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Writer's pictureDawn Helmrich
Nov 112 min read

Waking up to the Election Nightmare; Thinking About What the Future Holds

Updated: Nov 11

Text with headshot of Dawn Helmrich. Headline: "Shining Light on Shadows: My Son’s Struggle With Social Anxiety and the Difficulty of Getting Help" Text: "One day, my son told me, the world was not set up for kids like him. Kids that have social anxiety."

I went to bed on November 5, 2024 with a nervous pit in my stomach. It was almost midnight, but I knew I had to work the next day. Everyone said don’t worry, things were going to be fine. I didn’t feel good about where we were at, but I still held out hope that something drastic would happen and MY state, the good ole state of Wisconsin would pull out a blue state for Kamala.

I woke up to the nightmare. I woke up and asked my husband about the results and he broke the news to me. I woke up to a SnapChat from my 23-year-old daughter in her car on her way to teach her 4 year old special-ed students with a caption that simply read “I can’t even.” I woke up to my 22-year-old son ranting on his SnapChat story about how doomed we are with his caption being, “RIP America”. I woke up thinking about my 3-year-old niece and my 6-year-old nephew and what the future holds for them.


 

We are creating space for people to share their reactions to the election results on the next episode of “Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health” Thursday, November 14 at 6pm CT / 7pm ET. Neil Parekh is my co-host. Shawna Vercher will be our guest.


You can watch the live show or the recording on Facebook, Twitter*, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram* or Neil's website.


*We won't know the exact urls for Twitter and Instagram until we go live. These links go to Neil's Twitter and my Instagram.

 

I cried. I cried a little more and I went to work. I felt like a zombie all day. I wasn’t present most of the day. I caught myself staring into space and texting my husband mostly. He was in a bad place all day too. My heart was heavy and my head was sad. I thought about how to get around this, to get out of this, to make this go away. I realized after a while that this is the reality and that nothing is going to change the outcome of this story. I know in a few months things are going to get really scary and I am trying to figure out how to cope with that.

My husband and I did some karaoke, because music helps us most. We sang songs about peace and love and hope. My husband said something in a Facebook post that helped me a lot. He said hug your loved ones tighter. Cherish the short time we have here. We’re not promised tomorrow now more than ever. We fight this with love. So let’s fight this with LOVE.



Title Card for Show. Text and headshots of the co-hosts and guest. Headline: "Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health" Copy: "Ep. 7 Kate Easton Parenting a Child with Mental Health Challenges Thurs., May 9 7pm ET / 6pm CT / 4pm PT"


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