Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert says a significant portion of his clients are experiencing severe emotional reactions connected to former President Donald Trump, describing the phenomenon as increasingly common in his practice.
In an interview, Alpert said approximately 75% of the patients he sees express a deep hatred for Trump and show signs of being “hyper fixated” on him.
According to Alpert, many of these patients describe symptoms consistent with anxiety and stress:
- “They can’t sleep, they feel traumatized by Mr. Trump,” he said.
- One patient reportedly told him she couldn’t enjoy a vacation because seeing Trump on the news or on her phone left her feeling “triggered.”
Alpert characterized the trend as widespread and unusually intense.
“This is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far as to call it the defining pathology of our time,” he said.
Mental-health professionals have previously noted spikes in stress and anxiety surrounding contentious political figures and elections, but Alpert suggests the level of fixation he is seeing is unique in its scale and impact.
No independent data has been released to verify whether this trend is occurring broadly across the mental-health field.
