America’s Nervous System Is Fried

This post was co-authored by Dr. Shireen Rizvi and Dr. Jesse Finkelstein.

Every day, we’re told we live in “unprecedented times.” The headlines are relentless: political turmoil, wars, climate emergencies, AI fears, scandal after scandal. These problems are usually framed as ideological battles – left versus right, red versus blue – leaving many people feeling hopeless or paralyzed.

But polarization is not only ideological; it’s psychological. A society stuck in chronic fight-or-flight can’t think clearly enough to bridge its divides. The more reactive we become, the harder it is to see one another as human. What we call “polarization” may actually be a national problem of emotional regulation .

Strategies from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can help us radically accept polari