Sunday 12 December 2004

PEST Sufferers

Seen on Transterrestrial Musings, a story about sufferers of Post Election Selection Trauma :
Fifteen John Kerry supporters met Thursday for a second group therapy session in South Florida, ranting at President Bush as they vented their
self-described "emotional helplessness" to mental health counselors.
Participants in the American Health Association-sponsored support session,
designed to treat what psychotherapists call Post Election Selection Trauma
(PEST), allowed the general press to cover them for the first time on
condition of anonymity.

"I haven't been able to sleep since the election," Sharon, a retiree from
Delray Beach, told the group. "There is no sense of fairness. There is
hypocrisy and a feeling of impotence. I feel hopeless, powerless."

"I feel like I live in a dictatorship," added an elderly woman from West
Palm Beach, making gagging sounds as she described the reasons people voted for Bush. "The election was rigged and it was rigged in a lot of ways. It's
scary."

"Bush is a moron!" shouted a gray-haired man from Boca during one of several lengthy verbal melees.

Although the support group shouted just as vehemently at the president as
last week, when the Boca Raton News reported on their first PEST meeting,
mental health counselors from the non-profit AHA said their patients were
making progress.
Of course here in Australia, we have a similar syndrome : Post Howard Angry Reaction Trauma - PHART. But we're a little more into self-help in Oz, there are Victim Support Groups for terminal cases which can often ease the stress of having to confront reality. Some professional publications work well to help the less disabled cope, though a final cure for this debilitating syndrome is still decades away.

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