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News programs that cover terrorist attacks, epidemics, and natural disasters every day make us feel an increasing sense of anxiety, but at the same time, they attract us like a magnet. What is the cause of this dual feeling, and is it possible to get rid of it?
sign of the times
We are all more or less prone to anxiety associated with an overdose of information. “Television, radio, the Internet and newspapers give us news that become a breeding ground for our anxieties and fears,” says psychotherapist Ekaterina Mikhailova. “Perhaps today we can talk about a kind of installation for bad news, an unconscious cultivation of a sense of the inevitability of big and small misfortunes and one’s own vulnerability in this hostile world.”
Exaggerated attention to the news and fears for events in the world and for one’s life – to one degree or another, all of us are subject to such “information hypochondria”, but it is especially difficult to escape from the influence of the flow of information for those who are generally prone to anxiety and pessimism. “People who suffer the most are emotionally unstable, impulsive, who tend to react disproportionately to what they hear or see, prone to rapid mood swings and irritability,” says psychologist Olga Deineka. They constantly think about the pollution of the planet, about its almost exhausted resources, about terrorism that can touch them anywhere and at any moment, about the economy, about unemployment, about epidemics … These dangers are very real, and those who fear them do not do not rave. Another thing is that news becomes an obsession for some people: they do not miss a single informational television program, in which information on a topic that excites them can be heard, and all conversations inevitably reduce to how many people suffered, what destruction and losses.
In this situation, we are guided by three ideas, not always clearly formulated, but, as a rule, quite intelligible: “I must carefully follow what is happening in the world”; “I must be aware of all events”; “I have to learn to anticipate what will happen.” However, the feeling that catastrophes and disasters occurring on the planet are the main source of anxiety is deceptive: addiction to the news can be a symptom of unresolved personal problems. “In reality, we often project our own deepest fears onto the outside world,” explains Ekaterina Mikhailova. – Extreme events bring us back to painful episodes of our personal history, including those that we seemed to have forgotten about for a long time. Any image and word can act as a trigger and turn on painful experiences.”
Sensitivity or addiction?
In addition to people who are generally sensitive to the news, there are many among us for whom the daily news programs become a kind of drug. Just as a smoker cannot put out his first cigarette of the day, a news addict will never miss the morning edition of the news. For the victim of infodependence, thinking about recent events replaces meaningful emotional relationships, drowning out feelings of loneliness and inner emptiness. In many cases, the constant absorption of information and immersion in other people’s experiences also replace falling in love, sexual pleasure and job satisfaction. This does not mean that all info-addicts are necessarily unhappy in their personal lives or unsuccessful in their careers, however, apparently, the same mechanism of replacing one object of desire with a more accessible one, as in other types of addiction, operates here.
How anxiety comes to us
Through identification
We put ourselves in the place of the one who suffers, who is in danger, just as a small child cries when another falls and hurts. The identification mechanism underlying this process contributes to the development of empathy – the ability to understand the feelings of another. But by constantly identifying ourselves with the victims of disasters, we risk losing ourselves and our ability to defend ourselves if necessary.
Through interpretation
We interpret information based on our beliefs, experience, current experiences. News of rising petrol prices is driving European motorists to despair, but the same information is also seriously worrying a 30-year-old Muscovite who took out a solid loan for an apartment a year ago and is now wondering if she will be able to meet her budget.
Through substitution
So the mother transfers her feeling of anxiety to the child and worries about him, even if everything is fine with him. Those for whom the news causes great anxiety transfer their feelings to the entire planet, which becomes for them a kind of extension of their own “I”. When a person does not feel the boundaries between himself and the world, he begins to experience any external event as his own personal misfortune.
Through memories
The anxiety that we feel is often associated with some of our negative memories and unconscious traumas from the past. The tragedies seen on TV seem to take us back (including to our earliest childhood), forcing us to relive fear, helplessness, and a sense of dependence on others.
Olga Deineka, Doctor of Psychology, Professor of St. Petersburg State University, Head of Department at the East European Institute of Psychoanalysis.
On the hook of information
The way in which modern media present information also contributes to maintaining a sense of anxiety in us. Endless replays of frightening footage, escalating analyst forecasts reinforce the belief that our concerns are not unfounded. They increase distrust in the world, forcing them to seek solace … in the same news. “For a person with increased anxiety, stories about other people’s suffering give a sense of relief, often unconscious (“Thank God, this is not with me!”), Which he seeks to experience again and again,” says psychologist Sergei Enikolopov. “And the story about the rescue of one of the victims is reassuring because it strengthens the belief in the structure of the world: if something happens, I have a chance to survive.”
Once launched, this mechanism starts to work by itself. We feel that we need to get even more information. So news becomes a commodity that we can no longer do without. And some of us become “info addicts”.
