Has this not been a stressful two weeks watching the news?
First we lose Steve Irwin (cried), then 9-11 (cried buckets). Now I read where Anna Nicole Smith Died suddenly!
Just can't watch the news anymore!
I'm so sensitive!
Dr. Weil say we shall take a news break! So I delete all the news channels on my remote, I even have to be careful watching animal planet with all the rescue shows. The channels I left on the remote is short, HGTV, Hallmark, Food Network, Weather, PBS plus a few other.
This is so crazy!
I used to be so happy and rarely cried!
Opps that was Anna Nicole Smith SON Died
Full Version: When The News Becomes To Stressful?
I have followed Dr. Weil's recommendation about this for years. I do not watch the news. They rarely focus on the positive and love to show all of the blood, gore, and worst of all, the suffering relatives. I get all of my news from the newspaper now where I can pick and choose.
Here in the Uk they have brought out a kids newspaper which I find brings out a far more balanced and positive angle on things than either the TV or the adults versions. They discuss issues like birdflu & the recent terrorist plots without the scaremongering plus loads of other great stuff!
Other than that, I often keep in touch just by reading the text headlines on the TV. Then I can read more about an issue only if I want to!
Other than that, I often keep in touch just by reading the text headlines on the TV. Then I can read more about an issue only if I want to!
Yes, snow, it has been a hard couple of weeks! I watched the real-time news feeds from 9/11 (as it happened that day) on the internet on Monday. It retraumatized me all over again! I'm not sure why I did that, but I just wanted to really remember what happened. But I am paying the price, as I've been feeling wiped out emotionally and feeling down. I worry about another attack happening, and pandemic flu coming, and our brave troops overseas, etc. It's a lot for a little peri person to carry! So I will try not to carry those burdens, but to trust God instead. It's hard, but it's healthier that way!
Watching the 911 replays if very much like watching a car accident.
You know its awful and you shouldn't look, but there is something that compels us to keep watching. It's human nature, apparently.
I read that what made Alfred Hitchcock's movies so scary was that the audience knew something horrible was about to happen, but the characters in the movie didn't. I found this to be true watching the replays. On the Today show replay, you can see that second plane coming in from the distance and you knew what was about to happen, even though the commentators hadn't a clue.
Now, in hindsight, you think, my God, if only at least that second plane had been scrambled. Instead we just watch helplessly as
that second plane slams into the tower.
There were massive failures on every level that day, or 911 as we know it could not have played out so perfectly for the terrorists.
If we haven't learned our lessons, we are in big trouble.
You know its awful and you shouldn't look, but there is something that compels us to keep watching. It's human nature, apparently.
I read that what made Alfred Hitchcock's movies so scary was that the audience knew something horrible was about to happen, but the characters in the movie didn't. I found this to be true watching the replays. On the Today show replay, you can see that second plane coming in from the distance and you knew what was about to happen, even though the commentators hadn't a clue.
Now, in hindsight, you think, my God, if only at least that second plane had been scrambled. Instead we just watch helplessly as
that second plane slams into the tower.
There were massive failures on every level that day, or 911 as we know it could not have played out so perfectly for the terrorists.
If we haven't learned our lessons, we are in big trouble.
I had a very hard time watching the 9-11 replays.I didn't realize till then just how much that day affected me in a bad way and how much more of a nervous person i have become.Watching that was like re-living it all over again and i cried,was scared,almost panicky just like when it all happened.
I have been researching my family tree in earnest for the past couple of years. I think it's peri related - that whole thing of not being able to deal with what's happening in the present and not wanting to look forward. So we look back.
I visited the hovels my great grandmother bought her 8 children up in the wilds of Wales. A four mile walk down a knee deep in mud, neck breaking track to the nearest village with the babies in tow. How in hell she got down there every day, I shall never know. me and my kids in Wellingtons with our mobile phones and water bottles and supplies, and car at the end of the road found it the equivalent of climbing Everest. Two miles to the nearest source of fresh water, and only buckets to carry it in, again with a baby and toddlers around her. The infant mortalities that were commonplace. The sheer graft of getting up every day and trying to heat and light a house with nothing, no sanitation, wondering what in hell you were going to put on the table to feed them. Trying to wash clothes for 8 kids in a stream. One of my mother's aunts had 12 children in a one bedroomed hovel in the middle of nowhere, with no mains anything, had her youngest child at 48, and they all survived.
