No News is Good News
Information Overload
We live in a world where information never sleeps. Every hour brings fresh headlines, breaking updates, and urgent notifications — often carrying stories of war, disaster, political division, or human suffering.
Being informed matters, but constant exposure to negative news can take a toll on our mental health. The challenge is finding balance: how do we stay connected without being consumed?
At a glance
- Constant news cycles can feel overwhelming and hard to escape
- Our brains respond to headlines as if danger is immediate
- Continuous updates may fuel anxiety, restlessness, or numbness
- News also has positives: connection, safety, and collective action
- Boundaries, grounding, and mindful breaks can protect wellbeing
Why does the world feel feel overwhelming then. News has always carried difficult stories, but today’s landscape feels different. Two big shifts explain why:
- 24/7 coverage: traditional bulletins have been replaced by rolling feeds, push alerts, and “live updates.”
- Algorithms and competition: stories that spark fear or outrage spread fastest — so we see more of them.
Our brains are wired with a negative bias — scanning for danger helped our ancestors survive. But when every scroll and broadcast is filled with distress, our nervous system can’t tell the difference between immediate personal threat and global context. The result? Constant activation of the stress response.
The Psychological Impact of Constant News
Exposure to traumatic or sensational reporting doesn’t just inform us — it seeps into mood, thought, and behaviour. For some, it shows up as anxiety or a constant edge of hyper-vigilance, always scanning for the next crisis. Others find themselves doomscrolling, unable to stop refreshing feeds even as distress deepens. Sleep often takes the hit — news creeping into the last thing you read before bed or the first thing you wake up to. In time, the flood of bad news can leave you feeling helpless, convinced the world is only chaos, or numb, switching off emotionally when it all becomes too much.
Research has even linked prolonged news exposure during crises (such as pandemics or terror attacks) to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Recognising the Signs You Might Need a Break
It may be time to reassess your media habits if you notice yourself becoming:
- Irritable, restless scrolling, or unable to switch off.
- Fearful in ways that don’t match your actual daily reality.
- Disconnected, drained, or emotionally flat.
Awareness is important — but not at the cost of your wellbeing.
The Positives of Staying Informed
It’s worth remembering: not all news exposure is harmful. It can also connect us.
- Safety: staying alert to health risks, severe weather, or local disruptions.
- Solidarity: shared moments of global mourning or celebration.
- Action: raising awareness, donating, or joining movements.
- Context: making sense of the world and our place within it.
The balance lies in keeping these benefits without sliding into overwhelm.
Practical Ways to Protect Your Mental Health
Finding balance doesn’t mean shutting the world out, but choosing when and how to let it in. You might experiment with set times to check headlines, rather than letting them punctuate your day. Avoiding news late at night or first thing in the morning often helps the nervous system rest. You can also curate feeds — muting accounts that thrive on outrage — and balance heavy updates with outlets that share solutions, recovery, or even stories of resilience.
Grounding yourself in the present is another antidote: stepping outside, breathing exercises, or using simple techniques like the 5-4-3-2-1 method can bring the mind back to the here and now. Mindful breaks — whether reading, moving your body, or just connecting with someone you care about — create pockets of recharge that buffer against overwhelm.
And when it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, it helps to remember where your influence actually lies. You can’t solve every global crisis, but you can care for your community, contribute to causes that matter, and maintain your own wellbeing so you’re steady enough to respond where it counts.
Shifting from passive consumption to active contribution reduces helplessness and builds resilience.
You can find out useful strategies in practice the pause, have a look here.
With News – I always think who’s controlling the narrative and why.
As a therapist, I’m used to seeing the music behind the words, and I do the same with media, I don’t take eveyrthing for granted, and I hold onto curiosity. Another trick is to think out of the 4 news stories you watched today, rate how true you think they are.
Finding Your Balance
The world won’t stop producing headlines – but you can choose how much of that noise you let in.
Staying informed is valuable. So is protecting your mind. The two don’t need to be in conflict — it’s about knowing your limits, pacing your exposure, and remembering it’s okay to step away.
Your wellbeing matters just as much as being informed.
