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les Stress
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BREAKING NEWS NERVES
Les,
I’m sure that your other readers will agree that watching the news today is very stressful, and in my case, has even given me nightmares. There are so many bad things going on in the world and I find that a lot of my stress comes from trying to shield my 10-year old daughter from it. My husband says that we should just stop watching and reading the news, but it would make me crazy not knowing what was going on. I would be interested in hearing your take on this issue—thank you.
News Junky
News Junky,
“Global warming gets worse.” “Terror alert raised to yellow.” “Is your child’s lollypop laced with lead?” “Rabid squirrel spotted in city park.” There sure is a lot of bad you-know-what going down, along with information that’s flung at us in ways that can make us feel threatened and afraid—in other words, stressed. The good news is that we can calm our news nerves without tuning out, and I suppose this belief puts me somewhere between you and your husband in the media room
Some or a lot of the emotional distress we feel from world events comes from how these events are fed to us and how we choose to lick them up. Are any of your family’s news sources and your info consumption habits contributing to your frayed news nerves? Can you cut out your nightmares by switching from “Eyewitness Blood and Guts at 11” to a newspaper read farther away from bedtime? Do we really need breaking “news” texts about Baliwood and Brittany Spears? Information may be everywhere, but we still have a lot of control over how, when and where we decide to get it. Unlike your husband, a cold-turkey news diet isn’t for you or me: instead, how about some media editing?
Personal and global stress reduction also comes from doing something about the issues and events that we find upsetting. The rising tide of harrying headlines can make us feel hopeless about the future and powerless to make a positive difference for our world. But, sending an opinion email, volunteering for a cause, marching in a protest, or changing buying habits, can have an impact on these happenings and our health. Hans Selyé , the pioneer of stress research, called this strategy, altruistic egoism, which means that doing things for others and our community makes
us feel more in control and better about ourselves—two key stress-relief ingredients.
If Brian Williams is at your dinner table, switch him off in favor of a planning session with your daughter for ways your family can satisfy your hunger for news without getting indigestion.
Les
12/07
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