If You Feel Overwhelmed By The News, You May Be Experiencing This

Roman Kraft on Unsplash" />Person reading a newspaperIt’s no understatement to say the past decade and particularly past five years have been rough. A global pandemic in which 7 million people died worldwide, the cost of living crisis, a terrifying rise in far-right politics and a devastating genocide against Palestinian people just to name a few.Is it any wonder that according to leading mental health charity Mind, around 1 in 3 adults say that their mental health has declined compared to pre-pandemic levels?Now, researchers from the Boston University have warned that this culmination of devastating news could soon result in a type of trauma that was previously unnamed. The researchers warn that many of us will be experiencing “vicarious trauma”: distress from secondhand exposure to traumatic events through news, our screens, or from comforting those traumatised by these events.Vicarious trauma is inevitable, according to the expertsOne of the researchers, Laura Captari, a researcher and psychologist said in an interview with Futurity: “It’s not possible to bear witness to suffering, to tragedy, without it kicking up big existential questions, whether we hear about it in the news or we’re watching it on our screens.″‘Am I safe? Who can I trust?’ What’s particularly challenging in today’s world is that we’re an increasingly polarised and fragmented society, and people engage with social media in all different ways.“For some people, it can really strengthen their connections, but for other people, it can be pretty isolating.”Professor Steven Sandage, a researcher and psychology professor adds: “A trauma response is a survival mechanism to turn on hypervigilance and alertness. For any of us that feel under threat and with serious trauma effects, it’s gotten stuck in place as a hypervigilant alarm response.“We can expect that it’s going to be harder to reset that in environments where there’s lots of polarisation.”It may affect people differently Speaking on our exposure to violent imagery on social media, Captari says: “It’s not just about what any of us are exposed to, it’s also about our relationship to what we take in, our ability to make sense of it.“Does it consume our minds in an obsessive way? People’s social proximity is going to impact their experience of seeing violence through social media.”He adds that for those directly or indirectly involved, it will be more damaging to their nervous system to see these stories than those who are just spectators. He explains: “If they are part of that community [victimised by the violence] or hold an identity overlapping with the people impacted, that’s going to activate their nervous system.“So if I identify as queer, and there’s a mass shooting at a queer club, that’s going to hit me differently than the student next to me in class who doesn’t have a queer identity.”The experts advise using social media more mindfullyWhile many of us think of social media as escapism or even admit to just doomscrolling, the psychologists recommend a more mindful approach to our scrolling habits.Captari recommends that when you’re opening social media apps, you ask yourself these questions: “What am I hoping for when I pull up social media? What needs am I trying to meet?“Is it to connect, to zone out, to amuse myself, to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the world? How are my mind and body reacting to what I’m seeing?”He also advises against living online as many of us do, saying, “We also need connection with people in real space and time, connection with nature, movement, for caring for our nervous system.“We as humans can have morbid curiosity and get stuck in a state of “freeze” when something terrible happens, just watching it on repeat, trying to wrap our heads around it.”Sandage adds: “Young adults have some of the highest rates of mental health vulnerability, and some of the lowest rates of utilisation of mental health services. This happens in the midst of an awful lot of stress on young people.“Sometimes young people, I think, feel, ‘I need to face what’s going on in the world,’ which is a courageous commitment to not avoid what’s happening. But if it’s happening in a context of isolation, with few relationships or resources in which to metabolise all that, it’s not a good recipe.”Take care of yourself.Help and support:Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email [email protected] Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.Related...‘I Was Made to Feel Like a Nuisance’: How Death Admin Becomes A Second Trauma For Grieving FamiliesHigh-Functioning Depression Is 'Less Obvious'. But What Exactly Is it?Feel Numb About The News? Here's How To Defeat 'Outrage Fatigue'

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