Does following world news get you down?

[lifequake]

I was not sure where to post this, so I figured here was as fine a place as any...

Do you read a newspaper, follow the news online, or watch it on TV? If so, how do you reconcile all of the atrocity, death, and suffering going on around the world without feeling hopeless or powerless? I know not all news is bad news, but a lot of it sure isn't upbeat.

Do you keep up with news when you are depressed?

On an okay day, I find what I read to be a poignant reminder of our humanity and connectedness to one another. I enjoy learning and relating. However, sometimes this really does feel like a sick, sad world.

I am not sure if I am making much sense. Perhaps it is okay to find upsetting news so unsettling? I just wonder how people can compartmentalize.

Thanks if you have any thoughts to share.

[bpladybug]

I tend to be a news junkie. It is upseting and disturbing.

I am taking a little break at the moment. I stopped my NY Times newspaper delivery

and I am watching much less cable news.

I purchase an occasional newspaper.

It seems to be helping. Tonight I was able to take a nap in the early evening.

I don't think I would have been able to do that if I had watched CNN.

[Emettman]

Not desperately, but I didn't start from a happy fluffy bunny rose-tinted view of the world in the first place.

And having read some history, I know there were far worse times and places to have been alive than where I find myself.

(I find touching base with past centuries does give a degree of perspective and balance.)

"The news is bad" is to me more accurately a statement about the quality of news media and coverage than of the overall state of the world (which is not to imply that is wonderful.)

It precisely lacks proportion and perspective, but there are clear pressures working to push things that way, and yes the end result can be very depressing, if given too much weight or if the unstated but very present assumptions and values of the media are allowed to pass unexamined or worse, unnoticed. Spot the fnords.

Counterbalances? Reading of other times and places. Picking up a critique of the madness of our times in Robert Heinlein's idea of "The Crazy Years", as commented on by Spider Robinson.

Stephen Jay Gould's essay "Ten Thousand Acts of Kindness"

And for a better idea of personal risk, I think terrorism news should be given out with the local sport and weather ant the end of news broadcasts. "And the terrorism news for this county? There isn't any, again."

I'm not scared by motorists and they kill far more people than terrorists do.

They are going to have to queue up behind bad drivers as people I can be bothered to worry about.

(People who have dealing with terrorists as their job, that's different: but I don't need to hear about rat-catchers in the new headlines either. I just need to know the appropriate number of people are gainfully employed in what needs doing. Again, I'm not sure the proportions have been got right... but that's another story.)

Chris.

[meganhalley]

When I'm depressed, I actually avoid watching the news. I'll watch something like the Colbert Report if I want some inkling (no matter how skewed) as to what's sort of going on, but that's about it. I find that the rest of it is just too much for me to handle. I can seem to handle the headlines from my Twitter feed more or less okay though, and that way, I feel like I have the freedom to click on the story if I want to know more/feel like I can handle it.

[Cerberus]

There is an alternative. There are news outlets that only post good news - exclusively. This is such a novel notion that I created a pinned post with links to several such sites in two forums here, and titled them "REQUIRED READING". You'll find them in both the Depression forum and in We've Got The Good Stuff Here. Seriously, if you're someone who likes to keep up with the news - and there's a positive benefit for persons suffering from depression in staying connected with the outside world - go check out these sites.

Like, now.

I mean you, reading this.

No, you.

Yes, you.

People say it picks them up almost at once.

GO.

[Indigo 'n dye]

"The news is bad" is to me more accurately a statement about the quality of news media and coverage than of the overall state of the world (which is not to imply that is wonderful.)

Yes, yes, and yes: hyperbole and hysteria. The adage, "A lie makes its way round the world, while the truth is putting on its shoes" comes to mind. There seems to be little or no critical thinking taking place either on the part of reporters or readers. It seems that many readers have the mindset that if "it" is in print or on the news it has to be the truth, not sensationalism.

We have not had television for many years and the news outlets I read are not call letters for TV channels. Like most people I can become enraged by what the media presents of news. However, over the years have learned that if there is nothing concrete I can do to change the reality of what is taking place I cannot afford the energy of being enraged, outraged, or engaged.

I enjoy the links Cerberus provided elsewhere. Some people thrive on "bad news". It makes me wonder why they do?

[Wooster]

I have found that I do much better when I do not follow news of any sort...

No tv, no NPR, no newspaper, most of the time not even facebook.

I realize this makes me at a disadvantage for party talk, but it SIGNIFICANTLY cuts down the clutter in my mind.

Also, I figure if there's something I REALLY need to know, it will trickle to me.

