What the hell is going on with the world??

[Mummytotwonow]

So far this week:

• Poor lady missing in the woods
• Mob gang beat up the school girl
• Headteacher and daughter killed
• Over 7000 people killed in Turkey earthquake
• Continuing cost of living crisis
• wars going on
• so on and so on

Has it always been this bad or am I being over sensitive? I feel so depressed my children are growing up in this world.

I know there are good things going on and good people out there but all I see is doom and gloom and awful events happening. It’s easy to say step away from the news but is that just turning a blind eye?

I just don’t know anymore… feel like either the world has gone mad or I have. It’s so overwhelming 😢

one of the best bits of advice I got from a mental health worker was to limit my exposure to the news. I do still follow politics but I take regular breaks from it,(lasting weeks or months), and have seen how much better I feel when I don’t consume the news. Most ‘News’ is designed to shock and frighten. There are some news media sources who mostly just inform, but it’s generally not the type you can access for free.

rather than the “baby-pulled-from-rubble” stuff.

Generally, I’d say, get your news from the BBC

You say that but (unusually for me) I watched the entire news last night and the BBC showed footage of a dead child's hand in the rubble.

It was horrible and reminded me why I don't watch that garbage any more. Lyse Doucet intoning lugubriously while they beamed footage of an actual dead child's hand - a child born to parents who when that child was born had all the dreams that parents have as to how that child would move in and be seen by the world ...

They're all at it, all the news outlets. It is disgusting. We know what earthquakes look like and we know they kill people including children. We don't need to use other people's dead children as props for our understanding of that.

For balance, radio 3 this morning had a much better way of marking the earthquake. They played a beautiful Chopin prelude played by a Turkish pianist. That is a much better way to hold Turkish people in your thoughts imo.

You have forgotten the trans-butcher in Scotland, who kept hold of a young girl. Unfuckingbelievable.

This. It’s the worst I’ve ever known it. It’s everything all at once.

@Mummytotwonow it has certainly been a dreadful couple of weeks!

I don't agree that burying your head in the sand is the answer. I don't want to not know what's going on, I want it to stop going on!!

ive definitely had a couple of weeks of WTF now??? So many different things....

I just think that at some stage we have to come out the other side of it all & life will be less shit again 🤞🏼

@Mummytotwonow you don’t need to “stay informed” at all. If we didn’t have communications, we would only know what happens at a local level. I worked for a major broadcaster in the news department, and they are all competing for your time and attention so the most shocking stories are used. If the news is affecting your mental health, switch off. You can inform yourself about other things, what’s happening in your local community for example? Good causes who need help? My personal opinion now is it’s all designed to suck our energy away, and keep us distracted. The MSM don’t report on a lot of things which really, we should be told about. But there’s too much money at stake so it’s not reported on. Plus it’s all biased nomatter how much the broadcasters insist they aren’t. Choose how you spend your energy wisely and look after your mental health.

Was thinking the same thing earlier today.

This week there was also the pos who was sentenced for murdering Bennylyn Burke and her 2 year old daughter.

The woman who attempted to murder her three young children and herself.

To me it feels like it's just getting worse and worse. It probably just seems that way though with instant news, social media etc.

The earthquake was in Syria as well and there not getting anywhere near as much help as Turkey. But yes it's like the world has gone to the dogs. If it's not another mass shooting in America there's another disaster elsewhere.

Well Syria is complex and there isn't really a straightforward good guy/bad guy narrative that suits our own realpolitik + Russian involvement and so We Don't Talk About That so much.

OP "How do people manage to stay informed and not get overwhelmed?"

switch off the news. The information will reach you, but more as factual statements. That really helps. I only see the news or a newspaper at mum's and the drama is very striking when you're not used to it.

I think this is the third recession I’ve been through, I escaped a bomb by minutes in London. Remember The Troubles. The Boxing Day tsunami. The 4 minute warning. Petrol strikes around lates 90s?

The world keeps turning.

Pit re the dead child, I had almost forgotten the media show that. I lost loved ones in a terror attack and being on that end of reporting is horrendous. And so disrespectful to the dead.

agree with pp that overpopulation makes things worse, and makes them seem worse. but the only bit of that you can control is limiting your exposure to the news.

I’ll tell you what I said to a previous poster….

STOP WATCHING THE NEWS!

Why do you feel the need to “stay informed”? If it’s disturbing your peace then just stop. None of these issues exist in your reality (except possibly the COL crisis? Which incidentally still cannot be changed by “keeping informed”). So just stop. Stop consuming it. Consume what feeds you not what depletes you. News/media is designed to eat away at you, to keep ppl down so they don’t rise up, to keep your mood low. There’s no need to be paying it any attention, I promise you, stopping watching that manipulated, false shite that they feed everyone was one of the best decisions I ever made for my mental health.

This is peak Mumsnet. No things are not worse because the Black Death happened.
I swear if there was a zombie invasion someone on MN would say things have always been as bad because look at Hiroshima.

@EmmaEmerald I am so sorry for your loss.

60 years is a blink in the history of the world. There have been much much worse times outside of your lifetime.

It's always been this way.

Off the point I suppose, but why can't people on Mumsnet just say "I disagree" rather than declaring people are being "ridiculous"? This inability to accept or understand people have their own points of view is one of the worst traits of modern society.

It’s always been like this, in fact for much of history it’s been so much worse. The difference is knowing about it

In 1666 amongst other things the Great Fire of and the Great Plague of London were both in the news.

Makes what we are looking at seem a bit, well, minor. I mean wondering if the plague or fire would kill you is pretty grim. Fortunately there was a war with Holland to direct from the mundane.

We have antibiotics, anesthesia and hygiene. Along with at least a nod to women's rights. It might not be perfect but at least we aren't dying of cholera and dysentery with one leg.

So life is good because we have no plague, antibiotics, and anaesthesia.
There is a very low bar being set on this thread.

OP

Your kids are growing up in one of the wealthiest safest countries of the world.

Levels of violence and disease are a drop in the ocean of what they were in eg medieval times.

No secret police will knock on your door at night here and drag your kids' father away.

Your kids have access to education and healthcare.

It's really not that bad.

It's bad in Turkey, Syria, Ukraine and all the many other countries where there is famine and war or natural disaster.

In this county we are all very fortunate.

There's always been terrible news. In the first half of the 20th century we had 2 World wars, pandemic, worldwide depression, also major flood, cyclone, earthquake and tsunami disasters with 100s of 1000s dead.

The UK murder rate peaked in 2002 and has been falling ever since.

Op if you take on every news item from Syria to missing personsyou’re going to struggle as you say.

If you’re overwhelmed take a break from the news and concentrate on what you can endure

Well I think freedom from war, horrible disease and starvation - is a pretty massive bonus personally!