Scared of the news

I am so sorry you are struggling with this. The last few years have truly had some terrifying world events, many of which have been capitalised by those in the news media.

Everything about the format of the news is designed to be dramatic and scary. Whether it's the wording of a headline or the music on the News at 10, it is engineered to induce fear, because fear sells. So there is no incentive for broadcasting companies to give stories an unbiased or balanced view. A rational headline is less likely to get you to click a link or buy a news paper and good news tends to only be reported as an 'and finally' segment on TV.  News broadcasters, be they print, TV, radio or online, are in the business of making money, just like any other business. 

That said, the news this year has started to scare me so much I try not to watch it anymore. I was getting so upset by it, it was making me ill. I feel really guilty about that, because I've always believed we should stay informed. But the best I can do is to ask my husband if there's anything on the news I should know, and I only ask him in the morning because even the most balanced report of bad news will make my anxiety terrible and that always feels worse at night. 

I wish I could offer you more reassurance. 

I can relate to this Mimi - I feel very much the same. I like to stay informed too and was a bit of a news junkie for many years but over the last 2 or 3 years I’ve realised that i5 was quite damaging for my mental health to have this constant diet of concerning news stories. It’s a matter of finding the right balance and very personal in terms of how resilient I feel. At the moment I definitely haven’t got much resilience and I need to take care of myself by not absorbing all the very concerning news stories that have happened over th3 last couple of years or so. The mind is a bit like a sponge - and at the moment I don’t feel I can remain detached enough from what I see on the news to keep it from negatively impacting on my mental health. When I was young the news was only on twice a day - now it’s 24 hours a day - I think once a day is probably enough for me at the moment! 

I think that's a big part of the problem. In the old days you had newspapers once a day and the news at 6pm and 10pm and that was it. Now you have rolling news channels 24 hours a day, live updates throughout the day on BBC and Sky websites and social media like Twitter. Its too much for anyone.

And as Meeples said, it is designed to sensationalise, as thats what gets clicks

I don’t do social media for this very reason and even then I use alternative platforms like GETTR, BitChute and Gab - I’m trying to get to a point where I only look at news updates weekly, preferably monthly, not daily any more, given what I’ve personally witnessed with my family in Rural Ireland on my last visit home to Ireland in Oct 2022, yet I can’t ignore what’s currently going on in Mullingar Co. Westmeath here in Manchester U.K. - I personally saw for myself post-Covid how Ireland has in many respects become a communist country the moment I stepped off the ferry from Holyhead into Dublin which is doubly tragic given our history - I’ve lived 20 years in Manchester at age 52 and Ireland will always be my home, yet what’s going on there is too heartbreaking to witness, especially what’s happening to children in Ireland 

I don’t do social media for this very reason and even then I use alternative platforms like GETTR, BitChute and Gab - I’m trying to get to a point where I only look at news updates weekly, preferably monthly, not daily any more, given what I’ve personally witnessed with my family in Rural Ireland on my last visit home to Ireland in Oct 2022, yet I can’t ignore what’s currently going on in Mullingar Co. Westmeath here in Manchester U.K. - I personally saw for myself post-Covid how Ireland has in many respects become a communist country the moment I stepped off the ferry from Holyhead into Dublin which is doubly tragic given our history - I’ve lived 20 years in Manchester at age 52 and Ireland will always be my home, yet what’s going on there is too heartbreaking to witness, especially what’s happening to children in Ireland