And those women coped with menstruation, childbirth and child rearing without any of the drugs, and social support and health food supplements that we mess around with in the hope that they are going to make this peri/meno hell any better. They just had to live with it, and if cabbage and potatoes was all they had to eat that day, that's what they ate.
If they got a newspaper it was rare. They had no radio or TV or anything else, (not even a running tap or toilet paper) and even if they had they wouldn't have had time for it. Their fathers and husband went off and fought and died and got maimed in two horrific wars that those women knew absolutely nothing about, nor the reasons for them, other than that their lives were even harder than they had been before.
They didn't need news bulletins piped into their living rooms every day showing them the horrors that were going on in the world. They lived with trial and tribulation every single day of their lives.
We get these horrors piped into our living rooms on the hour, every hour, and we feel guilt and shame and anger and sadness, and we have the reactions you have described here ... and none of it is any of our doing.
What can I say? We are going through a hard enough time in our lives, even with all the modern conveniences at our disposal, and watching and listening to this stuff is never going to help.
Do yourselves the biggest favour and just hit the off switch.
If it sounds callous, I'm sorry
x
I visited the hovels my great grandmother bought her 8 children up in the wilds of Wales. A four mile walk down a knee deep in mud, neck breaking track to the nearest village with the babies in tow. How in hell she got down there every day, I shall never know. me and my kids in Wellingtons with our mobile phones and water bottles and supplies, and car at the end of the road found it the equivalent of climbing Everest. Two miles to the nearest source of fresh water, and only buckets to carry it in, again with a baby and toddlers around her. The infant mortalities that were commonplace. The sheer graft of getting up every day and trying to heat and light a house with nothing, no sanitation, wondering what in hell you were going to put on the table to feed them. Trying to wash clothes for 8 kids in a stream. One of my mother's aunts had 12 children in a one bedroomed hovel in the middle of nowhere, with no mains anything, had her youngest child at 48, and they all survived.
And those women coped with menstruation, childbirth and child rearing without any of the drugs, and social support and health food supplements that we mess around with in the hope that they are going to make this peri/meno hell any better. They just had to live with it, and if cabbage and potatoes was all they had to eat that day, that's what they ate.
If they got a newspaper it was rare. They had no radio or TV or anything else, (not even a running tap or toilet paper) and even if they had they wouldn't have had time for it. Their fathers and husband went off and fought and died and got maimed in two horrific wars that those women knew absolutely nothing about, nor the reasons for them, other than that their lives were even harder than they had been before.
They didn't need news bulletins piped into their living rooms every day showing them the horrors that were going on in the world. They lived with trial and tribulation every single day of their lives.
We get these horrors piped into our living rooms on the hour, every hour, and we feel guilt and shame and anger and sadness, and we have the reactions you have described here ... and none of it is any of our doing.
What can I say? We are going through a hard enough time in our lives, even with all the modern conveniences at our disposal, and watching and listening to this stuff is never going to help.
Do yourselves the biggest favour and just hit the off switch.
If it sounds callous, I'm sorry
x
I think if I could live in 'my own little world' anxiety and stress would be so much less. Listening to the news just makes me want to crawl in a hole. But then I think...if something dire is happening, maybe I should know about it. shesh...what are we do to.... When I watch the news, i worry about what's going on, how it will effect my life...then if I don't watch the news, I worry because I don't know what's going on...good grief....
June,
There's a lot of reading on these boards, and I've done plenty, but one of the things written by many of the women here, that has really struck a chord with me, is that desire to retreat, or escape.
It's like the patience has gone, the threshold for being able to deal with all this 'outside' stuff has been washed away, the need to isolate into our own 'little world' becomes almost essential to our own survival. It's not just the depressing news, or what seems to be the shallowness of celebrity, but it extends to friends and family as well. The girlfriend complaining about her hubby, family, job, finances, whatever ... that once we would have listened to for hours and clucked sympathetically. Now it's like 'I can't be arsed to listen to this anymore'. Go away!
When once I would have immediately answered the phone, now I wait to see who's calling, and what message it is. Nine times out of ten I don't call back. When the door knocks, I rarely answer. I start to watch the news bulletins, and then I don't want to hear/see it anymore and I switch off. I find myself avoiding all outside negativity, any hint of bad news, and I pull my head in, like a turtle into a shell.
