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Wednesday, 8 April 2026
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Leadership is felt before it's understood
Tuesday, 7 April 2026
Healing Trumps Trauma (posted July 4, 2017)
Healing Trumps Trauma (posted July 4, 2017)“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” ― Pema Chodron
This blog post first appeared on July 4, 2017 (ElaineGantzWright.com). It’s chilling and deeply disturbing to think it’s been almost nine years, and we are still here. I decided it was time to repost. It’s what I can do. 
Appalled. I guess that word describes my current state. I keep trying to come to terms with the abhorrent behavior of our 45th president [now 47th, of course]. Though I work daily to find a place of personal peace, the fear still creeps in. I know all is in “Divine Order,” but I am struggling to discern what kind of order that might be. What could be the silver lining here? What is the gift in this, as great spiritual teachers might ask? Well, I have a theory, and I guess I’ll go with it, because it’s really the only way I can contextualize the escalating chaos. I had a light-bulb moment when I saw Jeffrey Lord, a conservative pundit on CNN, attempting to defend 45’s alarming “Morning Joe” Twitter rant. [NOTE: CNN has since severed ties with Lord following a tweet containing the Nazi salute.] Lord resolutely proclaimed, “You can’t call the president crazy.” Wow! I had to put my phone down. That one sentence summed it up.
There’s something distressingly potent in Lord’s protest. Why can’t you question a disturbing, unhealthy pattern of behavior in the leader of the free world ― that could endanger the lives of others? Lord’s claim shines a light on the cultural denial that strengthens the stigma of mental illness in the U.S. Admittedly, this is not easy terrain to navigate, but mental illness is not a weakness. It is not an insult or a bad choice. It’s a disease ― a disease of the brain. If you have a stroke, as President Eisenhower suffered in 1957, someone says, “Hey, something is not right with you. You are ill. Let’s get some medical attention.” But with mental health issues, it’s much murkier. There is so much shame and embarrassment involved; we don’t speak up. We don’t get involved. We often don’t get the help we need. The condition may not be as ostensibly life-threatening as a stroke, but it can certainly result in tragic consequences ― especially if you are President of the United States.
On another level, I was shocked that Lord used the word “crazy.” It seems to be the media catchall for all aberrant or irrational behavior, and its derogatory connotation helps propagate stigma and patient isolation. We are so uncomfortable talking about diseases of the brain that our default is “crazy” or now ― “cra-cra.” This language leaves no room for dignity, recovery, or healing. And the shame prevents many from pursuing treatment (if their insurance will even cover it, that is) ― even if they are diagnosed or silently contemplating suicide. In a world where “the overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics… and the suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the same period,” we cannot continue to humiliate or ignore those who exhibit signs of mental illness. [UPDATE: According to the CDC, “Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States…Suicide rates increased 37% between 2000 and 2018 and decreased 5% between 2018 and 2020. However, rates returned to their peak in 2022.”]
There is also the reality to face that if we elected a man suffering from untreated mental illness, he is our mirror. It is time to take responsibility for our own denial and for our own healing. We must choose authenticity, conscious communication, mindfulness, compassion, and healthy boundaries. 
But Trump’s coterie of codependent enablers is not helping matters. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s tweets, saying he “fights fire with fire.” And Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert minimized the threat of violence associated with the president’s hostile CNN-assault tweet ― actually saying he was “proud of the president” for creating a social media platform that connects with the people. The 25th Amendment offers some guidelines, but defining “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” becomes inherently political and complicated in practice. And the psychiatric profession is still hamstrung by the 1973 Goldwater Rule ― enacted after Sen. Barry Goldwater, the GOP nominee in the 1964 election, was declared psychologically unfit for the presidency by psychiatrists surveyed in Fact Magazine. Goldwater won a defamation suit against Fact, and the resulting rule still prevents psychiatrists from voicing a caveat publicly without conducting an examination. Unfortunately, this further perpetuates stigma, stifling open discussion of mental illness concerns under a cloak of disgrace. There is probably a middle ground we should explore somehow. From a quantum perspective, is Trump’s purpose to open our eyes that have been “wide shut” [Republicans, anyway]? Maybe it’s time to end the silence, as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is trying to do in our schools nationwide, freeing our voices to tackle taboos that keep mental illness under the treatment radar. We are only as sick as our secrets, and questioning the mental health of our president is constructive, supportive, and democratic. I am not sure I have the answer, but at least we can ask the questions about the very real behavioral concerns of this unconsciously virulent, externally triggered man leading our nation. It’s about his health ― and ours. From NAMI: If there is NOT AN IMMEDIATE THREAT OF DANGER but someone is acting irrationally due to his/her mental state, contact your local mobile crisis team. In the Dallas area, individuals may contact ADAPT Mobile Crisis at 1 (866) 260-8000. If someone is acting irrationally due to their mental state and there IS AN IMMEDIATE THREAT OF DANGER to themselves or someone else, call 911.You're currently a free subscriber to Grief Matters. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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