Turn to any news channel, news site, or social media platform, and you're bound to see continuous updates on the situation in Ukraine, the individual and public health toll from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing political and racial divisiveness in the United States, and more.
So how can someone who wants to keep up on developments protect themselves from stress, anxiety, and dysfunction when such negative news seems to be everywhere?
"I think everyone's experiencing some degree of anxiety about what's happening in the world," says Michael Ziffra, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University in Chicago.
It's a matter of severity; being anxious is a normal human reaction, he says. But watching the news becomes a problem if it "makes it hard for you to do what you need to do and just sort of enjoy life."
Different people will react differently, but in general, “the sign that it's getting a bit too much is if you cannot stop or pull yourself away from it,” he says.
It also can be a problem if someone spends a lot of time obsessing or ruminating about negative news while off screen, to the point that it disrupts their work or home life, Ziffra says.
