....to feel so anxious about all the awful things happening in the world?

[sasha1250]

Lately I've been feeling anxious and depressed about everything going on - ISIS, Syrian refugees, people starving, the threat of someone pushing a button and annihilating us all us. Travelling on a plane, travelling on a tube or the Eurotunnel, child soldiers, children in gangs addicted to drugs, my son's brain being fucked up by social media and bloody playstation games. The way teenagers are going-obsessed with looks and selfies and sodding TOWIE.

Watching the news is just SO incredibly depressing, I can hardly bear to watch. My heart just feels so heavy with it all, I feel powerless to do anything or change anything and guilty about living in a nice warm house with lots of food to eat.

I know a lot of this stuff has always gone on in the world and worse but since ISIS have emerged, the world feels more dangerous, an awful place where we are determined to destroy each other.

How do others feel about this?

[Elllicam]

It does feel threatening and depressing but honestly I think it's always been like this it's just we hear more about it now. Imagine if they had the same media coverage in the Second World War what horrors they would be hearing about on a daily basis. If it is making you down could you take a break from watching the news? When I watch it regularly it tends to start to worry me too.

[Crabbitface]

Yip - I had to take a break from news and social media for a while a couple of years ago. I know it feels a bit like burying your head in the sand but if it helps you to be happier do it.

[VulcanWoman]

Honestly, I just haven't the energy to worry about so many things, I'm too busy trying to live.
Best thing you can do is keep yourself busy and stop watching the news. Best wishes.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Yes I'm going to stop following the news so closely for a bit, it's all pretty awful. Every day I seem to read about the truly brutal things Isis are doing to people. All those things you mention, plus the poor UK households caught up in flooding. It's so thoroughly depressing.

[Bubbletree4]

Don't watch the tv news, it is always horribly depressing. Read the news on the Internet, you can skim over things that upset you.

Many of the things you talk about are completely outside your control. Therefore you should try not to worry about them. That's not to be uncaring, that's a bit of self preservation.

[scarlets]

I'd rather be living now than in 1915, with my husband and brothers away due to a world war, food shortages, lack of equality and so on. Times seem worse today because news is so accessible and pretty much uncensored, but we don't live in bleak times comparatively speaking.

I do get upset by stories involving children in fatal accidents, or going missing. I try hard to avoid them. If I see one by accident (as I did today) I become really upset.

[SilverOldie2]

I agree with VulcanWoman. Also, the older I get the more I realise that unless I can actually do something to effect a change, it's pointless worrying about it.

Just live your life.

[VestalVirgin]

Cut your access to media if possible. If you need to know about it someone will mention it. The sheer mass of bad news nowadays is hard to handle.

Focus on what you can influence: Limit your son's access to social media, have a talk with him about drugs, etc., and do your best at parenting.

Maybe, if you have the time, volunteer in helping Syrian refugees integrate into society in your country.

[WowOoo]

Scarlets has a good point about living in the past - war, rationing and diseases with no known cure.
I tell my kids that living now and where we do means we have good fortune that many don't have. . Stop moaning about eating potato!

Sounds like you need a break from the news. They feed our guilt and misery, I think.

You can do something positive like donating things or money to a good cause. Or volunteer if you have the time.

Don't feel guilty (says she who often does too) because it wastes mental energy that is better used elsewhere.

[sasha1250]

Yes all good points. I just get overwhelmed thinking about people suffering or being abused or neglected and about the horrible injustices in the world.

However, it's true we have more access to info about all of this. It's overload-I suppose we just didn't know about it so much before.

I almost feel like I HAVE to read about stuff online/in newspapers or I'm being unfair/uncaring to those who are suffering.

I think I will just have to limit my reading of it all. It's hard though with attacks like Paris and Tunisia-the media go on and on and delight in all the gory detail-I'm not saying they shouldn't report it, I just feel like I'm going to implode with it all, it's so distressing . I sometimes feel like I want to go and live on a desert island and get away from all the sadness and suffering.

[LumelaMme]

I read somewhere that a person alive now has a lower chance of dying a violent death that at any time in recorded history (though how that was worked out I don't know).

It does seem horrible, but I always remind myself that it's not World War II when millions upon millions of people were killed in the space of 6 years.