Therapists say people need to talk about Trump with an urgency unseen since 9/11

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published 24 February 2017

President Trump is boosting business for at least one U.S. industry: mental health care. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that therapists across the nation have been inundated with patients wanting to talk about the president, to the point that therapists claim no one topic has been so frequently discussed in their offices since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Patients as young as 10 years old have talked about Trump, and patients seeing therapists for "issues as seemingly unrelated as relationship troubles or eating disorders" have brought up the man in the Oval Office, the Los Angeles Times reported. Patients reportedly complain about insomnia, severe anxiety, and even panic attacks — and it's not just Trump dissenters coming in to talk:

Some patients who support Trump say they feel isolated because they can't share who they voted for in their workplace or home for fear of being harassed or called xenophobic or misogynistic. With few people to talk to freely, they turn to online forums and their therapists.Opening up about voting for Trump has already stoked conflict with family and friends. One therapist mediated a case in which an adult son threatened to cut off his relationship with his parents because they voted for Trump. [Los Angeles Times]

The Trump trend presents a unique challenge to therapists, many of whom have been trained to not disclose their own beliefs to patients. Some are trying to maintain that neutrality, and other therapists have decided to sympathize with patients who don't support the president. "If this were just another session, if this weren't such a big thing, if this weren't so evil, I wouldn't," said Arlene Drake, a therapist in West Los Angeles. "But I have to stand for what I stand for and that does cross over into politics."