Coping with bad news in a media-saturated era

Wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East Political assassinations Executive orders Supreme Court decisions Egg prices Atmosphere change While negative and polarizing headlines are nothing new the places where they reach people have diversified They can feel almost impossible to avoid MinnPost talked with mental healthcare professionals about the changing media landscape its impact on well-being and how people can cope People who struggle with mental illness may experience a worsening of characteristics as a end of news consumption reported Byron Almen a Twin Cities therapist Typically Almen mentioned it ll hit them in the areas where they re already vulnerable Past trauma unrelated to current events can truly resurface Almen explained Take for example trauma related to an abusive or overbearing parent if someone perceives the governing body as overbearing the feelings associated with that parent can become associated with the administration There s a kind of echo effect that happens So what was very intimate and painful becomes global and painful at the same time Almen declared For Rebecca Arens a mental physical condition advocate who has experienced mental medical struggles the influx of negative news on TV can worsen her depression I would have to sleep away the pain she announced She stopped paying attention to news on social media though it still appears Whenever Arens eats in the cafeteria where she lives she is faced with TVs displaying the latest headlines Social Media I have a choice to turn that on on my device A TV in a population setting like I m in I don t have a choice she declared She can turn her back and put on headphones she mentioned but the choice impacts her ability to socialize another factor affecting her happiness Rebecca Arens pictured in her home in Waconia works with the National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Record for America Arens wishes news outlets would spend more time highlighting positive events like the people who came from all over the world to clean up the devastation in Texas after latest flooding She thinks part of the issue lies with new reporters and the angles they choose Why do you focus on the negative she declared This affects not just people with mental illnesses This affects everybody doesn t it Dealing with change Certain of the newest polarizing news stems from the transition between presidential administrations Increasing division in Congress makes for legislative inefficiency prompting incumbent presidents to sign executive orders to enact initiative swiftly President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is known to have signed the the majority executive orders out of all U S presidents Earlier this year President Donald Trump having signed orders broke Roosevelt s record for majority of executive orders signed in the first days of a presidency As of July President Trump had signed executive orders Pair these executive orders with the back-and-forth between the executive branch and the federal courts and the modern signing of the GOP-led One Big Beautiful Bill Act and you have quite a minimal Americans experiencing major changes in their lives and thus feeling that they need to pay more attention to the headlines on their screens Sue Aberholden the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI Minnesota has fielded several emails from people worried about losing their Medicaid benefits under the new statute The greater part of the people will keep their benefits since they have serious mental illnesses and are certified as disabled she commented But they re not receiving in-depth information The news usually gives you snippets They don t provide that detail and I think that can make it hard for people whose very lives depend on Section Housing on Medicaid on SNAP she mentioned At NAMI help groups normally don t discuss politics especially during elections but the stream of changes in the country makes avoiding the subject more complex We don t talk about candidates You know we just don t go there But now we re seeing all these policies that are impacting people and they re like I have to talk about it Aberholden announced She mentioned the news landscape she experienced growing up has shifted dramatically You had the newspapers and you had the and o clock news she mentioned There was nothing else and so your exposure to what was happening in the world in specific way was limited Aberholden thinks a lot of people s fatigue and anxiety surrounding the news started with COVID- and the constant reminder that people were dying worldwide News outlets like CNN displayed infection and death counts around the clock If you re already struggling with your mental physical condition maybe you have depression or anxiety schizophrenia maybe you re feeling a little paranoid about the world right I mean it just makes it worse she stated Byron Almen Credit Byron Almen Although distressing news is inevitable people receive it more regularly because of social media The experience of immigration for instance is no longer limited to immigrants advocates law enforcement or those involved in guidelines Through livestreams and videos of immigration raids and protests GoFundMe campaigns for legal fees and tweets from masses authorities anyone can observe processes associated with immigration and enforcement as they happen Social media has opened the door to more frequent sharing of news not just for journalists but also for everyday citizens increasing the foreseen for misinformation to spread Tweets rehashing urgent news headlines go viral and people react to them without knowing if they hold accurate information How to cope An October assessment published in the Journal of Constituents Strength stated that misinformation related to COVID- increased effects of panic anxiety and other forms of psychological distress A scrutiny of people s news habits revealed a link between severely problematic news consumption and poor mental strength What should people do when the headlines are endless and have the anticipated to cause harm Unplugging is an option but as Arens has explained it isn t invariably feasible and can come at the cost of group A few people constantly monitor the news because they feel their communities are unsafe or that they have to do the work to make them safer Others worry about how much money they should have in their savings should the economic system weaken Are protests turning into riots Is World War III imminent Do they need to pack a go-bag Arens s understanding of locality and how it can fuel her happiness comes from her Christian faith and an online class she audited at Harvard She realized that trying to handle the emotions herself will only make things worse It will only lead you down a path of losing yourself losing yourself and losing that connection with other people You have to talk about how you feel she revealed She supporters with NAMI and is a part of its legislative committee that advocates for guidelines changes that would combat the mistreatment of people with mental fitness conditions and mental physical condition stigma Sue Abderholden Credit NAMI NAMI s Aberholden recommends limiting time spent checking the headlines knowing that people s mental strength suffers when they re on edge Maybe checking every two hours or something like that she explained but not to have that constant because it just keeps our nervous system way too excited Various people might find it best to focus on what s in front of them Aberholden commented that cleaning and baking are commonly used as therapeutic techniques when things feel out of control What is dirty becomes clean and what is separate becomes whole People do things so that they can see a product fast instead of when you re trying to change the world You know it doesn t happen overnight she disclosed The post Coping with bad news in a media-saturated era appeared first on MinnPost