Things could get ugly. We’re sinking deeper into a recession, losing our jobs, our savings and our homes. This means we’re losing our looks too, because personal stylists, trainers and grooming appointments don’t come cheap.

The only ones said to be happy about all of this are the terrorists. Al-Qaeda (reportedly) gleefully toasts (with sparkling cider, of course) the stock market’s downward slide while endorsing John McCain for president.

Closer to home, Mervyns closing up shop and shuttering its stores in Monterey and Salinas means more unemployed folks in the county. And, a world away, there’s the very real, very tragic loss of lives and limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are scary times. Emotions– and anxiety– bounce and spin like one of those zero-gravity airplanes, the vomit comets.

Elections always bring out our hopes, as well as our fears. It’s as if we believe that voting in the right man– or woman– will not only give us the policies we agree with, but create the mythical “perfect’’ family.

“People are scared and they are angry and afraid of what is to come of our country and our planet and our families,” says Nancy Cahalan, a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in Monterey.

“People are really personalizing the political issues right now,” she continues, “and it’s almost never about politics. It ends up being about the fact that they are dealing with childhood issues or wounds, and the political climate triggers those old wounds.”

“I GO GET A CUP OF COFFEE IN THE MORNING, IN THE AFTERNOON AND AT NIGHT– AND I’M A SERIOUS, ONE-ONLY-CUP-OF-COFFEE-IN-THE-MORNING GUY. BUT, LIKE A BASEBALL PLAYER, I’M NOT GOING TO CHANGE MY SOCKS.” -Fred Keeley

But dealing with old wounds from childhood is difficult and not particularly fun. And the president of the United States does have considerable power when it comes to things like foreign and economic policy, health care and education, all of which can improve people’s lives (and probably won’t put any shrinks out of business). Then again, maybe we just need a strong man to swoop in and save the day– and the world? Maybe Barack Obama is our savior (because John McCain doesn’t look as good in a red cape and tights)?

Um, no, Cahalan says.

Although there are legitimate reasons for supporting the candidate of your choice, thinking of their election as a personal panacea is misguided.

“That is giving a human being way too much power,” Cahalan says. “If I thought for a second that our whole world was depending on McCain or Obama, I’d go batty. A lot of people are putting all of their hopes and dreams onto these candidates. You’ve got to get yourself a bigger belief system.”

We could turn to prayers– or the polls. The former are unreliable, however, and the latter don’t provide much clarity.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows McCain and Obama in a virtual dead heat among likely voters, with Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey puts Obama up by 11 points. While other recent polls– like the Big Ten Battleground Poll, which shows Obama with double-digit leads over McCain in eight crucial Midwest states– do position Obama as a front-runner, any number of variables could kill his lead by Nov. 4, including the Bradley effect (in which people vote their prejudices, no matter what they tell pollsters). And there’s always election fraud, bin Laden, Joe the Plumber, some other October surprise and Pennsylvania or Ohio (pick whichever state you prefer).

“Truth be told, I can imagine a losing scenario that doesn’t involve outside events,” blogs The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber, an Obama supporter. “It goes something like this: Obama wins all the Kerry states plus Iowa and New Mexico, giving him 264 electoral votes, then narrowly loses the rest of the red states where he’s currently competitive.”

It’s these worries, Scheiber says, that keep him awake at night.

Former Central Coast Assemblyman Fred Keeley, on the other hand, says he’s having no trouble sleeping.

“I’ve been an Obama supporter literally from the announcement in Springfield,” says the Santa Cruz County treasurer, who is a surrogate speaker for the Obama camp.

Keeley’s been drinking the Kool-Aid.

“I would characterize my feelings about this election as more excited and optimistic than I have ever been for any election in my entire life– including my own elections,” he says. “The Democrats have a truly transformational candidate at the top of the ticket in Barack Obama in the same way the Republicans did in Ronald Reagan a generation ago and how, at least in a legacy sense, the Kennedys did a generation before that and FDR a generation before that.”

Still, Keeley concedes, “anything can happen in any stage in a campaign, and 2008 is a year in which the only certainty is the certainty that something completely unexpected will happen next.”

On Nov. 4, Keeley will perform his Election Day ritual. “I always want to be in Santa Cruz. I always want to make sure I go get a cup of coffee at a local, non-chain coffee shop in the morning, in the afternoon and at night– and I’m a serious, one-only-cup-of-coffee-in-the-morning guy. But, like a baseball player, I’m not going to change my socks.”

If Keeley were running for office, he’d spend much of Election Night convincing himself he wasn’t winning, regardless of what the votes say.

“I argue with the results as they come in and show that I’m winning,” he says. “My advisers will say things like, ‘Look, we’ve got 60 percent of the vote in, and of the 40 percent that’s out, your opponent would need to win 70-30– and that’s not going to happen, so you should feel free to declare victory now.’ I say, ‘No, I really can’t do that.’ I become completely irrational about what the results mean. It’s probably some deep-seated personal insecurity.”

“ANOTHER TIME, THE PERSON SHOUTED THROUGH THE DOOR: ‘I DON’T VOTE– I’M AN INSOMNIAC!’” -John Laird

May we suggest some therapists? The neurosis is bipartisan, apparently.

Political consultant Brian Higgins, a Republican who owns Red Ladder Consulting, say his anxiety kicks in 45 days before the election. This season, he’s managing campaigns for judicial hopeful Todd Hornik and Monterey City Council candidate Ralph Widmar.

“I wake up early, before the newspapers are delivered– right now I’m getting up at 4, 4:30,” he says. “Your brain starts reading into everything, you read every single word, you spin everything the worst possible way. You put such importance on every spoken word on TV, and every written word in the paper.”

Higgins says the best way to deal with stress is to keep busy. “If I’m up at 2 in the morning or 4:30 in the morning, I’ll go for a walk, plan a campaign task that needs to be done.”

Termed-out Central Coast Assemblyman John Laird, a Democrat, says when he was in a horse race, he tried to use his nervous energy for good, like canvassing neighborhoods– but not at 4 in the morning.

“Yeah, that’s the trouble. You have to be very politic about when you go,” he says, adding that he’s having “weird withdrawal because this is one of the first Novembers I can recall that my name isn’t on the ballot and I feel I should be walking precincts.”

But sometimes even the time of day doesn’t ensure that doorbell ringing will go smoothly.

“One time a nudist asked me if a parade of nudists would help me,” Laird remembers. “I said, ‘Only if you’re carrying signs for my opponent.’

“On other days I’d walk on 49ers game days, and I’d ask how the 49ers are doing. One man said, ‘It’s the last 30 seconds of the game. I’m not going to vote for you, but you can come in and watch.

“One of my favorite ones: In a driveway this guy was cleaning a fish. I start talking to him and his phone rings inside his house. He says, ‘Would you mind getting that for me?’ The next thing I know I’m saying, ‘Well, she can come over around 6 o’clock, does she need to bring anything?’

“PEOPLE ARE SCARED AND THEY ARE ANGRY AND AFRAID OF WHAT IS TO COME OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR PLANET AND OUR FAMILIES.” -Nancy Cahalan

“Another time, the person shouted through the door: ‘I don’t vote– I’m an insomniac!’”

Meanwhile, the rest of us lose sleep over the historic election on Nov. 4. Some of us lose friends and alienate family members, too. How do Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver do it?

“The difference of opinions between family members– that’s where you get a lot of anxiety, where one partner believes this and the other partner believes that,” says Judy Masliyah, a Monterey-based licensed marriage and family therapist, adding that this is why across-the-aisle marriages become increasingly difficult as we careen towards Election Day.

“It represents a different value system, and when it hits you that you’re living with someone who has a completely different value system, that may cause anxiety.”

Cahalan offers tips on dealing with anxiety, election-related and otherwise.

“Having your support system in place is key,” she says. “Have safe people with whom you can sit down with and process your feelings and your thoughts. Giving and receiving love and support during this time is the most important thing, to feel loved and to be there for someone.”

Or take a hike. Literally.

“Just get out and appreciate this beautiful place where we live,” she says. “Garland Ranch. Sobranes. I can’t think of a better way to deal with anxiety. Not sitting in a bar and having tequila shots.”

Although, come Election Night, tequila shots may not be such a bad idea.