4 tips to overcome news anxiety
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- čas přidán 28. 01. 2019
- Here are 4 tips you can apply right now to overcome news anxiety.
1. Turn off news notifications and alerts.
2. Only check the news at specific times of the day.
3. Go to trusted news sources (not social media).
4. Have a news free sleep routine.
Check out my collaboration with zentouro on how to deal with anxiety about the environment: • What is eco-anxiety? f...
Special thanks to Elizabeth S., Tyler D., Anna H., Arnt J., Collin P., Evan A., Imran M., Sam D., Ryan L., Sophie Y., Ahmed Y, Israel P., Neuro Transmissions, Eric E., Eve P., Lauren K., BrainCraft, Aaron F., Samuel H., Marisa H.,Tae T., Steve M., Anne Claire B., Bryan T., Nicky C., Samuel A., Anton T., and Jennifer C. for making this episode possible! Learn how you can help me make The Psych Show and get exclusive behind the scenes access in return at / thepsychshow .
Topics Discussed:
- Intolerance to uncertainty
- News anxiety
- Viral media
- American Psychological Association Stress in America Survey
Learn more:
- APA Stress in America Survey: Generation Z Stressed About Issues in the News but Least Likely to Vote: www.apa.org/news/press/releas...
- Why do viral videos go viral? www.wired.com/2011/07/why-do-...
- What Makes Online Content Viral? pinnacle.allenpress.com/doi/ab...
- Media Bias Chart: Version 4.0: www.adfontesmedia.com/
Connect with Ali:
Twitter ► / alimattu
Facebook ► / thepsychshow
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Email ► ali@thepsychshow.com
Website ► alimattu.com/
THE PSYCH SHOW! Creating mental health videos that educate, entertain, and empower! Produced, written, and edited by clinical psychologist Ali Mattu, Ph.D. All videos are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute clinical advice.
If you or someone you know needs help immediately, you should take one of the following actions:
- call 9-1-1 in the United States or your country's emergency number: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
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How do you deal with news anxiety?
Take a media break overall
My dad once told me that the "TV News" was designed to protect our citizens from danger, NOT playing with people's minds and emotions, which that's what we're seeing today. So much lies, fake news and other misinformation articles that keeps controlling the human Behavior instead of giving us the answers we need to solve our problems.
This is why I almost don't listen to the news cuz is almost impossible to seek a meaningful answer.
Idk why I am just now seeing this video, but it worked out as perfect timing for me. Climate Change has been freaking me out lately, and with anxiety and OCD, I have to really catch myself before obsessing over it.
If climate change is a worry for you, check out this collab where I talk about eco-anxiety: czcams.com/video/mwJUm37_G_Y/video.html
So relevant now, You should do a post Covid version of this! I used to never watch or read news, but with Covid I started all sources of news and it can cause a lot of anxiety, the uncertainty, on social media people saying the worst is gonna happen, ppl from varying opinions with no empathy ripping each other apart. It's definitely tough, and you do see some people having 0 faith in news sources now, saying they're all bought out with their own agenda. Thanks for the tips!
Perfect timing for this video for me.. Gee wiz ironically even the sad depressing add before this video started freaked me out..
Gosh watching this made me feel so much better. 2020 has started off to a rocky start so I’m hopeful things will work out.
Thx for this video man! I had this problem and still do sometimes. This anxiety really made me go down a rabbit hole and to engage in nonsense debates on the internet and sparked a lot of hatred in me. It gotten worse to the point that I associtate normal things in life to the anxious topics I was engaged in. Even "trusted" news sources are not worth checking. You should avoid news in regards to (geo)politics as much as possible, but everything in the world is so politicised that even other topics sometimes get intertwined. Engaging in controversial topics on social media is indeed far much worse. Just get rid them in your life if you can. I mean most humans in world history have lived without knowing more than whats happening around them and they still did fine.
Here is what I have tried to do
1. Avoid CZcams comments on politcal videos
2. Turn off recommendations to poltical channels and just negativity in general
3. Avoid twitter
4. Avoid reddit
Wow, for the first time in my life I avoid to read certain kind of news because they cause me a lot of anxiety and I feel bad because one is not supposed to just close your eyes to the problems of the world so at the end I feel anxious no matter what 😅
Fantastic video, as I could say about every one I've seen! Keep up the good work :D
This one in particular I feel like sharing my experience on. While doing my undergrad in psychology I was struck by just how tough the news is for people to deal with. I recall one point researchers made was that kids under the age of around 15-18 shouldn't watch the news at all as they were unable to interpret the threat on a relative level - they struggled to see the threat as a tiny risk when spread out over the whole population. I was reasonably sure the news probably isn't that great to over consume, even as an adult. Around that time my partner and I were phasing out watching TV all together, and this was a touch of reassurance.
