Daily Beast: Mental Health Professionals Seeing Larger Number of Democrats Citing Burnout and Despair

Brett T. | 10:00 PM on February 10, 2025

This editor remembers writing a very similar piece after the election in 2016. For example, back then, there were stories about women hitting the salon, dying their hair black, and getting it cut short in reaction to Donald Trump's election win; this year, we had women shaving their heads. As recently as 2021, Salon spoke to several psychiatrists about the very real trauma caused by Trump's rhetoric. TDS turned out to be a real thing.

The Daily Beast is stepping up to the plate this time, writing about mental health experts seeing an increase in largely Democrat patients who cite burnout, as they can't keep up with the pace of Trump's winning.

Mental health experts are seeing an increase in patients, largely Democrats, citing burnout and despair in part to the energy required to keep up with Trump's rapid-fire policies.https://t.co/rUEiMsN6aC
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 10, 2025

Axios reports:

Mental health professionals say even people who don't see themselves as directly affected by administration actions are feeling frazzled by the dizzying pace and Trump's enduring ability to command attention.
…
"There is an element of chaos right now," said Andrea Bonior, a Georgetown University psychology professor who sees patients in the D.C. area. "A sense of not knowing what's coming and not being able to control what's coming is really hard on the stress response."
"As humans, we don't love uncertainty. It's something that we don't tend to tolerate well. And then when we're anxious, it's excruciating."
…
"I think we can take so much of something before the human brain just like peters out and says, 'I can't keep up,'" said New York-based neuropsychologist Sanam Hafeez told Axios.
Bonior said she's seen an uptick in patients, particularly Democrats, expressing a sense of burnout, guilt and despair at losing an old way of life.