Jackson, Wyoming internal medicine physician Glenn Burnett told political analyst Mark Halperin on Thursday that his patients are struggling with significant mental health issues in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s November election win.
Halperin had warned in October that he believed a Trump victory would trigger an historic “mental health crisis,” prompting issues including addiction, divorce and violence. While Burnett did not cite those specific issues on Halperin’s “2WAY TONIGHT,” he did note some of his patients have “depression, anxiety” and similar “medical problems,” comparing the intensity of the symptoms to what occurred after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
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“Well, the first thing I would say is I am very, very careful when I talk to patients about expressing any of my own political views. That is never done in the office. But what has happened is I am just bombarded with all kinds of things all the time,” Burnett said. “I would say, to be fair, to set it up — when Biden was the president, I had all kinds of stuff from the other side. But it has been extremely intense. The week or two after the election was pretty intense. It then calmed down and now it’s really back up.”
“We are dealing with depression, anxiety, all kinds of medical problems that are related to that, like insomnia, chest pain, chest pressure. And then people are — there’s some genuine fear, panic,” he continued. “I hear things from people all the time that I just — I don’t want to repeat because they’re — people, I don’t think, would believe me, that just people have these very, very severe anxieties about what is going to happen to them. And it is affecting their lives.”
Burnett also said it is unfortunate that elections take place just before the holiday season because of the negative effect they had on “family dynamics.”
“I’ve been a physician for 30 years. I’ve never seen this happen before — I mean, to this level — where people just completely disinvited their families and that there’s just this huge breach in normal family dynamics. And I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “It’s bad for the — I’ve had young people in my office crying because grandma told them not to come or whatever. But then, weeks later, I’ve had the people who did the disinviting get all emotional because they don’t know how to get themselves out of the spiral they’re in with their family members.”
“It’s really, really interesting … I was a physician during 9/11, and it was like this then. But it was everybody,” the doctor added. “This is just about as intense, but it’s not everybody. And people are having real crises.”
Halperin asked the doctor if his patients acknowledge their symptoms are due to Trump’s victory or whether they do not disclose that as the cause for them.
“I think it has a lot to do with Donald Trump and the fears of what he’s going to do or what’s happening in the country,” Burnett answered.
He also asserted that people all over the political spectrum have a “mindset that everything is the worst thing ever,” which is a “more basic” factor that contributes to their mental issues.
“The other thing I would add, and I guess I would say on both sides too, is this whole, ‘If you don’t agree with everything I think is right, then you are a horrible person and I don’t want to talk to you ever again.’ And when people behave like that, they become very, very isolated, and then they don’t have the normal human interactions to really go on with life,” he added. “And then they end up with these severe mental health problems.”
Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun, told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Nov. 9 that it is “completely fine” to cut off family members who voted for Trump and not spend the holidays with them. Comedian Bill Maher criticized her stance on a Nov. 22 episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher” and argued there cannot be a “viable society” if many aspects of life, including Christmas, cannot “transcend politics.”
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