What to Do When the News Stresses You Out
You probably know the feeling: You read or listen to breaking news on your TV, radio, phone, or laptop, and you are immediately struck with an anxious, palm-moistening sensation. “Headline anxiety” may not be a diagnosable disorder, but the stress you might experience from hearing the news is tangible.
“Feeling overwhelmed by world news and various events” is a real issue, says clinical psychologist Kiki Fehling, PhD. “It can feel like intense anxiety, agitation, anger, depression, or hopelessness.”
Even if you recognize the problem, it can be challenging to distance yourself from the source of your anxiety. These days, the news is constant and ubiquitous: the scrolling banners on 24-hour channels that create urgency even when the sound is off; the social-media feeds that shoot you the same story over and over again.
The COVID era hasn’t helped matters. A recent study found an association between media exposure and emotional distress during 2020. It’s no wonder that regularly hearing about the effects of a deadly virus — as well as the political and social justice turmoil that accompanied the pandemic’s early days — would trigger a stress response in many of us.
“A trigger is any word, person, event, or experience that touches off an immediate emotional reaction,” explains psychotherapist David Richo, PhD. “It’s like being startled by a noise: The noise is the trigger; the startle is the response.”
And because your body has gone into fight-or-flight mode, your reaction can often be more extreme or last longer than the event itself. (For more on dealing with emotional triggers, see “13 Strategies to Deal With Your Emotional Triggers.”)
Finding yourself lost in the maelstrom of a stressful news cycle can certainly make you feel powerless, but you have more agency than you may think. You can still be an informed citizen without feeling overwhelmed by headlines or getting triggered each time you catch a glimpse of a news broadcast. Try these protective steps to help safeguard your mental health.
Set Boundaries With Your Tech
Imagine you’re out for a walk on a sunny afternoon and you suddenly start getting alerts on your phone that stop you in your tracks. Something scary is happening, whether near or far, and now you’re anxious and upset — when you’d gone for a walk in search of serenity.
That’s why Jacqueline Toner, PhD, author of What to Do When the News Scares You, recommends turning off all push notifications on your devices. “Anything that sends you a notification is a problem because you lose control of the input,” she explains.
Those Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) likes are designed to elicit the same response as a slot machine — little hits of dopamine that come at unexpected times. That’s why it’s normal to crave them, and why it can be so hard to turn them off. But controlling when you engage with social media is worth the effort.
You can also delete apps from your phone and view sites on a computer only at certain times. Or try setting your phone screen to black and white, which makes it less visually appealing.
Can’t quit scrolling through the news at bedtime? Keep an alarm clock rather than your phone in the bedroom. (For more tips on breaking your cellphone habit, see “18 Ways to Break Your Cellphone Habit.”)
If you’re experiencing regular headline anxiety, Fehling also recommends unsubscribing from news-related email lists, if only temporarily. “Maybe even unplug from tech completely if you have that capability and option,” she suggests.
Be Mindful of News Sources
A 2020 Pew Research Center study found that eight in 10 U.S. adults get their news from a digital device “often or sometimes,” and 53 percent get their news from social media “often or sometimes,” with Facebook topping the list.
That’s concerning, Toner explains, because of how easy it is to fall into echo chambers on social media, where the same news and opinions are repeated ad nauseam. Be a good social media citizen by avoiding the temptation to spread the news.
“As soon as you hear something, resist the urge to run and share it with somebody else,” she advises. When you immediately share, you might add to their stress and make it harder for them to take in news on their own terms.
“Feeling overwhelmed by world news and various events” is a real issue, says clinical psychologist Kiki Fehling, PhD. “It can feel like intense anxiety, agitation, anger, depression, or hopelessness.”
Even if you recognize the problem, it can be challenging to distance yourself from the source of your anxiety. These days, the news is constant and ubiquitous: the scrolling banners on 24-hour channels that create urgency even when the sound is off; the social-media feeds that shoot you the same story over and over again.
