The United States is preparing for another four years of President Trump as its leader.
Just the thought of the political future has disturbed some people since they filled out their ballot, whereas others are realizing how scary America may become. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one way that Americans’ mental health can be impacted by the election and the polarization that comes with it. This election has amplified stress and uncertainty, causing mental health to be in the forefront.
The American Psychological Association’s (APA) recent Stress in America 2024 poll identified that 77% of adults report that the future of the nation is a consequential source of stress in their lives. The report also found that the U.S. election is a significant source of stress for 69% of adults. Additionally, the APA shared in May of this year that 73% of people were anxious about the election.
The economy is a significant source of stress in both polls, 73% in the recent Stress in America and 77% in the earlier poll.
The APA’s polls demonstrate that stress of adults has been consistent over the past few months in relation to the election. This stressor has also been reoccurring the past few elections. From four years ago, the Stress in America 2020 reports that 68% of adults found the election to be a prominent factor impacting their mental wellbeing.
Then eight years ago, APA’s Journal of Counseling Psychology shared an article, Postelection Stress: Symptoms, Relationships, and Counseling Service Utilization that the 2016 election “brought increased anxiety, relationship conflict, and counseling utilization for many Americans.”
Research shows there is a connection between mental health and politics — specifically the election — according to Dr. Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University, researcher and writer who has published his research in many journals such as the Cambridge University Press.
”Politics and the election seems to be taking a toll on Americans’ overall health, including physical and mental health,” said Panagopoulos.
“The way that people react to election outcomes like the 2020 election feels to them very much like what PTSD is reported to feel like by people who experience it, so much so that in one study, we actually develop a measure of election induced or election related PTSD,” Panagopoulos said about one of his studies.
Therapists today see a wide range of emotions from their clients, ranging from anger to sadness. Tasha Archibald, a licensed professional counselor, said that within the last few months, a lot of her clients have come into their sessions with heightened anxiety and conflicts with their family members in regards to the election cycle.
“The conflict it has caused, within your own families has been a lot and even in the workplace,” Archibald said about her clients’ response to Trump becoming President.
Asaisa Richardson, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) therapist, said that before the election she had several clients who were expressing feelings of anxiety, stress, and worry about the election outcome. And post election, almost all of her clients have shared what she calls their “big feelings” such as helplessness, hopelessness and disappointment in terms of the impact of their future.
Richardson said that although every client is different, there is a consistent pattern of frustration and grief seen in her clients, who are all a part of marginalized communities.
“Majority of my clients are BIPOC, and then some of my clients are BIPOC and or queer or trans, or maybe they’re white, but they’re queer or trans,” Richardson said.
Trump’s election win and subsequent inauguration have caused uproar not only in therapy sessions but all over, such as women who are scared for their abortion rights, the LGTBQ+ community worried for their livelihood and people who fear being under the leadership of Trump. Organizations associated with these worrisome groups have made statements sharing their concerns.
Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johson, said in a statement: “Every day we live under Trump’s abortion bans, more people will suffer and die.”
The Trevor Project’s CEO, Jaymes Black, has also issued a statement::Trevor will always be here to support you, to listen, and to offer you the care you deserve.”
The Trevor Project has also shared in a news release that their organization has seen a 200% increase in conversations in relation to the election. The report also states: “90% of LGBTQ+ young people said recent politics negatively impacted their well-being.”
Outside of these groups are people like Sahil Singhvi, a 28-year-old public defender in the Bronx who has been scared for the type of America that has yet to unfold since before the election results — and now again while thinking back to the first time Trump was in office.
“I remember being really scared in 2016, I remember the specific fear of identity based discrimination and violence,” Sighvi said. “I am a brown guy with a beard, I was worried about violence on a genuine everyday basis.”
Singvhi describes Trump’s presidency as a time of “emboldening of white supremacy and the rise of facism.”
Before the election, Singvhi said that it was not just Trump who impacted his mental health. He brought up former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. He felt that she was leaning right in her politics.
“I found myself really troubled and disturbed by the appeals to the moderate Republicans,” Singvi said. “Like to get Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney on side as key surrogates of the campaign.”
Sighvi reflected on his difficult experiences growing up: “I grew up largely in the wake of 9/11 and I remember from my childhood, this feeling of fear and alienation, in large part driven by the xenophobia that came out of the war on terror that Dick Cheney was the chief architect of.”
He shared that the fear and alienation he felt at his younger age began to resurface when Cheney became associated with the Harris campaign, on top of the climate of Gaza and Palestine, all of which made him feel anxious and lose sleep.
When it came around the time to vote, Singhvi said that he felt abandoned by Democrats and ended up writing at the top of his ballot the name of Yasser Arafat, a deceased former leader of Palestine, rather than voting for Harris or Trump because of the emotional distress they caused him.
To help release these heavy emotions of hopelessness during the election cycle, Singhvi saw his therapist and exercised.
“Having conversations about empathy and love and vulnerability, and how hard it is to be vulnerable has been one of the things that’s allowed me to feel this feeling of hope and resilience,” Singhvi said.
Republicans struggled with election-related anxiety as well. Michael Bartels, the advisory chairman of the New York Young Republican Club, said that a consistent response he is seeing in the organization post election is relief.
“I don’t just mean relief because we won, I mean relief because being in an election season is sort of tiresome,” Bartels said.
Bartels continued that there is relief in having “an administration that is willing to tackle some of the tougher issues in our country.”
The election is through and the worries of not doing “enough” have diminished, Bartels added. Leading up to the election, the stress people in the New York Young Republican Club felt led them to being “snappy and angsty” as they weren’t getting enough sleep, Bartels said.
The members did find comfort in one another and supported each other through the duration of the election cycle, Bartels said.
Archibald emphasized the overall importance of support for those encountering such anxieties to have.
“Someone that they can express how they are feeling in a safe environment, which can help remove them from tense, anxiety provoking environments,” said Archibald.