[Cerberus]

Indigo -

One of my degrees is in journalism, which I got before I realized that being a reporter meant actually talking to people and my Aspie brain said, "Um... no." But the reason that readers have the mindset that the news presents truth rather than sensationalism is that in the theory and ethics of journalism, and in its best practice, it does. Or perhaps rather than 'truth' it would be better to say 'objective observation and analysis'. In today's media, however, news outlets are no longer allowed to operate according to professional journalism standards by and large; they are owned and controlled by corporate interests, heavily influenced by advertisers, and beholden to political interests. The reason news stories seem to be of certain types is that the news outlets are the 'Gatekeepers' of information. We get to receive the information they decide we get to receive. There are vastly more messages out there than we see and hear - vastly more news stories than we could possibly process. With 7 billion lives colliding with each other on Earth every day, we could do nothing 24/7 but take in news and never scratch the surface. So the media - the means by which the news is transmitted - has to pick and choose, and they pick and choose on the basis of what's most likely to get people's attention.

What tends to get a person's attention most readily? Screaming. Blood. Fire. Explosion. Sex. Money. Fame. Celebrity. Food. Speed. Sex. Outrage. Violence. Anger. Excess. Sex. Excruciating cute kittens. Ugliness. Horror. Collisions. Anything to do with sex. It's not about the news anymore - it's a great big contest between the advertisers to see who can get the most eyeballs looking at their goods and services.

Worst of all are the "news outlets" that have abandoned the ethics of professional journalism entirely and become Propagandists. Exhibit A: Fox News. Now, full disclosure here, I'm either a centrist liberal or liberal centrist, depending on how you look at it, but Fox News is a propaganda machine by definition. It's inarguable. Their choice of story, their analysis, their inclusion - and omission - of information only as supporting their clearly defined agenda - they're not even subtle about it. Fox News has been caught red-handed at this on so many occasions it's disgusting. It simply isn't journalism by any professional standard.

:: stops to pant ::

All of this gets me angrily foaming at the mouth because it destroys the public faith in what is in fact a serious profession with noble goals and a critical role in the preservation of Western-style democratic society - so important that the press is often called the Fourth Estate of government. A free press is the public's guarantee that government remains accountable and aboveboard. But the press is largely co-opted now. Whereas in a nation without democracy the government might shackle the press, here the press is shackled by its corporate owners who feign not to interfere with the workings of their outlets but in fact influence them heavily (if not directly) through their funding of their outlets and the hiring and firing of editors and reporters. And to the degree that corporations also control government, the government connection to the press, where they ought to be a disconnect in a healthy democratic system, is pervasive.

So, we get The Family Guy, Fox News, reality shows, American Idol, and a blender full of porn, gore and cartoons painted with flashy primary colors and filled with loud laugh tracks and screams that keep us glued to the screen so we can keep deciding what to buy next and keep being told what to think without having to actually think about it.

I haven't had TV in the house for two years. I haven't missed it for a second. I watch The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and get my anime fix online. And I get my Doctor Who off iTunes. I take my news from the internet sometimes, but mostly from one of the last remaining bastions of genuine professional journalism: National Public Radio. Still objective, still fair, still balanced. Also the BBC, God bless them.

Cerberus

[Cerberus]

I have found that I do much better when I do not follow news of any sort...

Woo, while there's a certain appeal to pulling the plug altogether, I think some people, especially those with deeply entrenched depression, should be cautious about things that would tend to cut them off from the world around them. That's an ongoing problem, and it often helps to stay connected in some way; the trick is to find positive ways to stay connected. One of the things I like about NPR is that they nearly always try to bring something uplifting into the broadcast. It's never all-gloom-all-the-time. Admittedly, there's a lot of grim crud going down, and it has to be talked about, but someone who's struggling against a deep desire to curl up in a comforter like a grub in a dark room and never come out again could probably benefit from poking the ol' head out of the cocoon long enough to look at The Good News Network on the laptop screen. Or something.

But I'm glad 'cold turkey' works for you.

[Note to self.... Make sure to PM Woo before asteroid hits... ]

Cerberus

[The one lurking behind you]

I end up numb whenever I watch the news, which is at least once a day due to my dad being a news junkie. I take a really morbid interest in some articles, which is not healthy do I try to limit the amount of time I spend watching the news each day.

[FlamelessCandle]

Yes. It does depress me. But I read newspapers (the paper kind!) , listen to the radio (another BBC and NPR fan here) and use the 'net to find more in-depth news - while avoiding the Kardashian family. That part is shockingly difficult no matter WHAT media you use to get your news,

I rarely watch television and then only for a specific program (just watched the documentary "The Weight of the Nation" and it was shocking to find out what a high percentage of Americans (and children!) are classified as overweight or obese, and the health problems it will cause sooner rather than later if we do not move around more and eat less.