The COVID era hasn’t helped matters. A recent study found an association between media exposure and emotional distress during 2020. It’s no wonder that regularly hearing about the effects of a deadly virus — as well as the political and social justice turmoil that accompanied the pandemic’s early days — would trigger a stress response in many of us.
“A trigger is any word, person, event, or experience that touches off an immediate emotional reaction,” explains psychotherapist David Richo, PhD. “It’s like being startled by a noise: The noise is the trigger; the startle is the response.”
And because your body has gone into fight-or-flight mode, your reaction can often be more extreme or last longer than the event itself. (For more on dealing with emotional triggers, see “13 Strategies to Deal With Your Emotional Triggers.”)
Finding yourself lost in the maelstrom of a stressful news cycle can certainly make you feel powerless, but you have more agency than you may think. You can still be an informed citizen without feeling overwhelmed by headlines or getting triggered each time you catch a glimpse of a news broadcast. Try these protective steps to help safeguard your mental health.
Set Boundaries With Your Tech
Imagine you’re out for a walk on a sunny afternoon and you suddenly start getting alerts on your phone that stop you in your tracks. Something scary is happening, whether near or far, and now you’re anxious and upset — when you’d gone for a walk in search of serenity.
That’s why Jacqueline Toner, PhD, author of What to Do When the News Scares You, recommends turning off all push notifications on your devices. “Anything that sends you a notification is a problem because you lose control of the input,” she explains.
Those Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) likes are designed to elicit the same response as a slot machine — little hits of dopamine that come at unexpected times. That’s why it’s normal to crave them, and why it can be so hard to turn them off. But controlling when you engage with social media is worth the effort.
You can also delete apps from your phone and view sites on a computer only at certain times. Or try setting your phone screen to black and white, which makes it less visually appealing.
Can’t quit scrolling through the news at bedtime? Keep an alarm clock rather than your phone in the bedroom. (For more tips on breaking your cellphone habit, see “18 Ways to Break Your Cellphone Habit.”)
If you’re experiencing regular headline anxiety, Fehling also recommends unsubscribing from news-related email lists, if only temporarily. “Maybe even unplug from tech completely if you have that capability and option,” she suggests.
Be Mindful of News Sources
A 2020 Pew Research Center study found that eight in 10 U.S. adults get their news from a digital device “often or sometimes,” and 53 percent get their news from social media “often or sometimes,” with Facebook topping the list.
That’s concerning, Toner explains, because of how easy it is to fall into echo chambers on social media, where the same news and opinions are repeated ad nauseam. Be a good social media citizen by avoiding the temptation to spread the news.
“As soon as you hear something, resist the urge to run and share it with somebody else,” she advises. When you immediately share, you might add to their stress and make it harder for them to take in news on their own terms.
“As soon as you hear something, resist the urge to run and share it with somebody else,” she advises. When you immediately share, you might add to their stress and make it harder for them to take in news on their own terms.
It’s also important to choose your news sources wisely, Toner adds. If, for example, you tune in to a newscast with multiple fast-moving chyrons (those scrolling banners on the bottom third of the screen), “you’re going to feel more stressed than if you read a newspaper or watch public television or listen to public radio, where there’s not so much excitement built in.”
Also make sure your sources are trustworthy. Misinformation can easily intensify headline stress because it often leads with catastrophe in order to trigger anxiety, anger, or other intense emotions.
That’s by design: Misinformation plays on our feelings to circumvent our thinking, often to great effect. Studies have found that negative headlines improve click-through rates. (For more advice on spotting misinformation on social media, see “7 Ways to Spot Misinformation on Social Media.”)
Take Action
If you find yourself feeling consistently anxious about a particular headline or world event, consider putting that anxiety into action. “The body feels emotions to try to motivate us to do things,” says Fehling. “There is something in the world that we don’t like and we wish were different; our bodies are telling us that.”
