OPINION: How will the election results affect mental health?

Photo via: Official White House photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Alaina Sayre, a freshman studying Journalism, discusses the impact that Donald Trump’s reelection might have on mental health.

At a rally, President-elect Donald Trump stated that the best way to fight depression is to “work your ass off.” While therapists around the world shake their heads in disappointment, crowds cheered for the sentiment. 

In 2024, the American Psychological Association reported that 77% of adults stated that a significant source of their stress was the future of America. Additionally, more than 70% of adults were anxious that this election would lead to violence. 

The 2024 Election quickly became a heavy source of stress for voters, but what does the future of mental health look like now that Trump has been elected?

For LGBTQ+ people, there is significant evidence to support that a Trump administration would worsen mental health. Studies have shown that extreme mental distress increased among LGBTQ+ people during Trump’s first campaign and presidency. 

During Trump’s first presidency, he revoked transgender people’s right to join the military. He announced this by tweeting that after discussing with military experts and generals, the U.S. would no longer allow transgender people to serve. In reality, the Pentagon had no idea Trump would announce this, and many military leaders confessed they never recommended this change. 

The exception was made for transgender people with an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria who were already serving, but, in all other cases, they are banned from the military. If transgender people want to enlist, they have to serve as the gender they were assigned at birth. President Joe Biden lifted this ban, but it is widely speculated that this ban will return under another Trump administration. 

Not only that, but Trump eliminated Title IX protections for transgender students. This essentially revokes transgender students' right to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. The decision left it up to state and local governments to decide if they felt it appropriate. President Biden added new provisions on Title IX that prohibited states from banning transgender students from using their correct bathrooms, but it is likely that this will be reversed yet again as soon as Trump is able to. 

Trump, his team and his nominees for the Supreme Court have already threatened to revoke even more rights from the LGBTQ+ community. Some examples include overturning Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark Supreme Court case that nullified sodomy laws, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed gay people’s right to marriage throughout the country. 

Through Project 2025, conservatives have guaranteed that they will do everything in their power to disenfranchise women and minority groups, including the LGBTQ+ community. Although Trump claims to not know anything about Project 2025, many people he has put on his team and will serve on his administration took part in writing it. In fact, according to a review done by CNN, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025.

In Project 2025, conservatives used the baseless argument that children in families outside of heterosexual, intact marriages result in lower levels of instability, even incorrectly stating that the average length of heterosexual marriages is double that of same-sex marriages. They even included that same sex marriages may include financial stress or poorer behavioral, psychological or educational outcomes. 

While noting this, they completely disregard how their rhetoric towards same-sex couples may impact these issues. This has also created the stress in LGBTQ+ people that under a Trump administration, their marriage would be nullified in some states, or that they would lose the right to get married to begin with. 

Carrie Singer, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor from Northeast Ohio, believes that the result of this election will be particularly hard on LGBTQ+ people. 

“The suicide rate is already high for them, and they’re just not feeling safe,” said Singer. 

Not only does Singer believe that the mental health crisis will worsen with LGBTQ+ people, she believes that it will worsen across the country. 

“I would say that prior to 2016, no one was coming to see me because they were freaking out over politics,” Singer said. “This is not what the concerns were in therapy.” 

After the 2016 Election, fear ran rampant through the country as the future of our country became uncertain. Therapists around the country became very familiar with political anxiety. 

Additionally, Becky Crookston, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor from Northeast Ohio, corroborates Singer's beliefs. 

“I definitely see a lot of fear in marginalized communities,” Crookston said. “With LGBTQ students we work with, staff that we work with, a lot of fear about how far we’ve come and how backwards we could go.”

Luckily, there may be light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel. 

Dr. Aimee Thomas, a licensed Psychologist and Professional Clinical Counselor, recalls that following the 2000 election, people started focusing on saving mental health. There was a new generation of mental health in the country. 

“There was a similar feeling like you got punched in the gut, but people started turning inward. The self help books came out, [as well as] a lot of the more introspective therapies,” Thomas said. “So sometimes in the wake of these moments, you see some growth in terms of the mental health or self help fields.” 

As we enter an entirely new and different Trump administration, there is reason to be worried. With likely Republican control of all three branches of government, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and BIPOC rights are at risk. The feeling of hopelessness within minority groups is almost unanimous, and walking around campus after the results came out, these effects showed. I saw women with puffy eyes, looking down, avoiding eye contact and I felt certain that I would continue to see that for the next four years. 

Prioritizing mental health and realizing the actual implications of this election is absolutely essential. 

Singer believes there are many ways that people can cope with the political related stress throughout the next four years. 

“Just take it one day at a time, take time to regroup, self care, being in the present moment, breathing, getting support from other people,” Singer said. “When they’re ready, we can find a way to start advocating for people the best we can.”