What to Do When Bad News Brings the Blues
What to Do When Bad News Brings the Blues
Julie T. Kinn, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and the deputy director of the Mobile Health Program at the National Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2). She helps oversee the development, implementation, and evaluation of mobile health applications to support the military community.
“Why’s your face like that?” my son asked me.
“I’m reading the news,” I explained.
He looked over my shoulder at the website. “We should watch a Minecraft video instead.”
I tried to explain. “No, I want to read this. Some very bad things have happened.”
“Why do you want to read something that makes you sad?”
“Um…well, it’s part of being a good citizen...I want to know what’s happening in my country, even if it’s sad. Also, people will be talking about it, and I want to understand. Does that make sense?”
“Not really.”
As much as I’m sick of Minecraft videos, my son has a point. There is a happy medium between consuming the news and becoming consumed with the news. Since the introduction of 24-hour news networks, we rarely get to “the end” of a news story. There will always be additional details, interviews and expert opinions on important topics. News websites have provided us nearly instant access to important information, but they are designed to pull us in and send us off to related stories. There will never be a message saying, “That’s it. You know everything there is to know about this topic. Go take a walk.”
Following a tragedy, it’s common to feel powerless. We feel a lack of control over the events, but also an inability to make a difference. For these reasons, watching or reading the news can lower your mood, cause anxiety, and raise your heart rate. Sometimes it can even cause nightmares and other signs of stress caused by exposure to trauma (studies show that stress was frequent after watching the events of 9/11 , for example). Although it’s important to understand current events, it’s also essential to understand how getting absorbed in the news can affect you. Watching a video of a tragedy one time can be informative. Watching it several times may be a sign that it’s time for you to turn off the news.
Here are some tips to help you cope with “news blues”:
• Set a limit. If you're a news junkie, allow yourself a maximum of three articles about tragedies every day. If you are especially susceptible to “click bait” (those appealing links that pull you into endless stories), set an alarm for five minutes.
• Relax. Some people are more affected by negative news and remain stressed after viewing traumatic information. Try deep breathing with one of our apps like Breathe2Relax or click on the Relax Me button on Virtual Hope Box. You can also set up Virtual Hope Box to play your favorite videos (like these on pandas). Or go take a walk.
• Reconfigure your social media settings. Many of us get our first glimpse of news on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Consider unfollowing news sources and connections that post an unhealthy amount of news coverage. Instead of reading (and re-reading) about events constantly throughout the day, visit news sites on your own terms.
• Take action. Since much of the distress comes from a sense of powerlessness, think about ways you can make a difference; even a small act of kindness or community involvement can boost your mood. It’s okay if it’s not directly related to an issue that’s bothering you. Consider volunteering at an animal shelter or local soup kitchen for a few hours and tell yourself, “this is in honor of …”
How do you take a “news break”? When can you tell if watching the news has become a problem for you?
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