With symptoms including “increased worry, obsessive thought patterns, muscle tension and obsessive preoccupation with the news”, thousands of Americans are now suffering according to national surveys and interviews with mental health professionals.
Therapist Cynthia Baum-Baicker told Politico that one couple sought therapy partly because of the troubled state of US politics was causing strain in their marriage – including their love life.
“I remember the husband basically said, ‘If you ever want to be intimate again, you’ll turn the TV off in the bedroom. I can’t have that man present and listen to him and feel any sense of arousal,’” she said.
Life in Trump’s America
A survey by the American Psychiatric Association in May found that 39 per cent of people said their anxiety level had risen over the previous year, while 56 per cent said they were either “extremely anxious” or “somewhat anxious about “the impact of politics on daily life.”
It backs research from the first 100 days after Trump’s election in which nearly a quarter of people said their political views had damaged their personal relationships.
A psychotherapist in Washington D.C. says even Conservatives are hurting: “They feel they don’t have permission to share their real views, or they feel conflicted because they agree with things that the president is doing but they’re uncomfortable with his language and tactics.”
The irony is of course that psychological experts have been studying the President for signs of mental instability since he was elected two years ago.
Who would have thought? He’s the one driving us crazy.