So many women have written about this, there has to be a reason for it. With all this stuff going on inside of our brains and bodies, all that emotional energy and compassion that we once had in spades, maybe needs to be conserved to deal with ourselves, for a while at least, while we get through it.
Social conscience, caring, compassion, concern ... are fine when we are firing on all cylinders. But at this time of our lives, maybe it's time to just accept that for once in our lives, whatever energy we have needs to be focused inwards.
Unfortunately, being women, we see that as being selfish, and use the guilt we feel at not being the outwardly abundant, compassionate beings we once were, as yet another stick to beat ourselves with, when we are already being beaten into the ground by our changing hormones.
x
There's a lot of reading on these boards, and I've done plenty, but one of the things written by many of the women here, that has really struck a chord with me, is that desire to retreat, or escape.
It's like the patience has gone, the threshold for being able to deal with all this 'outside' stuff has been washed away, the need to isolate into our own 'little world' becomes almost essential to our own survival. It's not just the depressing news, or what seems to be the shallowness of celebrity, but it extends to friends and family as well. The girlfriend complaining about her hubby, family, job, finances, whatever ... that once we would have listened to for hours and clucked sympathetically. Now it's like 'I can't be arsed to listen to this anymore'. Go away!
When once I would have immediately answered the phone, now I wait to see who's calling, and what message it is. Nine times out of ten I don't call back. When the door knocks, I rarely answer. I start to watch the news bulletins, and then I don't want to hear/see it anymore and I switch off. I find myself avoiding all outside negativity, any hint of bad news, and I pull my head in, like a turtle into a shell.
So many women have written about this, there has to be a reason for it. With all this stuff going on inside of our brains and bodies, all that emotional energy and compassion that we once had in spades, maybe needs to be conserved to deal with ourselves, for a while at least, while we get through it.
Social conscience, caring, compassion, concern ... are fine when we are firing on all cylinders. But at this time of our lives, maybe it's time to just accept that for once in our lives, whatever energy we have needs to be focused inwards.
Unfortunately, being women, we see that as being selfish, and use the guilt we feel at not being the outwardly abundant, compassionate beings we once were, as yet another stick to beat ourselves with, when we are already being beaten into the ground by our changing hormones.
x
I can truly relate to the desire to retreat to somewhere quiet, peaceful - a place of solace.
I was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and I didn't want to leave. I felt safe there. The nurses were so kind and compassionate and there were other people there who were just as stressed out and depressed as I was. I felt like at last I had found folks who could understand the mental turmoil I was enduring. The thought crossed my mind that it would be wonderful if I could stay there forever and my husband and son could come over and visit me every night.
Over the past few years I have become such a hermit. I enjoy talking to people for short periods of time but then I just want to get away from them.
I find myself holed up in my den with books and my cats. I hate talking on the phone and I have to force myself to go visit old friends. The only people I really like spending time with is my husband, my son and one friend from work. Other than that I like to be left alone. I know this kind of behavior probably adds to my depression....
When I first started reading these boards and saw where other women had experienced this same kind of withdrawal I was really surprised. I thought I was the only one who had lost the desire for a social life.
I was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and I didn't want to leave. I felt safe there. The nurses were so kind and compassionate and there were other people there who were just as stressed out and depressed as I was. I felt like at last I had found folks who could understand the mental turmoil I was enduring. The thought crossed my mind that it would be wonderful if I could stay there forever and my husband and son could come over and visit me every night.
Over the past few years I have become such a hermit. I enjoy talking to people for short periods of time but then I just want to get away from them.
I find myself holed up in my den with books and my cats. I hate talking on the phone and I have to force myself to go visit old friends. The only people I really like spending time with is my husband, my son and one friend from work. Other than that I like to be left alone. I know this kind of behavior probably adds to my depression....
When I first started reading these boards and saw where other women had experienced this same kind of withdrawal I was really surprised. I thought I was the only one who had lost the desire for a social life.
Gwen: I can so appreciate the way you feel. I call it 'nesting'....I just don't go out at night anymore..I just like to stay in my comfortable house, in my comfortable bed.
I don't now how journalists and news reporters can live in any semblance of peace. I have an old friend who is a weather girl at a t.v. news station and she said that everyone is in a constant state of 'crisis'...they make a HUGE deal out of every little thing. Couple of years ago a minor hurricane came through the area and she said the whole metereology dept. just went nuts....people talking about the worse, doing all kinds of 'what-iff'ing', working all through the night sleeping on their desks. She became hystercial and had a panic attack. AFter it was all over she realized how stupid the whole thing was....we're talking a minor hurricane, not the apocalypse...
