Negative thoughts feed negative moods12/14/2023 ![]() ![]() Albee Professor of Psychological Science. To guard against patients becoming overwhelmed, and developing a sense of learned helplessness, psychologists can encourage them to become more proactive in healthy ways on the issues that matter to them, added Price, the university’s George W. To help patients cope in a world where news is omnipresent, psychologists with media expertise advise practicing dietary media restriction and taking steps to better process and rightsize the news in their personal lives. Price and his colleagues found an association between the amount of exposure to news on social media and more depression and PTSD symptoms. ![]() 24, 2021).Īnother study, conducted by Matthew Price, PhD, of the University of Vermont in Burlington, followed 61 young adults for 30 days and asked them to assess how they were getting their pandemic-related news each day, along with documenting any symptoms of depression or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ( Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2022). One study, which surveyed 2,251 adults in the spring of 2020, found that the more frequently people sought information about Covid-19 across various mediums-television, newspapers, and social media-the more likely they were to report emotional distress ( Hwang, J., et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. Recent research studying news seeking and emotional responses has found that more exposure to the latest headlines-whether through traditional news outlets or highlighted on social media-can undercut mental health. Researchers are working to understand the science behind the condition. Though there is no formally recognized disorder or diagnostic criteria, many psychologists are seeing patients suffering from news-related stress and seeking guidance on how to help them. ![]() But lately, said Grant and other psychologists, the steady drumbeat of headlines and related social media commentary has been without pause: an ongoing pandemic, racial injustice, climate change, election controversy, mass shootings, and the list extends onward. ![]() Similar terms that have emerged recently include “doomscrolling,” “headline anxiety,” and “headline stress disorder.” While these terms are newer, the psychological strain of living through and absorbing dismal news is by no means confined to recent years. This leads to suffering from, as Grant describes it, “media saturation overload,” and he is not the only mental health professional noticing this specialized type of stress. To drive “clickbait,” news coverage and social media postings also tend to highlight the more negative or dramatic news. adults report that they get their news through social media “often” or “sometimes,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from August 31 to September 7, 2020. In today’s hypercompetitive and incessant news delivery ecosystem, slightly more than half of U.S. But, he said, “They’re perseverating on it-it’s bothering them.” They may not even recognize at first that the news has affected their mood. “They may have just read about an animal on the verge of extinction or the latest update on the melting polar ice caps,” said Grant, who is also president of APA’s Division 46 (Society for Media Psychology and Technology). Many of the teens and young adults Don Grant, PhD, has worked with, both through Newport Academy treatment center and his Los Angeles-based private practice, are experiencing a stress that is directly related to news they have learned about through social media or more traditional outlets. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |