An Emerging New Stress Syndrome & What You Can Do About It

In 2016 a woman I was seeing for psychotherapy after the tragic death of her child deviated from our conversation about trauma, loss, and healing to say she had to leave the room at home whenever Donald Trump came on the TV.  Watching and listening to him, she said, literally made her sick to her stomach.

I didn’t know much about Trump at the time (though seeing snatches of The Apprentice showing on TVs at the gym gave me an inkling about his nature), and I was surprised by the strength of my client’s reaction. I figured then that her response was triggered by her history of trauma, both of domestic violence years earlier and especially the traumatic death of her child.

Ten years later, I now recognize the woman, highly sensitive and intelligent, was prescient, and her reaction a harbinger of what has become a growing condition for Americans.

Partly, I have also come to this realization from my own experiences.

Earlier this year, especially as Trump initiated his war with Iran, threatening on Easter to obliterate that civilization of 6000 years while wreaking havoc on America’s economy and potentially risking a world war, I often woke with a sense of dread and heaviness.

“What has Trump said or done today?” I would ask my wife, who usually wakes before I do and checks the early morning news.  This spring, events deteriorated to the point that a good day was when Trump had made only one rather than multiple disturbing decisions or statements.

Throughout the day, a sense of despair and helplessness would often creep in as more news headlines popped up on my iPhone announcing more of Trump’s decisions and statements.

If the emotional issue was mine alone, I would be seeing a therapist myself instead of writing about it.

But it is not.

A Growing Problem

From all quarters of society—family, close friends, casual friends, other mental health professionals, Uber and taxi drivers, acquaintances, news reports—I hear a growing chorus of disturbing human emotional and behavioral reactions to the Trump presidency.  Even as I write this today, the woman who cut my hair brought up Trump and admitted, in words that echoed my therapy client from ten years ago, that seeing Trump on TV, “makes me want to barf.”

Reports of negative mental health reactions to Trump go far beyond my own direct experiences.   Other mental health professionals are also reporting a rise in clients suffering mental health symptoms and needing therapy because of reactions to Trump.

On the flip side, a significant (though diminishing) minority of Americans are quite happy–in a sign of how divided our country is–that Trump is president. Some good people even insist that Trump is the greatest president of all time, although historians and presidential scholars rate him as among the worst or even the worst president ever.

Mental Health Awareness

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and it is important to understand and take care of your own emotional and behavioral health.

If you are having negative emotional-behavioral reactions related to political and world news, it is important to know that

• You are not alone, and
• The problem is not you.

The negative effect of Trump on many people’s mental health was noted in his first term and the problem is intensifying in Trump Presidency 2.0.

The limited published literature has given this phenomena of Trump’s negative effects on mental health several names.  These include:

• “Trump Stress Effect” (TSE)
• “Trump Anxiety Disorder” (TAD)

We can also consider it as the “Trump-Induced Stress Syndrome” (TISS) (or even the “Presidential-Induced Stress Syndrome”—you can fill in the acronym for that one).

Although some individuals may attack this characterization and discredit people with symptoms as being “weak,” it is important to recognize people with such symptoms are experiencing understandable human reactions to chronic and toxic stress.

It’s also true that Americans have had negative emotional reactions to other past presidents of both parties, but no other president has elicited the strong, prevalent stress reactions the way Trump seems to.

Further, Americans are a highly stressed people to begin with (about 45% to 70% feeling significantly stressed on a regular basis). The stress people feel about Trump interacts and compounds with other stressors, such as work and family.

A Stress-Related Syndrome

As humans, we are strongly affected by our social environment, especially stress-related contexts.

Like other mental health concerns,  we can consider TISS  as a stress-related condition. It involves:

• common symptoms,
• Identifiable stress triggers,
• and most importantly, options on how you can cope.

Let’s consider these facets—symptoms, triggers, and coping–in that order.

The Trump-Induced Stress Symptoms

People who are negatively impacted by Trump often experience a range of emotional and behavioral symptoms.  These symptoms include:

• Anxiety and worry
• Trouble sleeping
• Depressed mood
• Lethargy
• Anger and irritability
• Physical symptoms (nausea, sick to stomach)
• Social distancing, distrust, and conflict (including with family and friends, and often around news and political events)
• Political mistrust, hostility, apathy
• Isolation
• Avoidance (e.g., of the news and current events), and its reverse:
• Obsession with news and social media reports about Trump

The severity of symptoms vary among people from mild to severe, causing varying levels of distress and dysfunction.  Each person has their own cluster of symptoms, and sometimes just one symptom may be most predominant.