It's been over 5 years since we've had a TV plugged into the wall. I virtually don't have any notfications on my phone - no games, social media, or other apps, just texts and calls. I spend the 2 seconds it takes to hide sources of news on social media, which means one comes up every, say, 10 hours of 'scrolling the feed'.
What I've found, and greatly enjoyed, is the control. Everything is still there, I can still do it all - TV and movies I can get online, apps are still there, the news is still there. It's just a matter of me deciding what I want to do and when. If a news story comes up in day-to-day life and I'm interested, I'll have a much deeper dive than most would and work out what's going on. I also think because I relatively rarely do this, I can be more bipartial and put more time into it without a sort of 'news fatigue'.
Basically, I feel like I live a form of what you suggest here, and I'd second what you say!
I recommend the same thing to other people too. Find what you really want from the news (for my last friend I had this conversation with it was local, Australian news), find out how to best get it (instead of watching 60 mins of news to get 10 you care about, find a source that caters to you), and try to just look at that each day or few days. Sure, if something else comes up, look into it. But even then it's all in their control!
Also, some ideas for future videos!
- What are generations - they lack set dates and many 'differences' aren't there (older people just forget what they did as kids). But they are groups of people shaped by major events. Etc, etc.
- The violence and video games connection. I see many video's claiming that video games don't cause violence and that's it, end of story. But I'm not sure if I'm yet to see one that says yes, on average, video games don't cause violence. But violent video games do. I feel a touch crazy on this topic - I recall an overwhelming amount of research on it, and many large organisations all agreeing with it - violence breeds violence both in the short term and long term. Obviously it's complicated, but in general that's the info I go. I'm starting to really question the validity of the studies on this topic! I'd love to hear you weigh in here :) Also, might be worth a note that I'm not totally against violence by any means - but about knowing the truth and allowing people to make informed decisions.
- More about the psychology of well-being? I know you focus a lot on helping people up to more 'normal' levels of functioning, but perhaps a video dedicated to getting people from 'normal' to flourishing?
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of on the top of my head!
And a quick side note, I'm relatively free for the next week or two, if you'd like a hand with anything I'd love to help out.
Keep doing what your doing mate! :D
So helpful! Very handy take..thanks for making this
Thank you!!!
As I've transitioned out of being a full-time journalist - where I had to have all the notifications on for my job - disconnecting has been so surreal. I've become so conditioned to feel like if someone else is telling me what is happening that I'm moving too slow. My current compromise is to have push alerts on for some of my former colleague's tweets and not much else.
And! Thanks again for stopping by my channel to talk about eco-anxiety!
This is a very important topic! Actually, the notifications point resonated with me because I have family members who have their notifications on all day... Would you please consider a video on boundaries for work life & personal life? I would like to know how we can help family and friends see the benefits of boundaries.
I’ve been meaning to do a deeper dive into smartphone mental health for while. I could speak to notifications in much more depth there. In the meantime I do have an episode on self-care that could help 😀
Ive experienced this recently and thought that it was odd how my heart was racing alittle after reading some news reports but when I saw this video in my subscription feed, I felt so surprised but now I'm comforted. 😊
Yay!!! So happy to hear this helped. You are not alone!!!
Yay!!! So happy to hear this helped. You are not alone!!!
Thanks for the tips Ali ! Love your content.
Side note, would you be able to do a video on Dissociative disorders such as Depersonalization / Deralization?
I personally have suffered from them for over 16 years and still do unfortunately. They tend to go hand in hand with anxiety (i.e makes them worse)
It would be interesting to see your take on these subjects!
Thanks :)
Thank you. This is helpful. I’m really struggling already, and sometimes these news articles pop up and they just tip me over the edge. I cant really figure out what to do as I designed my Instagram to be really insulated and I just follow close friends and pretty pictures / hobby topics. But once in a while, a news source breaks through and gets into my feed due to people sharing and such. It’s rough. I’m not sure if I should completely unplug, as I enjoy some of the content and sometimes it’s destressing. It’s the randomness of stressful emotional news that pops up that really throws everything off.
This is why I stopped reading/watching the news, the news made me angry. One of my friends one said "You are what you eat" or something like that, and I was like, that makes sense
I totally get it. It's a hard balance to stay informed and to stay hopeful when the news can be so distressing.
Nice video! Thank you for this information. Anxiety is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination. At Fort Lauderdale Behavioral Wellness, we decide the type of treatment according to the nature of anxiety disorder. Different types of therapy and medication are provided to deal with anxiety. We specialize in a number of key mental health categories.