We (as a nation) are getting fatter and fatter, and sicker and sicker. And of course, politics plays its role in this arena as well. Very interesting series, and while it is on HBO, it is also being made available for free on the Internet version of HBO,

SO: Even though the news does depress me, I feel it is my duty to know as much as I can.....and potentially do somerhing about it in small pieces, small places.... where I can make a difference.

[Cetkat]

I wouldn't say it really gets me down. That's probably mostly from the fact that I know full well there are horrible things that happen every day, so I'm not surprised when I hear about them. I also know how to put it in perspective and choose what affects me and what doesn't. That doesn't mean I don't care by and large.. but there are limits. I can't care about everyone and everything equally. That would just be maddening.

It's not so much that I compartmentalize as it is that I intellectualize. I can think things through without letting them bother me. Anything particularly poignant that slips through that can be dealt with by a certain sense of humor, not much unlike a homicide investigator's, that's particularly effective at deflecting things.

If it affects me, someone I know, or is something I can actually do something about - then I care. Sometimes I care about things other than that, but the main point is that I choose to.

That said, I rarely watch the news. But that's more from frustration (largely with politics - both political and social) than from a wish to avoid bad news. When something is being covered that I feel the need to keep up with (like the debacles with raising the deficit or large natural disasters), I can and will go almost 24/7. Of course without regular watching, it's often hard to know about things. I haven't quite figured out how to balance that. The filter-down method doesn't always work.

I don't know if it has much to do with a disconnect or not.. I definitely have one IRL, but I'm not sure I stay away from the news for any of the same reasons. I don't make any efforts to avoid it, I just don't make an effort to watch it either.

[crtclms]

I pretty much posted the deleted post elsewhere.

[Rae-Rae]

I'm a political junkie. I take breaks from it though. Before I started taking lexapro the wrong story about a kids death would really mess me up. Im super sensitive when it comes to children. After my son got burned badly on his feet a few yrs ago I think I got a bit of PTSD from it because if my oldest was late coming home I flipped out a few times. A full blown panic attack with visions of my son being killed and molested in every way I've heard happen to kids on the news. It's one of the things that made me finally go to the pdoc. I was told to avoid the news for awhile but honestly the meds work so that I can get my news fix and handle it. I like to stay on top of what's going on in the world, I take days off if I feel I don't need the mental stress.

I think the site is "good news network". I found this website a few weeks ago and thought it was great. Only good news, with so much bad news being pumped out for better ratings I think it's healthy to have a good balance. Check it out if you want happy news.

[Emettman]

I like the BBC online news compared to TV or radio broadcasts, as online you can skip the items you are not interested in and take more of those you are.

The BBC also does not neglect the quirky, the local interest and the just fun in its presentations.

(try the "odd box")

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/18290804

(from the possibly converging Mitt Romney thread)

[The Emperor]

It doesn't get me down, it freaks me out and I can't watch it or I get a little more crazy every time I read/watch the news.

[Gearhead]

I think that for the most part there is very little news. I've been having health issues since the 21st, so yesterday was the first time I bothered to listen to the news (I, too, am a big NPR fan) in eleven days. The topics they were covering were exactly the same as what had been on the last time I listened: Blah blah Mitt Romney, blah Ron Paul, blah blah Greece, blah blah Syria, blah blah economy. Despite the existence of a 24/7 news cycle, which might lead you to believe otherwise, shit really just doesn't change that fast.

Of course, the news can also be punctuated by stories of truly Baroque horror, like the so-called "zombie" killing in Miami and the spree killings in Seattle, but if you think about it those are basically just local interest/relevance stories that got national attention because the news system needs filler to justify its existence.

[Guest]

I don't own a television and only get my news from the BBC online, and from radio, where at least I can avoid graphic visual images. Like Woo, the less I consume the less disturbed I am. I'm active on issues that I am passionate about, I vote etc but I don't feel that paying attention to the swathes of heavily biased news will make me better citizen or activist.

[Cerberus]

Another thing I've noticed is that if I'm looking at the news on, say, CNN.com, I tend to get less stressed if I avoid the videos and stick with the text stories. I think this is because video footage is even more likely than written reportage to select for the sensational or horrific in an attempt to grab eyeballs. Besides, you usually get much more actual depth of information out of a text story than a video clip. So much for a picture being worth 1,000 words...

[crtclms]

I can't stand images of violence. I can't watch movies, tv shoes, videos, or whatever, sometimes even if they just "suggest" the violence off camera. I don't want to recount one scene in a movie I couldn't even watch, and I mostly just *heard* it, because I covered my eyes. But that scene still freaks me out when I think about it. Like right now, gah.

