Freed: How to overcome post-Trumpatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Montreal Gazette

10-05-2025

I've recently developed an odd condition that many people seem to share.
It's a scary new version of PTSD, called post-Trumpatic stress disorder.
Among its symptoms: I cannot watch Donald Trump on TV. I can't even bear his voice on radio without getting aggravated.
As a news junkie, I read exhaustively and exhaustingly about what Trump has done, said, threatened or lied about — but I can't actually look at him.
If I'm watching the news and he appears, I instantly flick channels, or press the mute button. If I'm in a café and he's speaking on a nearby TV, I flee.
It's not a conscious decision. I just instinctively can't bear his look or sound. I'd rather listen to a sink being scratched with a screwdriver.
For all I know, Mark Carney feels the same way and that's why he put off meeting Trump for so long. The headlines describing their recent meeting say Trump was relatively polite and 'friendly,' but that was mostly due to Carney acting like a calm parent overseeing a presidential toddler.
I was always eager to watch other Republican presidents, from Nixon and Reagan through Bush 1 and 2. They had political ideas that differed from mine, but that was just a difference in policy.
This is a difference in humanity. I cannot listen to Trump's insulting remarks, or 'Me! Me! Me!' bragging, or blabber about making our country the 51st state.
I know some readers like him, but I'm sorry: to me it's like watching a horror movie — and I never watch them, either.
I guess I'm in denial, pretending he's not really the president and the most powerful man in the world, elected by my neighbours.
Yet I'm far from alone. I have friends who can't even read about Trump and have decided to sit out the next four years of news.
Others won't speak his name, they just say 'him.' Try to start a conversation about 'him' and they'll say: 'Please, not that!' and switch to something they find less disturbing, like the measles outbreak.
We obviously need a PTSD support group, or online app with an early warning system.
'TRUMP ALERT! The U.S. president will appear on air shortly. You have 13 seconds to leave the room ... 12 ... 10 ... 5 … 3… RUN!'
If you, too, suffer from post-Trumpatic stress disorder, what else can you do? Try these therapies, as I have:
Find an escape hatch: Throughout COVID I watched the chirpy soccer fantasy TV show Ted Lasso to distract myself from the gloomy times.
Similarly during Bush's Iraq War, I watched the West Wing because TV president Jed Bartlet was a well-intentioned, wise, modest man dedicated to world peace.
We need a new version of the West Wing offering an alternate reality White House, starring an honest, modest, smart TV president we can pretend is the real one.
Please NBC, Bring back Jed Bartlet as president.
Take a Trump cleanse. Give yourself a Trump-free day, week or year in which you don't see, hear or read a single story with his name.
When consuming news, stand on guard for the T-word. When you glimpse it, scroll quickly to the next story, or next, until you finally see a safe headline about something obscure like space travel (unless it involves Musk).
Or about the latest wondrous scientific health discovery (unless Trump just cancelled its funding).
Build a digital wall by watching nothing but local news in your own area code, or even in your own postal code. It's also safe to watch children's channels … so far, until Trump puts his 11-year-old grandson in charge of educational TV.
Avoid dinner parties. Someone will inevitably say: 'You know it's been 17 minutes and we still haven't discussed you-know-who!' Then it will be all Trump all night.
If you must see other humans, be prepared for this moment and ready to intervene. For instance, you can cause a distracting commotion by 'accidentally' spilling wine on the rug.
Or fake a heart attack and when you miraculously recover moments later, say it was heatstroke. Then steer everyone into a 'safe-space' conversation on Japanese ikigai wellness.
If it's an all-anglo crowd, mention you've recently become a Quebec separatist. That should change topics and relax things.
Focus your attention elsewhere. Try the latest, safest, most cheerful topic around: Canada! In truth, Carney's election is the most successful (accidental) achievement of Trump's first 100 days in office.
Alternatively, find another more relaxing, boring country to follow obsessively, instead of the U.S., such as Belgium, Brunei or Bhutan (many boring countries start with B).
These are the Nytols of nations where nothing very interesting ever happens, like Canada was before Trump suddenly made us too interesting.
Go someplace utterly remote for the next four years, where no one talks about Trump. For example: a silent monastery in Nepal.
Or look for another tourist space shuttle, then apply. With luck you'll get stranded in space like NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and won't be able to return until Nov. 2028.
By then, hopefully, U.S. voters will have returned to Earth, too.
P.S. The Vermonters whose anti-Trump rally I spoke at last month are driving a large convoy to Jean-Talon Market Saturday, May 10, at 11 a.m., to spend their U.S. dollars at par and protest the tariffs against Canada. Please join them.