“Our cognitive therapists can work with you on how to manage stress and mental health concerns linked to current events,” it read. For anyone who had just spent three hours doomscrolling through a feed of failed assassination attempts and political chaos, the offer felt less like marketing and more like a lifeline.
Such ads are proliferating across the internet, and they appear to be reaching an audience that is growing rapidly. American politics has been declared broken for years. But something has shifted. More people are not only depressed or anxious about the state of the world; they are now seeking professional help for it. And therapists are increasingly ready to provide it.
Mental health professionals across the country say they are seeing an influx of patients distraught over the news coming out of Washington and beyond. Veronica Calkins, a clinical director at Pacific Mind Health in California, said this is the first time she has observed people initiating therapy specifically because of political anxiety. She noted that the surge began after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, with liberal patients expressing fear about what lay ahead. But other therapists report that conservatives, too, are walking through their doors more frequently, suggesting that political despair is a bipartisan affliction.
Melissa Tihinen, a therapist at Downtown Psychological Services in New York, said the vast majority of her clients are affected by politics in some way. “And that’s more true today than it ever has been in the past,” she added. The trend is not merely anecdotal. A survey last year from the American Psychological Association found that 65 percent of Americans said politics was a significant source of stress in their lives. The leading cause of stress, cited by 76 percent of respondents, was concern about the future of the nation, surpassing worries about the economy, work or money.
A New Specialty Emerges
Therapists say such figures have been high for years, but it is a recent phenomenon for that distress to actually drive clients into their offices. The shift appears to be fueled by two forces: the destigmatization of mental health care and a growing sense that some people are reaching a breaking point. As a result, mental health professionals are adapting to the demand, and some have begun to specialize in treating political anxiety specifically.
The condition presents itself in predictable ways. Patients describe chest tightness, pounding headaches and a pervasive sense of dread that follows them from their screens into their daily lives. For many, the cycle of doomscrolling through social media feeds filled with alarming headlines becomes a compulsion that deepens the very anxiety they are trying to manage. Therapists now work with clients on strategies to regain control, setting boundaries around news consumption and distinguishing between productive engagement with current events and paralyzing fear.
The rise of political anxiety as a clinical concern reflects a broader recognition that the health of the body politic and the health of the individual mind are no longer separable. As one therapist put it, the problem is not that people care too much. It is that the constant churn of crisis, amplified by algorithms and cable news, has made caring feel unsustainable. For an increasing number of Americans, the first step toward reclaiming a sense of stability is not changing the channel. It is picking up the phone and calling a therapist.