Why? What are the Causes?

Three categories of causes drive these increasingly common mental health symptoms:

• Trump Behavior Triggers,
• Fallout from the Consequences of Trump’s Actions, and the
• Human Longing for a Positive Authority Figure.

Here’s more on each of these. Note that not all causes affect every person with Trump-Induced stress reactions.

 

The Trump Behavior Triggers

Experiencing emotional symptoms is often confusing as well as distressing.  This is especially true when we don’t understand why we feel the way we do.  This lack of clarity about the causes often leaves people feeling even worse, with a sense of being deficient, damaged, ill, or even, in the commonly-used lay term, “crazy.”

Many mental health symptoms arise in response to stressful environmental events.  Understanding the events that cause or trigger your feelings can lessen your distress and confusion.  It can even help to see “the problem” is not you per se, but a situation in the environment (though you still have the responsibility to deal with the situation and improve your well-being).

Many of the TISS mental health symptoms that people are experiencing  are in response to actions by Trump. Below is a list of frequent behaviors by Trump that can induce stress and mental health symptoms:

Unpredictable, impulsive behaviors that create a sense of chaos.  Examples of his actions here are plentiful but include his widely fluctuating and sometimes contradictory statements and decisions on critical policy issues, such as the rate of tariffs and his threats against Iran.  People (and businesses) do best with a sense of predictability and with planned, thoughtful changes.  The absence of it often leads to anxiety and worry.

Aggressive statements and attacks against others.  Numerous examples are available here, too, and they include his hostile name calling, such as “garbage,” “insane,” and “violent criminals” for immigrants, including individuals who have not committed any crimes and have been following legal immigration processes.  Trump has also shifted the DOJ from an autonomous justice department into a presidentially-directed unit for prosecuting those who, within their legal rights, have opposed him politically or personally.  He has regularly verbally attacked our neighbors and long-time allies, including Canada and Europe, while unleashing punitive trade tariffs and abandoning collaborative military projects. Even the Pope, after speaking for justice and peace, has been verbally attacked by Trump. Feeling vulnerable to aggressive attacks, even vicariously by observing what happens to others, can contribute to fear, depression, and anger among other symptoms.

Playing favorites and dehumanization. While many presidents have sought to represent and support all Americans, regardless of party affiliation or past voting, Trump focuses on his MAGA base while demeaning, neglecting, and attacking large subpopulations of Americans. Multiple federal actions have targeted entire populations of “Blue States.” He often calls Democrats as the “lunatic left” and American citizens exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly as “domestic terrorists.” Demeaning behaviors such as these can also lead to anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and anger.

Threats and bullying. Trump has used the power of the federal government to bully individuals and institutions to try to bend them to his personal will.  He has directed a number of lawsuits and threatened to withhold funding from law firms and organizations that don’t support him. He has taken similar actions against colleges and universities and media outlets that dare to promote free and independent thinking apart from his wishes. He has threatened to obliterate an entire civilization that has endured for over 6000 years. Such actions can create a social climate that leads to insecurity, anxiety, and worry.

Denying any personal responsibility and blaming others.  Trump is quick to blame others for unfavorable conditions and problems. His common explanation for any problem, such as continuing inflation, is “It’s Biden’s fault,” even for outcomes that are long past Biden’s influence and clearly the result of Trump’s own actions.

Lying and denying. Objective fact-checkers found more than 30,000 instances of Trump telling falsehoods and lies in his first presidential administration and this trend continues in his second presidency.  Trump not only lies but denies the truth.  He has called global climate change—a severe problem well-documented by a multitude of scientists—a giant “hoax.”  Similarly, he has called public concerns about affordability another “hoax” made up by Democrats.  Sadly, a climate of lies and denial can lead to confusion, anger, and also fuel misguided actions.

Gaslighting. Trump frequently engages in gaslighting the public, telling the public in early 2026 that inflation is greatly reduced and the economy is the strongest ever, statements that are at sharp odds with economic data and the experience of most Americans.  Perhaps worst of all, he said the January 6, 2021 attack that he incited on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the election certification of Joe Biden as the new president–an insurrection which left multiple dead and many more injured–as a peaceful protest and a day of love.  Gaslighting seeks to undermine people’s beliefs in the reality of their own perceptions while propping up a false picture of reality. Victims of gaslighting often experience confusion, profound self-doubt, and severe anxiety.