First of all, these are great tips and it's very important for people to know them. Thanks for making this video!
I feel like it's also important to clarify, though, that uncertainty doesn't cause anxiety, and modern news headlines and stories don't peddle uncertainty.
People don't feel anxiety about what they don't know about climate change, for example. They feel anxiety about what they think they DO know about climate change. Uncertainty is a neutral factor in the equation. Uncertainty about what's in a wrapped Christmas gift, for another example, is most often associated with excited, joyful anticipation. But the uncertainty about what's in the gift is also neutral. What a person does with the uncertainty is the important bit. On the whole, humans LOVE uncertainty. They relish it. It's not uncertainty that's driving people crazy with the news. It's what the news is implying, insinuating, or even outright telling people IS certain.
The news today, especially in the US, is about planting expectation and anticipation about what might happen, which is, actually, manufacturing a sense of ominous certainty where there isn't really any kind of certainty. The news almost never says, "We don't know what's going to happen." Rather, they say, "This horrible thing is happening right now and it's going to lead to more horrible things." If they do ever admit they don't know something, it's not in a, "We don't know and it's probably nothing," kind of way, but always in a, "We don't know but we guess it's Armageddon and we're smart so let's just go with Armageddon" kind of way.
More honest uncertainty in the news would actually be a good thing, especially if outlets went back to doing what they used to do when they were uncertain about something, which is not even report the thing until they are certain. But these days, news outlets clearly think it's better to scoop everyone else and be factually inaccurate than to be the last to report a thing but be factually accurate. It's not just clickbait headlines. The articles themselves are written in a way that often buries the lead so that eyes will stay on the ad-saturated page longer. Most news copy reads like ad copy now. Most news outlets are more about "entertaining" (what they call all of that emotional triggering they do) than informing.
So, your advice about picking a news outlet carefully is very important. Pick one that let's the uncertain be uncertain, rather than one that erases the uncertainty with ominous speculation.
I REALLY appreciate your thoughtful comment. There are so many great issues you bring up here that warrant a way better discussion than what this comment field will allow.
You’re right that I don’t quite capture the complexity of how we experience news. I agree that most quality journalistic organizations don’t peddle uncertainty and more ownership of what is known and unknown is a good thing for news. The problem is often when articles are written to incite anger or fear which is fortunately rare is the more trusted news organizations.
Uncertainty isn’t a bad thing. Your gift example is a good demonstration of that. I experience this with watching a movie - I love not knowing what’s going to happen and seeing that through to the end of the story.
Three issues though.
1. Some people struggle with this more than others. These are the folks that can’t leave their gift wrapped up or need to read spoilers before watching a movie.
2. People who have an anxiety disorder will get an escalation of anxiety when uncertainty is introduced related to their fears. An example of this is sending a text to someone and not getting a response back. People who struggle with social anxiety or generalized anxiety might have a hard time coping with the uncertainty of no response. The way that can play out with the news is when individuals try to keep reading more and more when they’re struggling with anxiety related to a story. The more certainty they try to get, the worse they tend to feel because we can’t get certainty related to many news stories.
3. With gifts and movies curiosity is usually resolved. With news, it may never be resolved or won’t be resolved for some time. We all have to find a way to accept and tolerate that uncertainty.
Thanks again for watching and your thoughtful comment!
@@drali Points well made and well taken, Good Sir.
Unfortunately I’m somewhat jaded so I usually avoid news. I might try to get more up to date once I have more social and financial capital (and free time) so I can actually make a change.
You have to help yourself before you can help others. During the most difficult periods in my life, I’ve largely stayed away from the news too.
The news examples seem so quaint in 2020.
All of this news about the coronavirus & Asian giant hornets is stressing me the hell out. It's like I can't even start my morning off right without looking at THAT and something else negative on social media and the internet in general.
video aged like wine
Haha, glad it helped!
Personally the news never makes me feel good, so I just avoid it.
I know a lot of people who feel this way. It’s always hard to balance staying informed with mental health.
I just don't watch, read or listen to the news at all. I can't save the world, and I shouldn't. I can change things for maybe a few people around me, but that's it. Getting all worked up and anxious isn't going to help me run my daily life. If there's something big going on I will know about it either way from my friends and family; that way I won't miss out on the big things, but I won't get ruined by all the small or bigger things happening all over the world which I just can't handle to watch because it hurts all the way into my soul.
Haha, sorry. That sounds so dramatic. It wasn't meant to.
Maybe i should take a leaf out of your book. Sounds sensible and rational..i have been getting anxious about Islamophobia..kind of fed up
By the way how did you manage to give up ?