Some Federal Workers Face Mental Health Struggles As Cuts Bite

Every morning recently, one federal employee wakes up and wishes she had not. She has lost 20 pounds since January 21, 2025 and says she is traumatized.

Another employee, an Iraq War veteran with PTSD at the Department of Veterans Affairs, says he has gone from loving his work to considering taking his life.

A third is struggling to sleep and has stress headaches, fearing the loss of a job he once thought was guaranteed as long as he met his targets.

The three are among a growing number of federal employees who say their mental health is suffering as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to cut and streamline a service from which he had promised to remove waste before his election. Leading the charge is Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has already recommended firing more than 200,000 federal workers, while an estimated 75,000 have accepted voluntary resignation deals.

Sarah Levine-Miles, a psychotherapist who works in a clinic in North Bethesda, Maryland, which is 20 minutes from the heart of the federal government in Washington D.C., told Newsweek she has seen a noticeable increase in federal workers and their family members seeking mental health support.

"Many are experiencing heightened anxiety, depression, and a profound sense of hopelessness due to job insecurity and the feeling that their dedication to public service is being disregarded," Levine-Miles said. "For those in the probationary period, the stress is even more acute. Their families, too, are deeply affected, navigating emotional and financial strain."

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment on the mental health challenges facing federal workers.

There are 2.4 million federal workers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Newsweek spoke to 18 of them after posting a request on social media asking those facing mental health concerns to get in touch. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"I don't know what is more sickening: to see that I may not have a job next week or to see that our leadership thinks so low of us," said one worker who has been at a federal agency for 13 years.

Another employee has worked in the mental health department of the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2017.

Until January, he enjoyed his work. "This was my favorite job outside of the military," he told Newsweek.

"It was so easy to see improvements in my patients." But, since then, workforce cuts and the "threats of future cuts are putting everyone on edge," he said. While he has other options, he added that he has considered taking his life because he feels such despair.

A third employee who is struggling is an IT project manager for the Department of Defense. For the last 14 years, he felt secure, he said, but that has now changed. The fear is of so-called RIFs: reductions in force.

"The morale is pretty bad," he said. "There is so much uncertainty about potential RIFs that it is hard to keep motivated."

Layoffs in the public sector increased by more than 40,000 percent this year compared to the same period of 2024, says global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Government cuts account for 62,530 workers of the 172,017 workers who lost their jobs in the first two months of the year.

The number of federal workers has remained broadly the same in the last 50 years and has shrunk as a proportion of the total workforce, but proponents of cuts say they would have a positive impact for Americans.

The nonprofit The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated that a 10 percent reduction in the federal workforce would save around $350 billion over the next decade, while a 33 percent reduction would save $1.2 trillion.

"Industrywide job losses and transitions are nothing new, as anyone with a background in farming, manufacturing, and journalism knows," Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, told Newsweek.

"More labor flexibility can leave governments nimble enough to adjust to evolving challenges."

Riedl said, however, that government workers could not always transfer skills to the private sector. She added that the current firings were a particular cause of instability, comparing them to Pentagon cuts in the 1990s of one-third of 1 million civilian employees with voluntary attrition, early retirement bonuses and job search assistance.

"Today's layoffs are far more drastic and punitive," Riedl said.

Critics have raised concerns about the legality of the current cuts and whether they will disrupt the functionality of government. Last week, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to reinstate thousands of fired probationary workers at federal agencies. This came as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees.

But the Trump administration has reiterated its determination to cut the size of government, both to reduce costs for taxpayers and to cut red tape.

"Being able to plan literally anything than my next breath would be a privilege," said one government worker.

Another, a defense health agency employee who has worked for the government since she graduated high school in 2002, told Newsweek her colleagues were increasingly turning to medication to cope with the stress.

"Everyone is so hostile at work now; tempers are raised, and people are literally yelling at each other," she said. "We're all dealing with nonstop anxiety."

To cope, she added: "I sleep a lot. Eat a lot. Cry the whole way to work and the way home."

William Chan, founder and clinical director of Banyan Behavioral Health in San Mateo, California, said he had seen about a 10 percent increase in federal workers reaching out.

"They tend to report higher levels of worries as they are working hard to plan for different scenarios," Chan told Newsweek. "The distress is exacerbated by the changing circumstances that are beyond their control."

Ashley Strong from Strong Skies Therapy in Denver, Colorado, told Newsweek that the speed of the change was exacerbating the psychological impact.

"It is happening so fast; the threats just keep coming, and the overall fear spread by the administration is causing existential breakdown," Strong said. "These sorts of factors can lead people to feel entirely hopeless and embarrassed and can increase suicidal ideation."

And, for many federal employees, it is not only the fear of losing their livelihoods. It is the fact that the cuts put in question the work to which they may have dedicated their lives—and perhaps sacrificed other opportunities—in the belief that what they were doing was right for the country.

"I feel like the whole world is rooting for us to lose our jobs," the IT project manager for the Department of Defense said. "So many people think we are lazy, and we don't contribute to society. Many of us took potential pay cuts to work for the government. No one is doing this to be rich."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741 741 or go to 988lifeline.org.