An absence of empathy and compassion. Trump has consistently acted without consideration for the needs of millions of Americans, including those needing low-cost health insurance, food assistance, housing programs, and health services.  Similarly, he terminated the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and stopped the delivery of life-saving food and health supplies even when they had already been purchased and were ready to deliver (the failure to do so wasted many supplies). These cuts have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, especially of children, due to the loss of vaccines, health services, and food.  During his first administration, he took some action (after initial denials and delays) to support the development of a COVID vaccine, but he also frequently dismissed the serious health effects of COVID, calling the disease that killed more than 1.2 million Americans “the sniffles.”  At times, his lack of empathy smacks of mean-spiritedness. For example,  after the death of Robert Mueller, a decorated war veteran and a former FBI director appointed by President Bush who had vastly improved America’s counterterrorism efforts, Trump said, “I’m glad he’s dead.”

Self-Serving, egocentric, grandiose focus. He is fond of saying, “I know more about ___ than anyone” on a wide variety of topics.  He even posted an image of himself a week after Easter as Jesus healing a sick man. Meanwhile, he is aggressively pursuing plans to renaming various federal buildings and areas after himself and to place his picture or name on other documents.  There are also many examples of his self-serving orientation in economic and financial areas too. Even while Trump has cut support for services to many Americans, such as health care subsidies and food assistance, his own wealth has grown substantially from his and his family actions, including deals with foreign countries who are seeking favorable policies with the United States.  Estimates of the increased wealth of Trump and his family in his second term range widely from $1.4 billion to $9.7 billion.

Sexual conduct.  Trump has been accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct and a jury found him liable for sexual abuse.  The Access Hollywood video recorded Trump bragging that as a star, he could do anything to women, including grabbing them by the vagina (Trump used a different word for that female body part).  Concerns about his extensive involvement with Jeffrey Epstein continue. The presence of an prominent, abusive figure can lead to retraumatization for survivors of abuse.

The overall effect of Trump’s behaviors is greater than the sum of the individual triggers.  That is, the combination of his various actions causes an overarching social climate for many that feels like toxic stress.  This toxic, stressful climate leads to depression, fear, worry, anger, and other emotional reactions.

Stress from the consequences of his decisions

Negative mental health symptoms result not only from Trump’s immediate actions but also from the consequences of his decisions.  For example:

Many Americans are feeling increasingly anxious about their finances.  These are realistic worries stemming from the rising prices from Trump’s tariffs and also because of his war against Iran.  At this writing, gas prices have risen 40% since the start of his war, and airline tickets have increased substantially.  Food and other goods are also expected to continue to increase substantially, some on a time-lagged basis, as the result of the rising costs of shipping and other petroleum products. People are also increasingly worried about affording health care, home and utility bills, and even obtaining food for their families, given cuts in these and other areas as part of Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” in addition to rising prices.

More people are also afraid about their safety and their loved ones.  Fears of a terrorist attack have increased after Trump’s Iran war.  A sense of America’s vulnerability has also increased as the Trump administration has redirected some of Homeland Security’s efforts away from protecting America from foreign terrorist attacks to chasing nonviolent immigrants and the FBI to prosecuting citizens and officials who opposed Trump’s January 6 insurrection actions.  Meanwhile, America’s military defenses, such as missiles, have diminished greatly as a result of Trump’s war in Iran.

A plethora of other damaging consequences to America. In addition to economic and security concerns, some Americans also feel stress, worry and depression about a number of other actions by Trump and his appointees and staff.  This long list includes his attacks on democracy, the escalating climate damage even as he has eliminated policies to fight global climate change, the violence perpetrated against immigrants and American citizens by ICE, the shredding of social safety net services, the anti-scientific approach to health care and other federal policies, the abandonment of longtime U.S. allies, and the continual disparity between rich and poor as Trump’s policies neglect average Americans while supporting  billionaires and the oligarchies they control over American industries.

 

The Human Longing for a Positive Authority Figure

Part of our mental health distress about Trump comes from the human longing for a positive leader and authority figure.

Beginning early in life during childhood, we wish for and blossom under good parents: authority figures who are caring, interested, accepting, loving, positive, who protect, support, guide, and nurture us. They are central figures in our social environment and psychological development. The presence of positive and healthy parents fosters our own mental health throughout life.

Unfortunately, the flip side of this dynamic is also potent.  The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study shows the clear, strong link between abusive, neglectful, unhealthy, and dysfunctional parents and our own health and mental health problems.

Our wish for healthy and positive authority figures extends beyond our childhood families. For example, our supervisors, managers, CEOs at work can have a major impact on our well-being as adults. Neglectful, hostile, demeaning leaders on the job contribute to burnout.