“The media (and primarily TV) are aimed at “hooking” with their messages all viewers, readers or listeners without exception, evoking a lively emotional response in them, making them watch or read further,” continues Sergey Enikolopov. – The easiest way to achieve this goal is to treat any news as if it concerns everyone personally. In other words, if we take information programs literally, then it turns out that today I am one of the most likely victims of a suicide bomber, tomorrow I risk contracting bird flu, and even if by some miracle this does not happen, then the day after tomorrow I will in any case disappear into result of a global environmental catastrophe. And as an antidote to all these impending disasters, we are offered additional information that can somehow provide us with the means to survive in the future.
How to protect yourself
After listening to the news reports of other people’s misfortunes, you can’t cope with anxiety or guilt for a long time? Here are some ideas to help you release these feelings.
Compare and analyze
The events of a decade ago do not cause us acute concern, do they? But the same fate awaits our fears today. After letting the first emotional wave subside, compare different versions of one event. This will allow you to create your own picture of what is happening, which will no longer cause such strong emotions.
Do not try on yourself
If you tend to identify with the victim, try to figure out the reasons for your desire. The position of the sufferer only exacerbates his own trouble, while in no way helping those with whom the misfortune actually happened.
Make inquiries
When we are emotionally captured by a TV program, it is difficult for us to distract ourselves and soberly analyze what is happening. In order to understand the event that excited us in all its contradictory complexity, it is important to think about it from different angles using books, specialized magazines, and the Internet.
be able to switch
If the need for disturbing information becomes more urgent, the reason for this most likely does not lie in the content of the news. It is worth trying to gradually reduce their “doses” and find substitute forms of activity that can give the necessary emotional release.
Get out of the circle
There are different ways to resist information pressure. According to psychotherapist Marina Khazanova, one of the most effective is action: “The fears that arise as a result of watching news programs are a natural thing. What matters is how a person reacts to them. It is dangerous to get stuck on anxious experiences. Realize their energy in action: do what is in your power. Is the country at risk of an epidemic? Get vaccinated. Are you afraid of reports of more frequent car accidents? Get car insurance or change your daily route to avoid the most dangerous highways. Do you sympathize with those left homeless as a result of the fire? Bring them warm clothes, food, toys for children, donate blood.” The main thing is to get out of the position of a numb spectator and feel your active role in what is happening.
“Strong impressions from TV shows give a feeling of involvement in the flow of life, and a sharp reaction to them is a consequence of the fact that a person loses contact with his own feelings and ceases to realize what is related to him and what is not,” adds Marina Khazanova. – You need to learn to separate your natural feelings from those that you supposedly should experience. Each of us has the right to both sympathy and a calm reaction.
The footage from the news programs, which is presented as absolute truth, is in fact edited as a spectacle designed to arouse certain emotions in us. Let’s try to distance ourselves from the shocking pictures and extract from the plot specific information that can be applied to your life, sharing the practical meaning and natural human sympathy.
“It is easier to maintain the ability to calmly and critically comprehend any, even the most dramatic and painful information for perception, when you feel that it is you who are primarily responsible for your own life,” Olga Deineka believes. This feeling allows us to realize that our thoughts and feelings while watching TV news are not connected with the manipulations of journalists who seek to intrigue us, and not even with the real dangers that the modern world is preparing for humanity, but primarily with our own individual experience, the formation of which in largely depends on each of us.
“I try to protect the feelings of the viewer”
Marianna Maksimovskaya, author and host of the program “Week” on the REN-TV channel
“I don’t know if you can say that the surgeon is experiencing trauma when he performs the operation? I happened to see a lot of terrible shots… I remember my shock when there was an explosion in the underground passage on Pushkin Square. I hosted the evening news at the time. We showed what was happening live: people in clothes riddled with fragments … It was very realistic and very scary. Now I would have subjected the footage to a thorough analysis and issued it belatedly, but more sparingly. Over the past 15 years, we have learned how to show these scenes in such a way as to both inform and protect the feelings of the viewer. This is the responsibility of our profession. I watched the explosion of a residential building on Kashirka as a spectator, and it was harder for me than the explosion on Guryanov Street, which I experienced at work. A professional position protects, but there is no escape from emotions. I just try to leave them outside the studio so that my upset face or sighs do not injure the viewer even more. The leader must be collected, serious, even somewhat detached from what is happening.
“If there is information, then we must report it”
Alexey Pivovarov, presenter of the program “Today” on the NTV channel
Disturbing news for me as a presenter is no different from any other. This is a common working situation: there is information – it means that we are obliged to report it, as accurately and reliably as possible. After all, we are not to blame, for example, for the fact that the Cherkizovsky market was blown up and people died. I understand that the audience will inevitably experience strong emotions, but these emotions do not apply to me, but to the event. No one aims to shock the viewer: if we say that so many people died, this does not mean that mutilated bodies should be shown. The ethical line is obvious, and this, of course, is an element of the responsibility of a journalist. For example, we did not air footage of the execution of Russian diplomats in Iraq, even those shots where they simply stand in front of the camera and identify themselves: this was done at the request of their relatives. On the air, I only said that such a film exists, and described what exactly was filmed on it – for me it was a matter of principle.