A guide to coping with political anxiety in an era where the news reads like a fever dream
Therapists across America are reporting something unprecedented: people are initiating therapy specifically because of politics. Not a divorce. Not a job loss. Not a family crisis. Politics. According to a recent piece in Politico Magazine, clinics are holding staff meetings on the issue, psychological associations are running workshops, and some therapists are now specializing entirely in political anxiety. One therapist even lists “climate grief” as a professional area of expertise.
Let that sink in. We have created a world so chaotic that grief over the climate is a billable therapeutic specialty. Progress!
A 2025 American Psychological Association survey found that about two-thirds of Americans say politics is a significant source of stress in their lives. Two thirds. That’s not a fringe response — that’s basically everyone at your Thanksgiving table, silently vibrating with existential dread while passing the stuffing.
But don’t worry. We’re told to cope. To breathe. To “maintain a healthy media diet.”
Let’s talk about that.
The Menu That’s Making Everyone Sick
A “healthy media diet,” we’re advised, is not unlike a healthy food diet. Great analogy. Except right now, the menu exclusively offers items like:
- Daily Tariff Surprise — A rotating selection of import taxes slapped on goods from nearly every trading partner on Earth, driving up the price of everything from your washing machine to your groceries. The Trump administration’s tariff blitz didn’t just rattle Wall Street — it genuinely hurt growth, jobs, and consumer prices, according to an April 2026 analysis from the Center for American Progress. But sure, maybe just scroll less and you won’t notice your eggs cost $7. americanprogress.org
- The DOGE Special — A chaotic gutting of the federal workforce, courtesy of the Department of Government Efficiency, which cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs with the careful precision of a toddler with scissors. Veterans, scientists, food safety inspectors, air traffic controllers — all apparently optional. Sleep tight!
- Immigration Raid Roulette — Over 605,000 deportations and counting, with 1.9 million more people “self-deporting” — a charming euphemism for fleeing in fear. Entire communities are living in a state of terror, children are going to school not knowing if their parents will be home when they get back, and we’re the ones being told to do deep breathing exercises. whitehouse.gov
- The Healthcare Combo Platter — Slashing mental health funding while simultaneously being the reason mental health funding is needed. Truly a closed loop of cruelty. The KFF has been tracking the Trump administration’s rollbacks on mental health and substance use policies — and the list is long, detailed, and deeply unappetizing. kff.org
Optimism as a Strategy
The original article makes a genuinely thoughtful point: optimism isn’t just a mood, it’s a strategy. Focus on what can be done. Express dissent. Build networks. Notch incremental wins.
This is lovely advice and, in another timeline, quite sensible.
In this timeline, “incremental wins” include things like: a court temporarily blocking one of the dozens of executive orders being churned out faster than most people can read them. Or a city council passing a resolution that means absolutely nothing federally but feels emotionally important. We celebrate these now. We have to.
The Fulcrum reported on the emotional fallout from Trump’s first 100 days back in 2025 — anxiety, fear, and a particularly gut-wrenching theme: betrayal. Veterans who voted for change found their benefits agencies gutted by DOGE. Working-class families who wanted cheaper groceries got tariffs instead. People who were promised a return to normalcy got chaos delivered at a firehose pace, apparently by design. thefulcrum.us
Nothing triggers anxiety quite like realizing the chaos isn’t accidental.
So How Do You Cope?
Here’s the honest answer, stripped of therapeutic jargon:
You stay informed, but you set limits. The news cycle is engineered to be overwhelming — a new outrage every 48 hours keeps people exhausted and disengaged. Don’t let it. Pick your issues, follow them closely, and give yourself permission to not absorb every single thing.
You channel it. Anxiety is energy with nowhere to go. Donate, volunteer, show up, call your representatives, support local journalism, talk to your neighbors. The administration is counting on you feeling too small and too tired to matter. Prove that wrong.
You find your people. Political anxiety is a collective experience right now — two-thirds of Americans are right there with you. Isolation makes it worse. Community makes it survivable.
And you remember: this is not normal, and refusing to pretend it is, is itself a form of sanity.
The therapists are right that political anxiety is real and serious and deserves care. What they’re a little quieter about — understandably, given their professional lane — is that sometimes anxiety is the correct response to the situation. When policies are genuinely hurting people, when institutions are being dismantled in real time, when the news reads like a list of things that weren’t supposed to be possible — the anxious feeling you have isn’t a glitch in your brain chemistry.
It’s your brain working exactly as intended.
Cope well. Stay loud.
Inspired by “Political anxiety is rising. Here’s how to cope.” — ms.now, May 2026
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