And though it is not a perfect analogy, just as we hope for and benefit from healthy and positive parents as children, so too we long for a president to be a positive leader.

George Washington was considered the father of our country. Most presidents since his time have also been perceived in a fatherly (or grandfatherly) role.  Presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were often admired for their fatherly caring, reassurance, optimism,  guidance, and ability to handle crises competently and calmly.

Trump falls far short of the ideal father-figure for millions of Americans.  He has demonstrated a tendency to attack others, to belittle and ridicule, to avoid responsibility and blame others, to disown and demonize large segments of the American public, to lie, to neglect the human and health needs of millions, to sow chaos, to put his own interests for more wealth and power and adulation above the needs of the common citizen. For many people, these actions are disturbing and make him less a positive father figure and more of a neglectful, erratic, and angry one.

Ways to Cope

During these difficult times it may feel like there is no hope, but each day offers new possibilities. And fortunately, there are multiple avenues for dealing with Trump-Induced Stress Symptoms.  These include personal, social, and political activities.

Personal

Sometimes we get overwhelmed by stress and negativity.  For TISS, like for other mental health conditions, it is important to engage in activities that support our own well-being, especially at times of stress.

Engage in self-care activities.  What things do you do that help you to reduce stress and renew your energy and sense of well-being?  Fortunately, many activities can help us to relax, reduce stress, and feel better.  Following your own personal wellness activities is most important, but if you need extra ideas, here are some common ones that work for many people:  exercise, spending time in nature, taking your dog for a long walk, listening to good music, reading an enjoyable book, taking a hot bath, treating yourself to a good meal, playing recreational sports.

Stay informed but limit your exposure to noxious information.  As citizens of a democracy, it is crucial we stay informed of social and political events, but too much time watching the news, scrolling social media posts, watching political videos, can overload us and cause more stress, worry, and depression.  Give yourself time away from  political news and social media posts.

Use evidence-based psychological stress-reduction practices on a regular basis.  Some of the best ones include meditation, mindfulness, deep breathing, and yoga.

Remember what is positive and good in your life.  With stress, anxiety, and depression, our window to the world can narrow to display only that which is negative.  It is important to remember what is right, good, and positive in general in life and in your life in particular.  An especially effective action for positive mental health is to engage in a gratitude practice.  There are many variations on these practices, but a simple place to start is to take five minutes each day to write down three things that you feel grateful for.

Seek professional support as needed. Mental health therapists can help guide you through emotional difficulties and stress reactions, especially when your symptoms are strong and persistent or do not abate with self-care.

Social

When feeling stressed and negative, many people tend to withdraw and isolate.  Avoid that impulse.  Instead, consciously plan to spend face-to-face time with other people—especially those whose company tends to make you laugh, feel supported or loved.

A challenge in the social area is when our social networks include avid MAGA supporters.  If open, thoughtful dialogue to share information is possible, do so. But be realistic about what you can achieve. Strong political opinions, especially those that are entrenched by emotions, disinformation, and prejudices, can be inflexible. If you begin the conversation with the goal of changing the other person’s mind in a single conversation rather than seeking to increase mutual understanding, you may end up feeling more stressed and aggravated than before.

If productive political conversations are not possible, see if there is still common ground for positive interactions that don’t involve politics or agree to leave political discussions off the table.  Also, avoid the human tendency to demonize those who hold opposing views.  Chances are that many of those MAGA supporters in your family and social networks are good people in many ways—even if you disagree strongly with their politics.

Political

At its roots, the cause of the TISS is political, given that Trump is president and his destructive actions continue to be enabled by most Republican Congressmen who have abdicated their responsibilities and failed to place congressional limits on his actions.  Alleviating this problem calls for social and political action.

There are a multitude of social and political actions that we can take to address the political problem.

A short list includes:

• Get involved in mass protest movements, like No Kings rallies.
• Write your Congressional representatives, specifying your concerns and asking them to hold Trump accountable to the Constitution, federal laws, and human decency.
• Share information and your opinions as you feel comfortable (e.g., private conversations with family and friends, social media posts).
• Help elect new representatives in 2026—through campaigning, donations, speaking with your friends, and simply voting (too often, staying home instead of voting gets the wrong candidate elected). Once elected, encourage your representatives to limit Trump’s excessive presidential power and change federal policy and practices.

Those and more actions can be beneficial.

The process for change may be slow and uphill but, to paraphrase the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, it bends toward justice and improvement.

And while it may take time and work, your own health and well-being—and that of the United States as a democracy—is worth the effort.

 

Lead photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash