U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies and policy proposals have proven incendiary, affecting many people on a very real, practical level and forcing them to readjust. As it turns out, the policies are having effects on Americans’ mental health as well.
Therapists across the country have documented a rise in politically driven anxiety, a new report from CBC News explains. The D.C. Counseling and Psychotherapy Center’s founder Elisabeth LaMotte said that it manifested in one of her recent patients posing the rhetorical question, speaking of Trump:
‘Is he gonna blow us all up?’
Oklahoma Christian counselor Kevon Owen added that some of his clients are similarly distressed about the possibility of war.
In addition, Illinois clinical psychologist Jennifer Panning explained that at least one of her married lesbian patients has been left “significantly concerned about the legitimacy of their marriage in the future,” and Mississippi therapist John Hawkins shared that some of his patients have expressed similar concerns.
All of these fears are united by a common tie to reality. Trump has really driven the nation closer to major war than it was in the past, and at the same time, he has also led a “religious freedom” driven assault on personal rights. For any LGBT person in the United States, moves like the Trump administration attempt to ban transgender people from serving in the military are not reassuring. In 2006, current Vice President Mike Pence said “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family” — meaning the acceptance of LGBT people, their marriages, and families.
Compounded, thanks to all of these issues, the American Psychological Association documented a five percent increase in politically motivated anxiety during a six month period including the 2016 U.S. presidential election, while overall stress levels hit their highest documented point in ten years.
Democrats have a significantly higher chance of experiencing increased anxiety thanks to the current political climate, also according to the APA. After the 2016 election, 72 percent of polled Democrats cited the political climate as a source of anxiety, while only about 26 percent of Republicans did so.
Some Trump supporters, including administration officials, have felt the pressure associated with backing such a widely disliked leader. D.C. therapist Steve Stosny shared that a Trump administration official who has since left his position came to him at one point recently, concerned over the stress his job had on his family. Although he quit, the individual and their wife “began divorce proceedings,” according to Stosny.
Panning, the previously mentioned Illinois clinical psychologist, noted that “intense consumption of media coverage of this presidency is making some people’s Trump-related anxiety worse,” CBC reports.
Trump himself drives much of that coverage, of course, through such means as his recent late night all caps Twitter threat to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
He continues on down that same path of antagonizing the world and interests at home as time goes on, willfully ignorant at times of the consequences of his actions. In that light, a convenient way to address the growing U.S. anxiety — termed “Trump Anxiety Disorder” by some — would be to vote Trump out of office come 2020.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
