How to read the news and not go crazy
Miscellaneous / / August 27, 2021
The information flow may need to be limited.
Essentially, news is a simple statement of facts that happened. However, such messages still evoke strong feelings when it comes to important events or the authors artificially stir up feelings. A strong emotional response to news can significantly ruin your life or even lead to mental disorders. We are figuring out how to minimize damage.
Set up comfortable news flow
Previously, in order to find out the news, you had to prepare: take a newspaper, turn on the TV or radio. With the development of technology, information began to pour on us from everywhere. It can even come from sources from which you do not expect to receive it at all. For example, you flip through the Tik-Tok feed filled with cats and puppies, and data about criminal cases, natural disasters and so on are poured on you.
Naturally, you will react emotionally to many messages. They are served so that you were horrified, indignant - in general, did not pass by. To them are added the news of friends, which also became available thanks to the Internet. Somebody
divorced, someone got sick - all this is not easy not to take to heart.It is difficult to maintain a stable psychological state if you are constantly exposed to emotional attack. That is why you need to try to control the flow of information.
First of all, we are talking about dosed content consumption. Of course, I want to know everything at once. But in most cases, nothing terrible will happen if you receive information with a delay and at once. Allocate for this, for example, half an hour in the morning and in the evening. And the rest of the time, try not to go to information or resources close to them.
Cut out news content before bed
Deep sleep is one of the conditions necessary for health and wellness. If you read a lot of disturbing news at night, there is a risk that you will spend long hours in anxiety. Therefore, it is better to focus on positive content before going to bed - especially since the latter helps to fight stress. The feeling of fun alone is effective.Anticipating A Laugh Reduces Our Stress Hormones, Study Shows / American Physiological Society to improve well-being.
Don't read comments
And especially don't argue in them. There are things that hurt a lot. Therefore, the hands themselves open comments - I want to know what people think. And they think anything, including those with which you strongly disagree. But if the news is a fact, then opinions are only an interpretation, and not always an expert one. The commentators have the same data on hand as you do, so no one will tell you how everything really happened. But it can easily cause negative emotions. The controversy in the comments will immerse you in them again and again, because you will come back to see what they answered.
Learn to stop
There is such a term - doom scrolling. It means a tendency to watch bad news. A person leafs through disturbing notes and sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss of despair. Another option is to savor the details. When something hurts you strongly, you want to know as much as possible. But this is not always necessary. For example, if several people died during an incident, is it really necessary to find out in detail how exactly everything happened?
It is worth keeping track of this moment. If you feel that some information excites you greatly, pause before studying the issue further.
Accept that you cannot suffer for everyone
Sometimes you can catch yourself thinking that the news should be alarming or the desire to change everything, but you just scroll through the message and are intimidated by it. How is it, after all, what happened affects everyone, which means that it is simply impossible to be silent and inactive?
But we must accept that you cannot fight in every war. And feeling tired is a normal state. Just look at those who are constantly stewing in the cauldron of human pain. Doctors are sometimes accused of cynicism, but if they take the illness of each patient to heart, it will simply crush them. Even the news journalists turn stale rather quickly, although they only describe the pain of others.
Consume content from trusted sources
Choose a few media outlets that you trust and whose position you respect, and make them your main source of information. In this way, you will receive content in the least annoying way.
Of course, it is sometimes useful to know other opinions. But studying them is best when you are relaxed.
Remove persistently disturbing content from your feed
Some notes are important and life-saving. For example, data from charitable foundations about fundraising for medical treatment or reporting from animal welfare societies about cases cruelties in relation to animals or birds.
The first impulse may be the desire to add the pages of such organizations to the feed in order to find out about such news as early as possible. But there is no denying that this is heartbreaking content, and it is hard to consume it while walking between landscapes and photos by the pool. To worry less, add such pages not to the feed, but to bookmarks and visit them purposefully.
Find a source of positive news
People often complain that the media only offers bad news. Accidents and scandals - as much as you like, but there is almost no information with a plus sign. However, if you look at the site statistics, it turns out that bad news is viewed much more often. So this is a demand driven supply.
If you do your research, you can find sources of good news for you. This will give hope that not everything is hopeless.
Discuss news with like-minded people
We have already found out that it is better not to meddle in the commentary. But a person is a social being, it is important for him to share information, to find out that he is not the only one worried. Therefore, discussing the news with like-minded people is normal and useful.
On the one hand, it looks like the creation of such an artificial information bubble in which everyone agrees with everyone. On the other hand, there are so many things in the world that will constantly pull you out of this bubble, so a little comfort will not hurt.
Think about what you can do to fix something.
News is often taken hard because of a sense of powerlessness. Everything is bad, and there is nothing you can do. But maybe it is Not certainly in that way. Sometimes, to feel connected and useful, you have to do something incredible. But sometimes ordinary actions can become a feat. For example, during the coronavirus, doctors and couriers just do their job, which is already a lot. For all other people, to do their bit, it is enough to maintain social distance and do vaccinationsif there are no contraindications.
Recognize That You Can't Fix Everything
At the same time, you should not take responsibility for all of humanity. If somewhere in South America there is a hurricane, it is a pity to die. But if you cannot fly out as a volunteer right now, then you just have to put up with it and move on.
Don't ask too much of others
Sometimes it is very difficult to accept how people can live peacefully when everything is bad everywhere. However, you should not go to them with a holy war. It is possible to inform about some important things. But without aggression, otherwise you will only quarrel. And to force someone to do something is unlikely to succeed. But you will shake your nerves considerably.
Understand that you don't need to know everything.
Sometimes one gets the impression that there used to be peace and quiet, but now there are maniacs, murderers and terrorists all around. But the point is not that there were no horrific events before. It's just that information is quickly becoming publicly available now.
The feeling that everything is bad does not appear because the situation has deteriorated sharply, but because you have learned about everything. But such research is not necessary if you want to avoid mental problems.
Concentrate on your life
Sometimes the emotions received from the news are so overwhelming that you want to lie on the bed between boxes of pizza and sweets and do nothing. But life goes on, so you need to take care of yourself.
Contact a specialist
If you feel that it becomes unbearable, contact a psychologist or psychotherapist. They know how to deal with specific problems. So, perhaps already a few sessions will bring you noticeable relief.
Read alsođ§
- How stress and worry physically change our brains
- What is radical acceptance and how it helps you stop suffering
- How technology and the internet have changed our perception of information
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