The day after President Trump was elected, teachers canceled classes and rescheduled exams, Hillary Clinton voters cried, and some apparently began to worry about their mental health.

It’s been strangely en vogue for liberals to say the 2016 election messed them up, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally. In March 2017, the Atlantic ran a piece chronicling the sadness felt by Trump detractors following the election. The story begins: “Every time Genevieve Caffrey hears the words President Trump, ‘I feel like I was physically punched in the stomach,’ she says.”

But as much as it would signal solidarity to say your struggle with depression began on Nov. 8, 2016, most Democrats just used claims of mental health struggles as a form of “partisan cheerleading,” according to new research.

In a study published by the peer-reviewed journal SAGE Open, researchers found that mental-health-related online searches didn’t spike for Democrats after 2016. They wrote:



We find that while Democrats may report greater increases in post-election mental distress, their mental health search behavior did not change after the election. On the other hand, Spanish-speaking Latinos had clear, significant, and sustained increases in searches for "depression," "anxiety," "therapy," and antidepressant medications. This suggests that for many Democrats, expressing mental distress after the election was a form of partisan cheerleading.



Significantly, Spanish-speaking Latinos did start searching mental health terms more. Considering both Trump’s rhetoric about the demographic and the media’s exaggerated fear of it, this shift makes sense. It should be concerning, whether or not you believe it to be valid.

But it's also important to note that white Democrats who cried after the election and took mental health days off work probably didn’t suffer any real mental health problems. Nevertheless, “a full 72% of Democrats reported that the presidential election outcome was ‘a significant source of stress,’ as compared to 26% of Republicans,” the study reported.

Saying Trump makes you depressed or anxious, or was the reason you finally signed up for therapy, is one way to send a message about your beliefs and party affiliation. Another way would be to wipe off your tears and campaign for someone else.

[ Also read: Burger King unveils 'Real Meals' for Mental Health Awareness Month]