Traumatised by the news

Why is it silly to be so affected? We should be affected by the suffering of others; if we aren't, nothing changes. It's easier to go the other way and become desensitised by seeing so much suffering that we recalibrate it in our minds as less serious. I agree with others though, lay off the news for a while, or don't click on a headline you know will upset you too much.

I NEVER watch news on the TV - never ever.

Headlines from BBC on my phone - that is enough.

Our lives are so media-led - you only have to look at the current political "crisis" - this is media constructed/contrived.

They head for the most eye-catching and gut-wrenching images as they are competing for ratings. Unfortunately many children are exposed to all this in households where the TV is on all the time.

I'm feeling the same way. I don't engage with upsetting news at all but any time I go online I'm handed headlines that make me feel physically weak. I try not to read them but it's only a few words and usually a picture and the information is in my head before I can stop it.

I've been wanting to explore a way to block certain types of news stories from making their way to me but I don't think that's possible beyond just not engaging with them. It's awful though. If I have to keep hearing about terrible things happening to children I'm going to have to go live in a cave.

I was watching a history documentary and they mentioned in passing that people (?1940s) would watch the Pathé news once a week at the cinema.

That sounds so nice. Imagine news only once a week*

*No..I'm not saying the 40s was a great time to be alive. No pile on. I'm specifically talking about the news being once a week.

And yes you can try and avoid the news but it is bloody everywhere. If you have the radio on for the travel on the school run, if you walk past the papers at the petrol station etc

This week has been particularly bad.

World new is always bad but this week there has been at least two major stories coming from the UK that involve children.

It's quite harrowing.

when I first had children I found it very hard to read about child abuse cases. But not now, though of course they are awful. I think if something relates to a personal experience (for example a plane crash when you have a fear of flying and are about to go in holiday) it can be distressing. Otherwise it’s how news works - they will report about two trains hitting each other, they are not going to report the thousands of daily train journeys that are without incident!

On the other hand its a good time to be alive. We are richer, healthier, better fed, better educated, than ever before. Bad shit is always happening somewhere.

It's always been doom and gloom! Tell your social media to show you less of this, unfollow any news you don't want and focus on that which you do.

Many people are choosing to avoid the news now.

https://theconversation.com/why-40-per-cent-of-people-are-avoiding-the-news-according-to-a-psychologist-282023

I stopped watching the news in 2020 because the Covid stuff affected my mental health. I feel happier not watching it.

I think the algorithms of our news apps don't help. As well as click bait headlines.

I've lost a fair bit of sleep over news of the last fortnight op.

I don't even follow it avidly, just the 6 o'clock news on the telly, it's not on my feeds, aside from MN I'm not on socials....

And aside from the utterly disgusting things that have happened - the body cam footage, the real-time videos filmed on peoples phones...it adds another layer of horrificness (Nowak, and the poor man in NI) is broadcast...as well as the awful events themselves I think those images seer themselves into my minds eye. I don't know that the BBC would have broadcast those images 15 years ago.

I don't know if I'm making a coherent point here, I know what I am trying to say. Its the level of details that we are given these days idk.

I am very distraught over the two little ones in the media this week and have been turning the news off.

@ithappenstootherfamilies I know im a bit too trusting of google! Apparently if we keep ourselves informed of anything that goes wrong it's a way of trying to prevent it from happening to us which makes sense as to why it's so easy to fixate on bad news stories

I voted YABU, because you could have just refused to listen, read, watch.

You googled it! So of course it is correct - defence mechanism for what??

It’s very easy to not read or watch, you’re being a bit dramatic.

OP I completely agree, I’ve been trying to avoid a couple of distressing news stories this week as well. Sometimes I start reading a news item and read details that I can’t forget, but once I’ve read them I can’t un-read them, but I’ll then avoid reading the same story again.

We never have the news on at home, we do listen to the radio, and that even goes too far for me. We have primary school aged kids and every hour the radio is taking about murder or abuse. It’s just too much constantly.

I am sorry, but you are being dramatic!

Bad news is everywhere, always has been, always will be, does it actually affect you? Does it??

On what level does it "tramatise" you, how?

Atrocities happen all over the world every single day, it is awful, but how does affect you today?

I feel the same. So much crap in the world but i want to be informed, I dont want to live in a little bubble. I guess you just have to limit how much you read. There's certain stories in the past week that have really upset me and I do tend to fixate on them. Apparently it's a defence mechanism to ruminate on bad news...I googled it! I had a really busy day yesterday and keeping busy stopped me from having news on my mind too much

This week was was bad as there was a lot ofdetail about 2 trains crashing yesterday which was very close to home lots of horrible descriptions. I often pause a story about children so I can fast forward through it. YANBU I agree that having a news break is a good idea.

Remember when you might have got the odd newspaper and then watched the 9 o clock news? It wasn’t available on tap every day, our bodies are not made to be activated so consistently. You have to step away.

there has always been these crimes, these wars …

Exactly this. The news is designed to be gloomy, because bad news sells. The Daily Mail chooses articles to make people spit with anger over their cornflakes. Even the BBC does this, in a different way.

Google “why news is bad for you”. I remember an article advocating a 30-day news detox, and that after it, you will be more relaxed about news.

I always mute Classic FM news: I don’t want to hear Trump speak, or an interview with someone crying (they feature these a lot). I abandoned Radio 4 in 2020, and I’ve never looked back.