Some US therapists are now claiming that their patients are suffering from Trump-related anxiety, over the President’s policies and even his tweets. Some therapists have even alleged that Trump-related anxiety does not only affect liberals, but also conservatives, in recent interviews.
This, after Republican Senator Rand Paul cited “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as the reason for the constant deluge of negative news about President Trump in the media. The Kentucky politician said that such news is “all about partisan politics now. This is truly the Trump derangement syndrome that motivates all of this.”
The term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” caught the fancy of the President himself who used the term in a tweet the very next day:
Some people HATE the fact that I got along well with President Putin of Russia. They would rather go to war than see this. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018
Despite the fact that Sen. Rand Paul used “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to refer to “partisan” news organisations, some news publications have indicated that the condition may be real and may be afflicting real therapy clients.
In just 10 days since Trump’s tweet, the Daily Mail and CBC News have dubbed the supposed Trump-related malady allegedly affecting patients as “Trump Anxiety Disorder”. Canada’s CBC News reported:
“In a 2017 essay for a book co-edited by psychiatrists from Harvard Medical School and the Yale School of Medicine, clinical psychologist Jennifer Panning of Evanston, Ill., called the condition “Trump Anxiety Disorder,” distinguishing it from a generalized anxiety disorder because “symptoms were specific to the election of Trump and the resultant unpredictable sociopolitical climate.”
“Though not an official diagnosis, the symptoms include feeling a loss of control and helplessness, and fretting about what’s happening in the country and spending excessive time on social media, she said.”
Asserting that the “Disorder” also extends to Trump supporters, CBC News further claimed:
“Some Trump supporters also report feeling more stressed, confiding to therapists that uncivil discourse and attacks on the president were causing them anxiety.
“Washington therapist Steve Stosny recounted how an official with the Trump administration came to see him not long ago. At work, the official explained, he felt anxious about his high-pressure job in a highly scrutinized White House. At home, he faced a more personal turmoil: his liberal-leaning family grew to resent him for working for Trump.
“”His daughter was starting to hate him,” Stosny said. “It was very hard on his spouse, too. The wife couldn’t take it anymore. It’s tough when one spouse is at war with the children.””
UK publication The Daily Mail further quoted therapists who claim that their patients feel that their President may trigger the end of the world:
“Therapists across the United States say that ever since president Donald Trump took office patients have been experiencing more anxiety – and it’s affecting both Trump critics and supporters.
“Several therapists spoke to Canada’s CBC News saying that many of their patients have a fear about the country’s future and if Trump will ‘blow us all up.’
“”There is a fear of the world ending,” DC therapist Elisabeth LaMotte said. “It’s very disorienting and constantly unsettling.””