Psychiatrist's Tips on How to Deal with Infodemic (News Anxiety)
Introduction News anxiety is a thing, especially given the current circumstances where every facet of our world is going topsy-turvy. “With the rising cases of the viral illnesses, abundance of wrong/ biased information in social or mainstream media, descending quality of politics and rocketing crime rates, it is quite natural for avid news readers or viewers to feel anxious,” says an anxiety therapist in North Kolkata . Psychological Effects of News A 2019 article in the “British Journal of Psychology” highlighted several studies that showed a direct relationship between negative news exposure and negative emotional states. The article stated - “Exposure to negative news reports increases sadness, worries, and anxiety and decreases positive effects.” Although researchers are unsure about what leads to depression or anxiety after regular viewing of negative media stories, they theorize that it has a lot to do with personal relevance. For instance, negative even...