Volunteering or contributing resources to others can help us cope with stress and other negative emotions. It gets us out of our own heads and makes us feel good.
“Humans inherently are empathetic beings,” Fehling notes. “But the other really effective part of volunteering and contributing is that you’re using some of the emotions that you’re feeling from headline stress to take action.”
It’s also important to choose your news sources wisely, Toner adds. If, for example, you tune in to a newscast with multiple fast-moving chyrons (those scrolling banners on the bottom third of the screen), “you’re going to feel more stressed than if you read a newspaper or watch public television or listen to public radio, where there’s not so much excitement built in.”
Also make sure your sources are trustworthy. Misinformation can easily intensify headline stress because it often leads with catastrophe in order to trigger anxiety, anger, or other intense emotions.
That’s by design: Misinformation plays on our feelings to circumvent our thinking, often to great effect. Studies have found that negative headlines improve click-through rates. (For more advice on spotting misinformation on social media, see “7 Ways to Spot Misinformation on Social Media.”)
Take Action
If you find yourself feeling consistently anxious about a particular headline or world event, consider putting that anxiety into action. “The body feels emotions to try to motivate us to do things,” says Fehling. “There is something in the world that we don’t like and we wish were different; our bodies are telling us that.”
Volunteering or contributing resources to others can help us cope with stress and other negative emotions. It gets us out of our own heads and makes us feel good.
“Humans inherently are empathetic beings,” Fehling notes. “But the other really effective part of volunteering and contributing is that you’re using some of the emotions that you’re feeling from headline stress to take action.”
“[The] other really effective part of volunteering and contributing is that you’re using some of the emotions that you’re feeling from headline stress to take action.”
If you’re not sure where to begin, start with a piece of paper. In a 2022 TED Talk, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, a marine biologist, writer, and climate-policy expert, suggests drawing a Venn diagram to map these questions: What are your skills? What is the work that needs doing? What brings you joy?
Where your answers intersect is where you should put your effort. Johnson’s talk is about climate change specifically, but her method can apply to any current crisis.
Widen the Scope of Your Attention
Meditation, breathwork, yoga, and other mindfulness practices are proven to help reduce stress. You can try those methods and others to soothe headline anxiety and regulate your emotions, Toner says.
“The point is to also be able to focus on the other parts of your life,” she explains, “and not be swept up in all the stimuli to stress about.” (For more methods for finding calm in a frantic world, see “24 Ways to Find Calm in a Frantic World.”)
If you’re not sure where to begin, start with a piece of paper. In a 2022 TED Talk, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, a marine biologist, writer, and climate-policy expert, suggests drawing a Venn diagram to map these questions: What are your skills? What is the work that needs doing? What brings you joy?
Where your answers intersect is where you should put your effort. Johnson’s talk is about climate change specifically, but her method can apply to any current crisis.
Widen the Scope of Your Attention
Meditation, breathwork, yoga, and other mindfulness practices are proven to help reduce stress. You can try those methods and others to soothe headline anxiety and regulate your emotions, Toner says.
“The point is to also be able to focus on the other parts of your life,” she explains, “and not be swept up in all the stimuli to stress about.” (For more methods for finding calm in a frantic world, see “24 Ways to Find Calm in a Frantic World.”)
If you’re lost in a sea of angry social media comments about the state of the world, you’re not noticing the people doing good work to create more humane systems and lasting change.
Toner encourages people to pay more attention to the rest of the world around them. If you’re taking a walk in nature while listening to the news or looking at your phone to see who commented on one of your social media posts, she says, you’re not listening to the birds or the stream flowing nearby.
If you’re lost in a sea of angry social media comments about the state of the world, you’re not noticing the people doing good work to create more humane systems and lasting change.
“It’s easy to get hooked by what’s frightening,” she says. “But then we tend to overlook the quiet, but positive, everyday things.”
This article originally appeared as “When the News Is Too Much” in the September/October 2024 issue of Experience Life.
