Some may think that the answer to the question in the title is easy and clear as the sun of a summer day, and therefore there is no need to complete the article... We will stop the flood from the source and will not follow the bad news!
But it is never that easy, especially with most humans being curious by nature, and this coincided in our difficult days with the tyranny of social media on our lives and privacy, and the speed and intensity of its transmission of everything that is going on around us, and the bombing of our senses with what concerns us and what does not concern us from news that is close to us psychologically. And spatially, and those pouring down upon us from the ends of the earth, especially the shocking news, and the unfortunate tragedies, and we have seen a prominent example of this during the past weeks in the tragedy of the Moroccan martyr Rayan, which millions of people around the world watched from one end to the other, and lived the details of the incident moment by moment. Prior to this event, we had - and still have - two full years of news of millions of deaths and hundreds of millions of infections in the global Covid-19 pandemic.
But what is the danger of the torrents of bad news pouring out on psychological safety? How can we overcome these dangers and survive with a great deal of psychological well-being?
The problem is not only in the intensity of bad news quantitatively, but also in the extent of its qualitative development in the past years, and its ability to invade our senses visually and audio has doubled, especially as the cannons of alerts and hurricanes are aimed at our heads directly through the screens of smart phones that have become in every hand. Dozens of scientific studies have proven the extent of the close relationship between the flood of bad news and the voluntary and involuntary interaction with it, and the incidence of some of the most famous psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders.
Professor Graham Davey, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Sussex in England, states that the intensity of exposure to bad news exacerbates individual anxiety and personal fears, and gets them out of control for many, especially those with psychological fragility, and makes them more susceptible to trauma and post-traumatic stress disorders.
An American study conducted in 2013 on more than 4,600 people reached troubling results. It compared the level of extreme psychological distress between those who were directly exposed to the bombing incident during the 2013 Boston Marathon, and those who followed closely its developments on television, and those who followed it lightly.
The study concluded that those who followed bad news for more than 6 hours a day suffered from nine times the psychological stress that those with moderate follow-up experienced. In fact, those who followed up excessively reached levels of psychological pressure close to that experienced by those who were at the scene of the accident and witnessed the bombings. The danger is not limited to the number of hours only, but some heartbreaking pictures and clips may cause tremendous psychological pressure in a few seconds or minutes.
Read: How do I protect my child from mental disorders?
As the global COVID-19 pandemic worsens, the US National Center for Disease Control (CDC) has warned of the severe negative repercussions on the psychological well-being of the flood of news related to COVID-19, especially anxiety disorders, sleep and appetite disorders, and reduced ability to accomplish at work and in family and social activities.
Physiology tells us that frequent exposure to bad news causes the release of stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisone, and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which raises heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar, and this may lead to serious health complications such as acute heart attacks, especially in segments. The most dangerous, such as those with chronic diseases and smokers.
Read: How do I keep my heart healthy in the time of Corona?
It goes without saying that there are no magic solutions that can be implemented with the stroke of a pen, and that complete isolation from news and life and its interactions is not the best reaction, as it increases psychological fragility, contributes to a person's cognitive and social weakness, and makes him less interactive with his surroundings. What is required is balance, and a positive interaction with bad news, some of which will inevitably reach me, less or more, and this is what the following points will help us with:
Thousands, especially young people, memorize that quick psychological prescription mentioned by the great late Dr. Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq, which in his opinion is suitable for preventing many mental disorders. I see it as suitable for application here, as positive preoccupation is more time of the day, between work, study, self-development, hobbies, social duties and meeting friends...etc. It reduces the space of space from which we can waste a lot of time glued to the screens of smart phones. We receive intense doses of awareness and subconscious injections with news. the bad. As well as always being in a rich family and social environment, increases psychological strength, and gives us an opportunity for bad news shocks with those close, and thus mitigate its impact.
Mental and physical health are one continuum, and each affects the other. Maintaining physical health in our current stressful days is a must, through natural healthy food based on fruits, vegetables, fish, low-fat dairy, legumes and olive oil, and regular moderate exercise through walking or light jogging, or playing fun sports such as football or basketball …etc according to what one likes.
Most of us have acquired a dangerous habit in the age of social media dominance, of wasting excessive time conscious and unconscious flipping and striking of the Facebook front page, unnecessarily passing before our senses hundreds of posts, at least dozens of which often contain bad or shocking news. Some psychologists refer to this habit with a negative connotation, doomscrolling, which I might translate, for example, as “infernal flipping” or “terrible flipping.”
Some studies have confirmed that this previous phenomenon disrupts a natural mechanism in the brain to protect psychological stability. Its center is located in the frontal lobe of the brain, specifically in the inferior frontal gyrus. This mechanism is responsible for our innate optimism that we will live longer than our peers, and that misfortunes and accidents happen to others and not to us. The verse is reversed, and we feel that we are surrounded by calamities and accidents from before us and behind us.
Read: I get depressed and eat more then I get depressed and eat again: What is the solution to this whirlpool?
A study of people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds measuring their dread over news of the global COVID-19 pandemic showed that people who were optimistic, more confident and less obsessed with conspiracy theories were less fearful and irritable than pessimists and conspiracy theorists.
A 2017 study showed that the lives of some heart patients under study became better and less stressful over a period of a few months, after undergoing training that encourages optimism and positive psychology, and the return of anxiety about their illness was delayed by two to four months. Studies have proven that the tendency to optimism reactivates the positive natural mechanism that we talked about in the previous paragraph, which is spoiled by the vortexes of bad news on social media.
It is very difficult in this era to isolate oneself completely from all bad news and developments, and this is not right to release it, but on the other hand it is possible to reduce the time to follow the news, especially the bad ones, as well as avoiding highly influential images and clips, because they may leave long-term effects. It's hard to erase, and it's no use for us or others to hurt ourselves with bad news. Rather, Dr. Abdul-Rahman Zakir Al-Hashemi, a physician and educational psychologist, recommends that you limit yourself to following the news for only 10 minutes per day.
The World Health Organization recommends that we only follow news related to health disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic on what concerns us directly in terms of local news, preventive measures that we can take, and government decisions related to them...etc, and then close the screen and stop following anything else, even We pay no price out of our nerves.
It is advisable to avoid following bad news when you are not in your best physical and psychological condition, at the end of a stressful day, or after long hours of work and exhaustion, as this multiplies the negative psychological effects of bad news.
As if the negative impact of the dark real news is not enough for us, we are flooded with a parallel deluge of rumors and catastrophic inaccurate news. The intelligent follower does not believe everything that passes before his eyes on the screens, and he believes only the most reliable sources, and the ones farthest from the excitement. False news, especially on social networking sites that are unchecked, is almost the vast majority.
Moving into positive action, the stress of bad news decreases, and it removes any self-flagellation over negative events. For example, negative news related to the Covid-19 pandemic, just following it and the psychological pain of the victims and injured, has no positive effect. But by taking a lesson, by adhering to preventive measures against infection in its various forms, by taking any activities to support the victims psychologically, healthily, and financially, and by contributing to spreading health awareness among those around us, the matter will be much better. On the other hand, negative reactions such as overeating must be controlled in order to unload the nervous excitement.
Seeking timely psychological support is vital in preventing the negative impact of bad news from developing into a real mental illness. There are many symptoms that serve as an alarm bell for an exacerbation of the psychological state, such as severe insomnia, excessive sleep, severe changes in mood, severe overeating, severe loss of appetite, suicidal ideation, or an overwhelming feeling of self-flagellation …etc.
Last Update: 02/14/2022Social MediaMental HealthPsychology
