Psychotherapist Confirms TDS is REAL and Exploding — Patients Can’t Sleep, Travel, or Function Normally Because They’re “Triggered” by Trump
Credit: itvx
A Manhattan psychotherapist is raising concerns about what he describes as a growing pattern of political obsession affecting the mental health of many Americans: an intense fixation on President Donald Trump.
In an interview on The Faulkner Focus, Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist practicing in New York and Washington who also writes for The Wall Street Journal, said that about three-quarters of his patients display symptoms consistent with what he calls “obsessive political preoccupation.” According to Alpert, these patients often exhibit a level of emotional distress that goes beyond normal political engagement.
“Within five minutes of a session, many patients launch into discussions about President Trump—not about policy or debate, but purely emotional reactions,” Alpert told host Harris Faulkner.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Psychotherapists are now seeing the effects of Trump DERANGEMENT Syndrome in their patients
“I had one patient who couldn’t enjoy vacation because she saw Trump on her device or news, and felt triggered.”
Omg…
“Some of the features of this ‘disorder’: They… pic.twitter.com/hX2GWZhajq
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 14, 2025
Alpert described common symptoms he sees: sleeplessness, anxiety, restlessness, and an inability to enjoy everyday activities. One patient, he noted, said she couldn’t enjoy a family vacation because news about the president would trigger intense emotional reactions. “This is a profound pathology,” Alpert said. “It could be described as the defining mental-health challenge of our time.”
He explained that while patients may initially seek therapy for anxiety, depression, or other conditions, he often identifies their distress as tied to a hyper-focus on the president. “To be that fixated on a person, on a political figure, is simply not healthy,” Alpert said.
In his op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Alpert reframed the phenomenon as a clinical pattern similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder, calling it an “obsessive-compulsive spectrum presentation” in which a political figure becomes the focus of intrusive thoughts, heightened arousal, and compulsive monitoring. Patients, he wrote, experience persistent thoughts about the president, compulsively check news coverage, and struggle to maintain normal daily functioning.
“While no mental-health professional would label this ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’ the symptoms I see in my practice reflect distress that is real, clinical, and cross-ideological,” Alpert wrote. “What once looked like outrage now presents as fixation that distorts perception and consumes attention.”
The issue has drawn attention from political commentators as well. On The National Desk, Daily Signal senior editor Tyler O’Neil described the pattern as a “neurotic obsession” affecting political discourse, noting that repeated extreme comparisons to historical figures have intensified anxiety. He also argued that some political actors have leveraged this focus strategically, with policy and party priorities framed more around opposition to the president than other national issues.
Alpert’s observations highlight the intersection of politics and mental health in a highly polarized environment, suggesting that extreme political fixation can have tangible psychological consequences for a significant portion of the population.
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