Keeping Calm In Spite of Negative News

Picture the scene: You’ve gotten off work and, before cooking dinner, chatting with friends or sitting down to relax, you decide to catch up on the goings-on of the country and the world at large. Immediately you’re met with what has to be countless harrowing tales of disease, poverty, political chaos, climate catastrophes, death and total destruction.

Suddenly, you have lost your appetite, you don’t feel like talking to anyone, and you can’t relax because, according to the news, the world is on the brink of collapse. 

There is a word for this kind of overwhelmingly pessimistic thinking: Catastrophization. People catastrophize when they begin to visualize or anticipate the worst-case scenario, sometimes as a means of avoiding disappointment and surprise in the event of actual failure or disaster. Catastrophization is a defense mechanism against the unpredictability of the world which causes more harm than good, as it can lead to depression, anxiety, apathy, frustration, and a variety of other unpleasant emotions. 

This mode of thought, while easy to adopt, bears no significant benefits whatsoever and only serves to diminish a person’s lust for living and hope for the future. If all the marrow is to be sucked out of life and enjoyment is to be found in even the little things, steps need to be taken in order to avoid catastrophization and other pessimistic worldviews resulting from awareness of the chaotic state of the world we live in. 

PLACE A CAP ON EXPOSURE TO THE NEWS/SOCIAL MEDIA

Seeing how the news industry thrives on dramatized headlines and stories of extreme sensationalism in order to attract readers, it should come as no surprise that one scroll through your news feed can lead to catastrophization and assumptions that the end times are on the horizon. 

Keeping informed on current events is important, but overexposure to news networks and social media platforms that constantly depict the ugliness of the world can lead you to see nothing but ugliness everywhere. This is a prime example of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, which occurs when awareness of a particular topic or object increases beyond a normal degree. When the only kind of news stories you see involve terrible things happening to innocent people, it is all but natural to conclude that terrible things are all around you.

In order to curtail these effects, it is beneficial to take a step back from news and social media every now and again and focus on the world which is within reach. Without the noise caused by the negativity of the world making it difficult to concentrate, recognition of the good things immediately available can be achieved. By doing this, the mentally detrimental effects resulting from exposure to the bad things going on is significantly diminished, as it has been made apparent that beautiful things are close by and can be readily accessed. 

EMPHASIZE WHAT CAN BE CONTROLLED, AS OPPOSED TO WHAT’S BEYOND CONTROLLING

In the face of overwhelmingly negative news concerning the world and the 8 billion people that live in it, one of the more freeing things you can do is admit that you alone can do very little. 

On the surface, such a thought may seem dispiriting. It’s unpleasant to think that outside forces beyond your control are impacting the world in unprecedented and unpredictable ways. However, an argument can be made that admitting there is no point in worrying about the uncontrollable can be considerably liberating in the face of hardship. When the uncontrollable things in the world are recognized for what they are, uncontrollable, then further emphasis can be placed on what can be controlled and fixed, with less unneeded and detrimental worry spared towards what either is or isn’t going to happen regardless of individual action.

GET INVOLVED

If the previous is not an option, and simply throwing up your hands and saying that you can’t do anything about the problems facing the world will not assuage your anxieties, then a suitable alternative course of action would be to simply take action. 

• If you’re concerned about the environment, donate to a forest preservation non-profit or take a day to clean litter from the nearby park.

• If you think homelesness is a severe problem plaguing the nation; volunteer at a soup kitchen or take time to make health kits containing food, clothes and other necessities for the homeless citizens in your area. 

• If social justice and class division is a problem you’re considerably worried about, reach out to your local congressman or state senators and advocate for policies meant to provide aid to the less fortunate and impoverished.

By participating in any activity meant to remedy the severe problems facing the world, you can take comfort in the fact that no matter what happens, whether the problem goes away with not a hitch or reaches peak levels of intensity, you can say for certain that you didn’t sit on the sidelines and actively worked to make things better. It is unnecessary for these particular actions to be monumental; selling your home and enlisting in the Peace Corps is an unneeded extreme. Any contribution to the betterment of the world, no matter how small, makes all the difference.

The problems humanity faces right now are high in numbers and variety, and it is easy to become overwhelmed, disheartened and anxious because of them. While the adoption of such mindsets in the face of such issues is understandable, it doesn’t have to be permanent. For the many negative goings-on featured prominently in the news, there are just as many ways to not let them get you down and keep you from living your best life. For further information on how to keep mentally well in an ever-changing, chaotic world, MIT Technology Review, Alyssa M. Stone PhD., and The New York Times offer further advice and resources on the subject. 

At the end of the day, the world may not, and never will be in short supply of negativity, but such does not have to get in the way of your happiness and overall fulfillment in life. 

— Tucker Shuff