In the United States, therapists are seeing an influx of patients consumed by political news. A bipartisan phenomenon fueled by social media and polarization that also raises questions in Europe.
Hours of “doomscrolling” on social media, images of the Middle East under bombs, graphics predicting economic collapse, the title of a YouTube video: “NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE”. Politico describes a growing malaise in the United States: political anxiety.
The media describes the emergence of an unprecedented phenomenon, with more and more Americans crossing the threshold of a therapist’s office not for grief, a breakup, or burnout, but because political news is making them sick. “This is the first time we have seen people start therapy because of political anxiety,” says Veronica Calkins, clinical director of Pacific Mind Health in California, to Politico. The movement began, she says, after Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025.
While Democratic voters are affected, the phenomenon is not limited to one camp, and therapists also report an increasing influx of conservative patients. Adam Luke, a therapist in Tennessee, describes Republican voters who voted for Trump three times and are now “extremely frustrated” by their own party. One of his sexagenarian clients told him he had believed in the system for forty years but no longer believes in it at all. According to a survey by the American Psychological Association cited by Politico, 76% of Americans last year placed the future of their country at the top of their sources of stress, ahead of the economy or work.
Context: The rise of political anxiety among Americans is becoming a concern among mental health professionals.
The constant exposure to information is what fuels this political anxiety, in addition to polarization. Therapists interviewed by Politico identify a common trait among almost all of their politically distressed patients: compulsive consumption of current events. Jason Odegaard, a therapist practicing in seven American states, describes patients who leave CNN or Fox News on for twelve hours a day. His first prescription: turn off the television and limit news consumption to one hour per week. Doomscrolling, the habit of endlessly scrolling through a feed of bad news, works as an amplifier of anxiety.
The question arises as to whether this issue will also arise outside the United States. In France, the political climate in recent years combines several of the ingredients described by Politico: the 2027 presidential election already shaping public debate, recurring institutional tensions, a rise in extremism, and international conflicts saturating news feed. France is experiencing eco-anxiety and perhaps discovering, without yet naming it, “political anxiety.”
Fact Check: This article discusses the impact of political news consumption on mental health and highlights a rise in political anxiety in the United States, with potential implications for other countries like France.
Has modern politics become a constant source of psychological distress? Kevin Smith, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who leads workshops for therapists with Brett Ford, has no illusions. He believes the impact of politics on well-being will be challenging in 2026 and “likely worse in 2028” during the American presidential election.
