Traumatised by the news

[StrangePineapple]

This week I’ve been struggling immensely with rumination on current events.
I literally feel traumatised with the darkness of it all and will have to take a break from the news for a while to recover I think 😞
AIBU to think that news stories these days include too much detail on certain cases and it’s just not necessary, like they could easily express the weight of the story without going into such detail?
I’ve seen a few posts on here where people have expressed distress over horrible news stories and people reply with even more detail or talking about similar cases, why add to their sorrow?

The news has just felt like doom and gloom for ages 😭 I often don’t bother reading it anymore as it makes me miserable! I’ve ditched social
media for the same reason.

What is your pattern of behaviour around news? All I can suggest is to maintain our humanity, stay in our own lane and cut back news to the absolute minimum.
It's a challenge if you have a shred of empathy.

Perhaps you'd be better off not reading threads about the current news and avoiding news items if they're causing you distress.

I don’t watch the news or read much either. Just the same old stuff every day.

If it’s causing you so much distress then maybe you should avoid it? I do.

YANBU

I have a friend who just won’t listen to the news now - it depresses her too much

There are so many times now where people have live footage due to phone cameras and I don’t think it should all be shared. One story this week made me feel sick and really upset - I’ve woken up a few times about 3am thinking about it and not been able to get back to sleep

I miss the times when they always finished on a piece of good news. There are good people in this world and good things happening and we need to share that a whole lot more

Currently news is just not balanced - I do want to be aware of things happening , but not force fed only misery

I don't watch the news. I read online the parts that I want too, and leave the things that I can't stomach. It's a mantra that I've stood by, for several years now.

My mood improved when I stopped looking at The Daily Mail - try avoiding that for a week.

I try to find “non sensationalist” new outlets, that post facts and not hyperbole, and listen to experts rather than freelance journos trying to earn a few more clicks.

Yes I will definitely be forgoing the news for a while.
The reason I was looking at threads on it was that I was looking to find others who were also struggling with feelings of trauma in this way, because it felt quite silly really that I should be so affected by the news that it would interfere with my daily life and happiness. On top of which there’s no one IRL that I can really talk to about such things at the moment.

Stop watching the news.

Algorithms are a nightmare for keeping on enticing you back to watching more and more sensational or distressing content, so you really have to consciously not click, not read, try and train your algorithms to give you different sorts of content by watching things that don't wreck your mental health.

Whilst avoiding the news I would recommend this documentary https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p088s5k4/the-power-of-nightmares

It’s in the interest of World Leaders to keep us in a perpetual state of fear…

I don't watch any news content. I have enough to be depressed about in my own life. I don't like being ignorant but it's preferable to being upset about depressing news stories. Obviously I'm on here most days so if stuff is being talked about then I will know about it sort of but unless I click on the threads then it still won't affect me that much.

Yes I’ve also been struggling with sleep this week 😞
I agree there needs to be much more balance with good/bad news. And also a change to how they report, I know sometimes they're trying to be attention grabby and sensationalist but I believe the psychological effects on viewers needs to be taken into account with regards to how they portray the information.

The fact is that modern communications have meant that in this globally-connected world we are subjected to a barrage of information that we would once have never known about - and I honestly think it is simply too much for a normal human being to absorb and deal with. And we see the sort of graphic detail that would once have been sadly experienced by the few, but not generally disseminated.

I know it is important that we do not bury our heads in the sand, if only because this might inform our voting in general elections, but self-protection is also important. We do not add to the sum of human happiness by knowingly making ourselves unhappy. It is OK to decide how much you can take without finishing up ruminating and ruining your own life.

So I look at the BBC headlines on my phone each morning and that is that. Occasionally there is a topic that I decide to pursue in more depth.

I also read Positive News and can highly recommend this as an antidote - it relates achievements and successful projects from around the world.

I think you should limit your exposure to the news It is fine to do that - lots of people do. You are not obliged to get soaked with it.

Hi OP, I am the same, I just cannot cope with all the bad news, so I just don’t engage with it. I know broadly what’s going on, but as soon as I see something I know will be upsetting I put phone down/turn radio off etc etc. I don’t watch any tv news.
Something I read a few years ago by the journalist Lucy Mangan really made sense to me, she said that we were not designed to hear all global or even national bad news. In previous centuries before media and technology, we would only have heard about what was going on in our local area. So basically it’s ok to not have the capacity to deal with a constant onslaught of bad news from around the globe!

I mainly just watch Sky news on tv, so it’s not so much about the algorithms for me, but every so often they’ll show something horrific and I will feel compelled to read some online articles about it to make it make sense, which frankly will NEVER happen again as this past week has broken more than I ever thought possible.

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.

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 …

Thank you for this, I will definitely be watching

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.

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

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?

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.

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