The worse is the all-news stations, like CNN or Fox. They can take a story and beat it to death.
I have taken to driving my car in silence. No loud rock stations, blaring out old 'Foreigner' songs, no cell phone, nothing. I really enjoy the solace.
I don't now how journalists and news reporters can live in any semblance of peace. I have an old friend who is a weather girl at a t.v. news station and she said that everyone is in a constant state of 'crisis'...they make a HUGE deal out of every little thing. Couple of years ago a minor hurricane came through the area and she said the whole metereology dept. just went nuts....people talking about the worse, doing all kinds of 'what-iff'ing', working all through the night sleeping on their desks. She became hystercial and had a panic attack. AFter it was all over she realized how stupid the whole thing was....we're talking a minor hurricane, not the apocalypse...
The worse is the all-news stations, like CNN or Fox. They can take a story and beat it to death.
I have taken to driving my car in silence. No loud rock stations, blaring out old 'Foreigner' songs, no cell phone, nothing. I really enjoy the solace.
I can totally relate to this thread. I must have said to my husband a million times in the last couple of years that all I want to do is take him, my kids and my dogs and go find a farm far, far away from everything and everyone. We'll live off the land and rescue more dogs! I find that the older I get, the less tolerant I am of people in general and I honestly don't care as much what other people think--I actually consider that to be one of the few benefits I've derived in the last couple of years.
I stopped watching the news after 9/11. Actually, it wasn't so much that I stopped watching, it was that my husband cut me off. I got to the point that I couldn't watch without getting mad or upset about something, then I'd try to go to bed and go to sleep. Not a good formula. So, I don't watch anymore. If it's something big enough that I need to know about it, it always seems to filter through from people at work or the Internet or something.
I stopped watching the news after 9/11. Actually, it wasn't so much that I stopped watching, it was that my husband cut me off. I got to the point that I couldn't watch without getting mad or upset about something, then I'd try to go to bed and go to sleep. Not a good formula. So, I don't watch anymore. If it's something big enough that I need to know about it, it always seems to filter through from people at work or the Internet or something.
Mstee....hi again on this thread! 
YOur husband sounds like mine! They are sweet...and realize that too much if a bad things is not good! You are wise to cut yourself off and such.....where in the States to you live BTW....perhaps if you have a good doc I can see him or her on my way home next year....I go to the new england area....Joan
YOur husband sounds like mine! They are sweet...and realize that too much if a bad things is not good! You are wise to cut yourself off and such.....where in the States to you live BTW....perhaps if you have a good doc I can see him or her on my way home next year....I go to the new england area....Joan
Hello ladies,
I read this thread with a smile of "Don't cha know it..." on my face.......I can only dream of running off to the forest to a lovely little cabin and living peacefully with my kids and hubbie by my side...I dislike most everything on TV short of the history, food and discovery channels and sit more nights than not with it off......as for the daily news, I get myself worked up when I consider the fact that the more we advance technologically the less "people" we are with each other and a general meaness has set in with most people as they struggle with the stresses of day to day......depression is rampant? "No **** Sherlock" as they say.......today's society is more alienated and distant from each other than any other time in history
There's my rant and it is a bit sour so sorry
Hugs,
momz
I read this thread with a smile of "Don't cha know it..." on my face.......I can only dream of running off to the forest to a lovely little cabin and living peacefully with my kids and hubbie by my side...I dislike most everything on TV short of the history, food and discovery channels and sit more nights than not with it off......as for the daily news, I get myself worked up when I consider the fact that the more we advance technologically the less "people" we are with each other and a general meaness has set in with most people as they struggle with the stresses of day to day......depression is rampant? "No **** Sherlock" as they say.......today's society is more alienated and distant from each other than any other time in history
There's my rant and it is a bit sour so sorry
Hugs,
momz
[quote name='momzoffour' date='Oct 31 2006, 08:46 PM' post='143554']
Hello ladies,
I read this thread with a smile of "Don't cha know it..." on my face.......I can only dream of running off to the forest to a lovely little cabin and living peacefully with my kids and hubbie by my side...I dislike most everything on TV short of the history, food and discovery channels and sit more nights than not with it off......as for the daily news, I get myself worked up when I consider the fact that the more we advance technologically the less "people" we are with each other and a general meaness has set in with most people as they struggle with the stresses of day to day......depression is rampant? "No **** Sherlock" as they say.......today's society is more alienated and distant from each other than any other time in history
Hello Ladies,
This thread struck a chord with me too, I had to respond. I think the combination of my changing hormones, the horrible state of world affairs and my access to information is making me crazy. Yes, 9/11 was a huge jolt of ugliness, but so was the tsunami, the iraqi war, the north Korean nuclear threat, dufar, political and corporate corruption, murdered amish children, and on and on...I cry a lot, because it is so sad and nothing can be done to fix most of this madness.
I am one of those compulsives who watches the world population clock, the NASA earth satellite imagery, reads the daily news and reads the online news headlines, and I am overdosing on information overload. There is too much data to process, and most of it is horrible and worrisome.
I fantasize about hiding away in the hills, get back to the basics, raise a few chickens, grow a garden and laugh with my kids more. (John Prine - blow up your TV, throw away your paper, move to the country, build you a home. Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus on your own!)
My husband thinks I'm making myself sick reading the news, but I have this need to know what's going on in the world, and I care so deeply about the future that awaits my children. I feel irresponsible if I am uninformed, because I have always believed that knowledge was power and ignorance breeds oppression, BUT...
At the same time, I am finding it harder stay sane with so many problems to go around. I can barely listen to my friends "trivial" problems and feel guilty judging them as such. Its getting harder to maintain normal social relationships, they are so tedious and shallow lately. And I too am wallowing in my geneological past, marvelling at what my ancestors endured, guilty that my life is so easy and yet so hard. It doesn't make sense, and I am still seeking balance.
Well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. At least I cut back from 3 newspapers to one, and I stopped watching TV news. If I could only wean myself off the internet news!! I lost a week crying over Steve Irwin, I loved that guy!!!
Best wishes,
Mella
Hello ladies,
I read this thread with a smile of "Don't cha know it..." on my face.......I can only dream of running off to the forest to a lovely little cabin and living peacefully with my kids and hubbie by my side...I dislike most everything on TV short of the history, food and discovery channels and sit more nights than not with it off......as for the daily news, I get myself worked up when I consider the fact that the more we advance technologically the less "people" we are with each other and a general meaness has set in with most people as they struggle with the stresses of day to day......depression is rampant? "No **** Sherlock" as they say.......today's society is more alienated and distant from each other than any other time in history
Hello Ladies,
This thread struck a chord with me too, I had to respond. I think the combination of my changing hormones, the horrible state of world affairs and my access to information is making me crazy. Yes, 9/11 was a huge jolt of ugliness, but so was the tsunami, the iraqi war, the north Korean nuclear threat, dufar, political and corporate corruption, murdered amish children, and on and on...I cry a lot, because it is so sad and nothing can be done to fix most of this madness.
I am one of those compulsives who watches the world population clock, the NASA earth satellite imagery, reads the daily news and reads the online news headlines, and I am overdosing on information overload. There is too much data to process, and most of it is horrible and worrisome.
I fantasize about hiding away in the hills, get back to the basics, raise a few chickens, grow a garden and laugh with my kids more. (John Prine - blow up your TV, throw away your paper, move to the country, build you a home. Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus on your own!)
My husband thinks I'm making myself sick reading the news, but I have this need to know what's going on in the world, and I care so deeply about the future that awaits my children. I feel irresponsible if I am uninformed, because I have always believed that knowledge was power and ignorance breeds oppression, BUT...
At the same time, I am finding it harder stay sane with so many problems to go around. I can barely listen to my friends "trivial" problems and feel guilty judging them as such. Its getting harder to maintain normal social relationships, they are so tedious and shallow lately. And I too am wallowing in my geneological past, marvelling at what my ancestors endured, guilty that my life is so easy and yet so hard. It doesn't make sense, and I am still seeking balance.
Well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. At least I cut back from 3 newspapers to one, and I stopped watching TV news. If I could only wean myself off the internet news!! I lost a week crying over Steve Irwin, I loved that guy!!!
Best wishes,
Mella
This is just what I have become and it happened slowly, not overnight. I hate watching the news and I read the papers but as someone else pointed out you can pick and chose what you read. I just like to be at home with hubby and children especially now the nights get dark so early, we draw the curtains and light the fire and somehow it feels that little bit safer and cosier. All we seem to hear is how bad things have become.
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