News

[Agara33]

How many people have sworn off the news? I usually try to stay away but the moment I started I can’t stop with the increasingly shocking state of affairs all over the world...I’m somehow attracted to know like looking at a car crash, and I know I’m not in a state where I can handle these things-

[NeuronerdDoaty]

There’s no such thing anymore. Edward R Morrow is cringing in Heaven.

[Dolphin14 Moderator]

I read the news. I can't stand watching and having things repeated over and over. It makes me anxious.

[aujoymyjoy]

I hear you. After my trauma, I didn’t watch any news for 12 years. It was impossible to work, live and deal with the ongoing traumas of others when I was dealing with my own, and my families trauma as well.

I do not watch any cable television but stream shows I enjoy on my computer. I select what I will watch and what I won’t, which streaming does provide. No news interruptions in my viewing of a crash that happened in Zeno in the country of Bologna. (I made that up). I find that cable is 45 minutes of story interrupted every 15 minutes with garbage which I am force do to watch. So I spend $9 a month and pay for the freedom to choose. I did not find that in cable, so I said goodbye to the hassle. I also listen to the news I select on podcasts or read on line. Goodbye to the big black box of old. Hello streaming......... try it.

[Agara33]

I stream but I also just use the internet...ALOT if advertisements and also news stories that come up and get sucked into...internet has become abysmal

[heartwell]

I have turned off notifications on my phone (I used to get them from a few different news sources). Not getting notifications means I can choose what to check on. A friend said they then felt uninformed. But I do check in. I get emails from a few sources, that I can take the time to read, or not. I am in a Facebook group that discusses things, and I only check that every few days, because otherwise I'll get overwhelmed. I don't scroll my Facebook. Those are a couple of things I do. Every once in a while I'll get sucked in, but not constantly, and that has helped. I don't watch cable either, but also opt to look things up from various sources on my computer.

So yeah, I do tend to turn a lot off. Most of it. And check now and then. I also can't tolerate the anxiety of the world for long.

I'm also watching my anxiety levels while I watch TV shows. Suspenseful shows are particularly difficult. If I'm going to watch one, I need to watch it early in the evening, and follow it with comedy, entertainment (singing, etc.) before I go to bed. And its turning out to be best not to watch something suspenseful every day.

So even if it's not the news, which is suspenseful enough, I'm learning to monitor my body and its reactions and responses and adjust what I'm doing. I find I'm getting calmer than a lot of people. And I'm still engaged. Just not constantly and not more than I can tolerate.

[Agara33 in reply to heartwell]

This stuff really really effects us and is worth giving a lot of thought into....all this trump stuff while kind of entrancing doesn’t effect me and I’m in no position to respond to political reality anyway...

[heartwell in reply to Agara33]

It really does affect us. Entrancing. That is a good word. Kind of hypnotizing, and sucks us in. Yeah. Me either.

[Agara33]

Ye it’s worth giving a lot of thought into how to protect ourselves from its effects is what I meant