Reacting To The News
The news is terrible, yet constant. A ceaseless flood of negativity that will pour on, regardless of my engagement. Other people will speak to me about it, I will see glimmers from a turned on TV, hear what someone I'm with briefly scrolls past. Sometimes I'm tempted to learn more, opening The Guardian app or doing a search to find out what dumb crap we're letting happen now.
But I do it rarely, once or twice a month. Not that long ago I used to read the news daily. But when you have depression, read a constant anxious stream is just crippling. Stopping this addiction was easier than others, since I can still read amazing things, just not news. I went back to what inspired the reading habit in the first place, novels and non-fiction books.
Well written and deeply subject topics, or interesting retellings of light topics. It has reduced my constant, unceasing anxiety to a crawl. Not alone, of course. Combined with many cohesive changes, where one success made the next challenge seem all that closer to my grasp, beginning to believe that all things are possible. Regular exercise, quitting my anxiety producing job, quitting alcohol for 6 months (with a few lapses and exceptions), working on what I choose and learning skills I've never had the time for. It's been great.
I still have bad days, where distress hits me unexpectedly, my muscles clench and my head is spinning, unable to move past a doom loop. I try to remember a quote from Mr. Rogers, about when he was a child and he'd be sad about the doom on the news, his mother would say "Look for the helpers. There are always people helping."
Now even that quote brings up some anxiety in me, because I'm at an age where I want to be the helper. I need to feel like I'm doing some meaningful work that makes the world slightly better. At least some of the time. Focus on the good and try to help, that's more than most people do.
As for being a well informed citizen, I don't think you can be in today's society. Not if you have a family, a job or (corporate overlords not forbidding) a hobby. You can only know bits and pieces, but instead of relying on memes and short clips, read a few articles a month about the issues that interest or affect you. You'll be better informed than most people that way.
With my deep interest in history, a lot of news reactions today have become focused on how similar things have happened before. Most things are not unprecedented, we've been this stupid for a long time, we just didn't have such instant media access to appear so nakedly brash. More preparedness led to a smarter veil. A useless concept in the "flood the zone with shit" strategy. So stoop scooping up the shit, good journalists will flesh out the gold and keep it accessible when needed.
When I am so far away from the worst of it, I get to decide when and with what I engage. If the call is near, it is your duty to heed it, as it will be mine. It's our job to make the world better and it starts with transitioning our lives from an endurance to a mission.