At Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington, DC, a ‘self-care suite’ was opened for students. This offered them Lego to play with, crayons for colouring and milk and cookies ‘in recognition of these stressful times’.

Princeton University took a similar approach, holding ‘listening circles’, where students could come together – either in-person or online – to process their post-election feelings in a ‘safe space’. And if that wasn’t enough, Princeton’s Environmental Activism Coalition also hosted an ‘Art Build’ event, where students could de-stress with a bit of colouring and arts and crafts.

The University of Puget Sound in Washington announced it would be holding an entire week of ‘self-care’ due to the election. This included a ‘walkable labyrinth’ with ‘calming lighting and music’ and the ability to ‘recharge’ your mental health in an arts-and-crafts corner. Of course, LGBT- and non-white-only ‘support spaces’ were also available.

Still, the most hilarious election response came from the University of Oregon. Students were told they could spend some time with Quacktavious, a therapy duck, as well as therapy goats and dogs, to help with their ‘anxiety’ caused by the election.

What is there to say, other than ‘get a grip’? If America’s liberal leftists struggle to get through an election that doesn’t go their way without recourse to an emotional-support duck, no wonder so many of their fellow Americans do not trust them to rule.