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Anxiety & News & When People Are Frightened News People Get Rich a few thoughts for the overly anxious Though news people may not admit it (perhaps even to themselves), fear properly "presented" brings the viewing public to the television and keeps viewers glued to the screen. For the newsrooms, fearfulness rings a "ka-ching!" News is a big business. Announcing there is a trouble simply does not grab the public like suggesting great danger and the possibility that staying tuned could help you be safe. (Announcer: "What do the deaths in the middle east today mean to you and your safety? Stay tuned for our experts assessment and information on what you can do to be safer." Announcer: "What do the problems Hurricaine Katrina really mean to your safety and the safety of your family? Our experts explain why millions may be in much greater danger than they realize and what they can do to be safe.") For the big business of the "news" there are enormous, fat profits in the viewing public being afraid. Fear glues viewers to the television tube. If you struggle with anxiousness, stay away from the glue. It is obvious to anyone looking to see. It's a bare naked fact of a very tough world -- caveat emptor when you turn on tv. We recognize that advertizing has a pesky little conflict of interest that makes ads suspect when it comes to the truth. Nobody can expect humans to not be swayed by great riches and great power and the stuff that they bring. There is no way to believe greed will not ultimately hold sway. Just as advertizing should always be viewed "with a grain of salt" with respect to claims about value, the news now should always be viewed "with a grain of salt" with respect to claims about whether you should be afraid. Though there was a time that out-truthing each other was the way news outlets competed, since the sweeping deregulations of the Regan era, the competition has shifted to out-frightening and out-informing. Anxiety is a terrible struggle. Many people struggle plenty with anxiety without help from news outlets. When they begin watching the news. they find their struggles increasing. For those who find the addition of television or other news overwhelming, it is very helpful to cut out watching the news. This doesn't mean you need to go about your daily life and just hope a hurricane you had no word of doesn't blow you away or drown you. It does mean that you need to recognize that you may need to tell a number of friends that you are not going to watch, listen to or read any more news -- so that they think of you if an evacuation is announced. There are actually a number of ways to try to lessen negative news effects. 1. Recognize that watching the news doesn't do much for you. Yes, it can inform you of a danger. But it can also desensitize you to dangers by making everything the same maximum level of news alert so that you never know what is important and what is not. When everything is blasted out as a red alert, there is no way to tell a real red from a very unreal red. 2. You can tell everyone you are going to leave it to them to tell you if you are supposed to be down in the basement, getting out of town, buying duck tape or conserving water. 3. You can put yourself on a strict diet of one half hour of television news per day MAXIMUM. 4. You can make a rule that if you want more news than you get with #2 or #3, you will go onto the internet and see what you can find in a MINIMUM of five blogs or websites. 5. You can make sure you check out blogs and websites for independent news coverage -- news coverage not connected to multibillion dollar interests. Signs of too much news can include, but are not limited to: 1. feeling you need to watch in excess of an hour more news than you usually watch, 2. feeling generally more anxious than you are used to being, 3. considering (not just having the brief thought of the possibility of) suicide or considering (not just having the brief thought of) thoughts of ending the life or lives of loved ones as a favor to them, 4. having nightmares or anxious dreams or other sleep difficulties or disturbances, 5. experiencing an unusual sense of vague or maybe not so vague fearfulness or experiencing specific fears, 6. having difficulty getting out of the house to go to work or do needed activities. 7. being very much more negative, grumpy and touchy than usual. children With children it is even more important to both educate them about the fearfulness bias of news outlets AND restrict or eliminate their exposure. Children who have been exposed to traumatic events are vulnerable to depression, anxiety, anxious, nervous behaviors and behavioral problems. They can be very stimulated and frightened by news stories and should be watched closely for negative effects -- especially signs of undue anxiousness or depression. 1. Spend extra time with children talking with them about whatever they want to talk about to monitor the general level of anxiousness, unhappiness or stress in their conversations. You can help me provide articles and other supports to the visitors to this site. If you can, please support this site. other ways to support this site 2. Speak with kids about emotions to help them label emotions. Point out emotional characters in cartoons and other tv programs and ask them to label the emotions being displayed. Help them fine tune and practice their vocabulary so they can talk about worries and anxieties if they need to and want to. (Kids don't automatically have a vocabulary for discussing emotions. Without such a vocabulary they can't talk to you about their emotions and they can't talk to themselves, either. We figure a lot of things out by talking to ourselves.) 3. Signs of excess anxiety and stress are prolonged irritability, depression, bedwetting, nightmares and anxieties about going to bed, anxieties about going to school, prolonged stomach upset problems, prolonged headache complaints (make sure eyes have been checked before assuming stress), disinterest in activities they were very interested in. 4. Stealing, lying or other problem behavior that suddenly starts happening and that may be an indirect way to get some attention from someone who will make them talk about things. What else you can do: 1) boycot news outlets with blatant biases and spend the extra time needed to look into blogs and other sources of news less reliant on big money issues; 2) get philosophical and spiritual; 3) make mindfulness about your self, your environment and your world a priority.

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