A New York City psychotherapist told Fox News this weekend that he is seeing a surge in Trump-related anxiety among his patients.
Jonathan Alpert, speaking on the network’s “Sunday Briefing” with anchor Peter Doocy, emphasized that so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome”—a partisan insult often used by Republicans against critics of former President Donald Trump—is not a recognized medical diagnosis.
Still, Alpert said the emotional impact on patients is real and concerning. “We see great division in families and friendships broken up over how someone may feel about Trump,” he said. Last week, he wrote in The Wall Street Journal that while no therapist would label someone with a partisan diagnosis, he has observed it in practice.
Alpert described symptoms among patients that mirror other mental health disorders. “People are highly anxious, they’re angry. They can’t sleep. One person even said she couldn’t possibly enjoy a family vacation as long as Trump is out there. These are hallmark features of any disorder that I treat every day, and we should really be concerned about this,” he said.
He called the phenomenon “a mental health epidemic” and “in some ways the defining pathology of the past decade.”
To help patients overwhelmed by Trump-related stress, Alpert said he works to separate fact from fiction and challenges unverified or distorted thoughts.
“Some patients, within 30 seconds, will talk about Trump and that dominates the session. Others come in anxious and depressed, and we find it’s because they’re hyperfocused on Trump. Trump dominates probably three-quarters of the sessions I see,” he revealed.
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