I can read about violence. But I mostly read politics.

[enlightened_plutonian]

I tend to stick to BBC online. That way if something is interesting then I can click on it but I can avoid all the other stuff.

To be honest though news doesn't interest me as much as it used to. Many days I don't read any actual news, just the headlines. I used to be really into politics, but not so much now.

[Cerberus]

I can't stand images of violence. I can't watch movies, tv shoes, videos, or whatever

Yeah, tv shoes get me too. Especially really, really, really high heels. How do they walk in those?

[Rae-Rae]

I can't stand images of violence. I can't watch movies, tv shoes, videos, or whatever

Yeah, tv shoes get me too. Especially really, really, really high heels. How do they walk in those?

computer editing, they can do anything with it now days.

[Velvet Elvis]

I consider it my responsibility as a member of the human race to be aware of human suffering and what's going on in the world. I consider it selfish to be content with the world without being constantly aware of those less fortunate than you.

Sometimes I can't stand it and it makes me want to break shit, but I don't feel that I have the right to look away.

[Gearhead]

Sometimes I can't stand it and it makes me want to break shit, but I don't feel that I have the right to look away.

I used to feel that way, too. But once, when I was in the midst of a particularly devastating depressive episode, my tdoc forbade me to watch the news because, as he put it, I was already keenly aware that the world is full of suffering people and my mind doesn't really have effective barriers for keeping ideas in appropriate compartments or proportions, and I was making myself worse and-this is the kicker-nothing productive was coming from it.

So now I try to be selective about what I allow into my head. I have a very morbid imagination. I can't help make the world better if I let myself become paralyzed. I find T.S. Eliot helpful: "Teach us to care and not to care/teach us to sit still." I know that I will accomplish nothing if I go haring off after every story that breaks my heart. I have to choose my battles.

[Cerberus]

Gearhead - There is also the philosophy (Zen, I think) of doing nothing at all because every single action we take affects the universe in ways we cannot predict, both for good and for evil. The trouble is, that includes breathing, and sort of begs the question of why we exist in the first place if not to live. I think your choose-your-battles approach is the right one.

[Guest]

I encounter those who are less fortunate than me every time I step out of my front door, so it's not necessary for me to religiously watch the news when the microcosm of human suffering and evil lives next door That said, yes, it's our responsibility to educate ourselves and take action. But whether news media is the best way to do so, I'm not sure.

[Indigo 'n dye]

I consider it my responsibility as a member of the human race to be aware of human suffering and what's going on in the world. I consider it selfish to be content with the world without being constantly aware of those less fortunate than you.

Just because I avoid the sensational headlines and gory details of the most popular "news" sources do not assume that I am unaware of what takes place in the world. There are some few things I can do, in concrete terms, to not only be aware but to take action for the less fortunate. Once a month I cook a meal for 30 and have it delivered to a local kitchen that feeds indigent and low income folks. I am nearly always available to the same group to make a dozen loaves of bread for a spaghetti dinner or for a picnic in the park.

Being aware is only a fraction of understanding what is going on in the world.

Living next to the Mexican border makes me all TOO aware. We have two fifty gallon barrels conveniently located to provide fresh water to the travellers. In the cold months gather blankets and coats and shoes together, wash them, and keep them in a metal trunk for those who are truly less fortunate.

While I have great empathy for the rest of the unfortunate citizens of the world, and what they are subjected to on a daily basis, there is little that my being aware of their plight does for them. I, and others in the community, take action for those in our immediate community who are also in dire straights.

Sometimes I can't stand it and it makes me want to break shit, but I don't feel that I have the right to look away.

Use the energy of wanting to break things and make a big pot of soup for the local shelter. Don't look away, rather do something constructive.

[Cetkat]

So now I try to be selective about what I allow into my head. I have a very morbid imagination. I can't help make the world better if I let myself become paralyzed. I find T.S. Eliot helpful: "Teach us to care and not to care/teach us to sit still." I know that I will accomplish nothing if I go haring off after every story that breaks my heart. I have to choose my battles.

Exactly. Do what you can when you can.

I consider it my responsibility as a member of the human race to be aware of human suffering and what's going on in the world. I consider it selfish to be content with the world without being constantly aware of those less fortunate than you.

Sometimes I can't stand it and it makes me want to break shit, but I don't feel that I have the right to look away.

That's a valid point, but I don't think anyone who has posted here is really content with the state of the world. It's a good thing to be aware, but dwelling without recourse does nobody any good. I don't often watch the news, but I am a part of online activist groups. I may not be able to contribute much, but I can sign petitions that sometimes make a real difference for people.

[lifequake]

Thank you for your responses. I've enjoyed relating to each and every one of you. Food for thought.