What Should We Do When the News Is Upsetting?

Does the news upset you? Me, too.

Recently I reflected on my responses to two people who were talking about how certain news items were affecting them, and I realized that what I said to them was what I, myself, needed to hear:

Whatever outrage we feel should be directed toward productive change within our means. Otherwise it just simmers with no outlet, and that harms us.

Of course we’re going to be upset over many of the things happening in the world. I don’t think it’s healthy to simply shrug off instances of gun violence like the racist attack in Buffalo, New York, and the anti-Taiwanese attack in California the following day. (As I wrote the first draft of this post, news was breaking about about yet another mass shooting, this one at an elementary school in Texas.)

But simply allowing the news to upset us doesn’t do anyone any good.

So what should we do?

First, we should ask ourselves: Is the thing that is upsetting me one of my priorities?

If the answer is “yes,” then it’s time to take action.

But what if the answer is “no”?

First, we can ask ourselves if we need to reshuffle our priorities. I’ve recently done that. While I’m still concerned about slavery, these days I’m even more concerned about climate change and voting rights, so I’m channeling more of my energy to those issues and significantly less to anti-slavery activities. I still try to keep slavery in mind as I make purchasing decisions. If someone asked me to throw an anti-slavery chocolate party, I’d still try to say “yes.” But I devote much less attention to it now, simply because I can’t tackle everything.

If your priorities haven’t changed but you still want to act on an upsetting piece of news, you might decide to act in a small way, such as dashing off a letter to the editor. Or, if you have the capacity (I suspect few of us do, so please be honest with yourself about this), you can add this new issue to your priorities.

And if you don’t have the capacity to add yet another priority and can’t think of a small, achievable way that you can make a difference, it’s time to change tactics.

When taking action isn’t realistic, it’s time to let it go.

There’s nothing wrong with picking up a book, calling a friend, or otherwise engaging in some form of escape.

“Escapism” is often used negatively, and certainly it can be unhealthy to cope with the news by downing a bottle of wine or spending all of your time in a fantasy world. But I believe that escaping into a good story or a favorite hobby is far better than spending unproductive time seething over something you can’t change. An escape can distract us and, even better, it can recharge us, possibly giving us the break we need to be able to move beyond outrage to action.

The world is full of upsetting news. It’s easy to let ourselves dwell on our outrage and our fear for the future.

But it’s more productive and better for us to keep these things in mind:

• I can do something, even if it’s small, to make a difference.
• I can’t do everything. If I try, I’ll just end up being ineffective.
• When I’m physically or emotionally exhausted, or when I’m upset by a situation I can’t change, it’s a good idea to let it go and do something that makes me happy instead. I don’t need to ignore the bad news, but I may need a break.

Addendum on 5/25/22: How I Followed My Own Advice

Readers may be interested in knowing what I did after I published this post yesterday.

Knowing that gun control is not one of my top priorities but that I wanted to take some sort of action, I reached out to my two senators and my representative and asked them to prioritize gun control legislation before people forget the tragedies that have happened this month.

Then I walked away from my computer and made dinner while listening to The Silmarillion.

I may write about gun control in a future blog post — it’s something I’ve entertained off and on for a while. But for now, I’ve taken a small, practical action and avoided simply stewing in my emotions.