From war overseas to rising prices at home, the tough headlines keep coming. For many people, the constant stream of news can take a real toll. Experts say headline stress disorder is becoming more common, especially in a 24/7 news environment, exacerbated by social media, that can leave us feeling overwhelmed, anxious, even physically drained.
So how do we handle it all? Gina Radice-Vella, chief psychologist at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, shares some tips.
Joanna Gagis, anchor: If you can give us a few practical pointers for when we hit those feelings of being overwhelmed, based on all the information we take in on a daily basis?
Gina Radice-Vella: We are constantly inundated with news information coming from our phones, from the TV, from the radio. It can feel really hard to feel like we can get a break from that. My first advice is always for people to check in with themselves, identify what they’re feeling in their body, know their signs of stress and know what they’re going to do to help them alleviate those symptoms of distress.
We want to look for symptoms of not sleeping well, being a little more irritable — on edge — with our loved ones, a physical exhaustion, difficulty or changes in our appetite. We want to know our triggers and our signs and then know what we can do to identify and treat them.
JG: Let’s say that someone goes through that checklist and says, “Yeah, I’m at peak stress point.” What do we actually do to calm our nervous systems to kind of reset, or to better equip ourselves to handle the kind of constant input?
GRV: Tune out those stressors and tune into what makes us feel good. Know our pleasurable activity is what we enjoy. What makes us feel better? Taking a walk outside, enjoying a cup of coffee with our loved one, do more of that and less of what’s making us stressed.
JG: It can be hard. I’ll speak for myself and my colleagues. Sometimes we can’t turn it off, but are there moments where we need to detach, where we need to separate from that input?
GRV: Absolutely. This is all about balance, right? We have to be in tune to what’s going on in the world. That’s important for our safety as well. But we have to know when it’s too much. So being able to detach, to turn off those things are really important. I tell people, identify a time in the day when that’s going to be your time to look into the news and be intentional about it.
Also, be intentional about where you’re getting your news information from. There are so many sources of information and they’re not all equally reputable. Find one, maybe two trusted news sources, credible news sources, and stick with those. Turn off those notifications, turn off those tabs, and just pay attention to what matters and in a balanced way.
JG: Yeah, and we know some of those companies will create clickbait-type headlines to get you going, to kind of get you hooked and to get you to read the story. What happens when our kids come home and they ask us about events in the news or even perhaps maybe walk in the room and see the headlines for themselves? How do we talk to our children about this?
GRV: This is the hard thing. We want to be mindful of what is getting to our children. And also we want to be able to turn the script into a way that we know they’re going to be able to receive and understand. The first is from a developmentally appropriate age. We want to give them information based on what they can handle given their age.
I know this is not always possible. We want it to come from us first. We want to control the narrative of what they’re hearing. That when they hear from their friends or when they see it on social media, they already have the context to understand it and they also have the psychological safety.
“Yeah, my parents talked to me about that and it seems really scary right now, but they said it’s going to be OK and I could trust that.”
We want to provide them with that source of security and safety before other people get to them and ignite those fears that they might have.
A lot of times as parents, we want to assure that everything is going to be fine and that they don’t need to worry. That’s our job as parents. But I also think sometimes we have to, you know, toe the line of being truthful as well. It is really scary.
There is a lot going on. It’s okay that you’re feeling nervous and worried right now. And this is what we can do to make you feel safer or this is what we’re doing to stay in control. We want to balance truth and also their feelings.
JG: You just raised an interesting point, that sense of control. Sometimes we don’t feel that sense of control. How do we know when we have it, how to exert it, especially when we feel powerless?
GRV: This is what really exacerbates the anxiety and the mental health issues that we’re seeing with the news, the constant stream of news that we’re getting, that sense of powerlessness and lack of control. And there is so much that we don’t have control over. So I always tell people: Let’s shift it to where we do have control, focus on how much information you’re getting, where you’re getting that information, but also what you can do to make yourself feel better.
Take care of yourself, eat good food, get good sleep, go outside, go on those walks, do things that make you feel good and give you that sense of control over your own body and your own sense of space and relationships.
