Bad News Fatigue

News media makes up a significant part of our environment and takes up time in our every day. Increasingly, this is making us feel a little overwhelmed, stressed and even depressed. Recent studies found that 68% of us have news fatigue and are simply feeling worn out by all the information out there.

Bad news tends to get more coverage so most of what you see, read and hear will have a negative element running through it. As humans we are hardwired to seek out and remember bad news – we naturally look for the negative. We have evolved this way in order to respond to potential threats, seeing bad news as possible signals that we need to change what we’re doing to avoid danger. Studies have shown that when we hear bad news, we worry about more than the content of the news story itself.

Even though we all know that news is often sensationalised, and the extreme stories are featured, we want to be informed, connected and plugged in. It can be hard to stay informed without that experience taxing our nervous system and stressing us out when so many of these things feel beyond our control. There are several articles on the Internet with suggestions on how to deal with “headline stress disorder.”

Turn off the devices that send you news alerts.

Keep the TV/news off in the bedroom.

Pick one source of news rather than many to avoid hearing the same thing over and over.

Remember that “this too shall pass”

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