Take Charge of Your Compulsive News-Watching Pessimism

You switch on your favorite news channel, hoping to stay informed on key issues. The news has gone from bad to worse. There’s so much you wish you could change.

But you don’t have any control.

As your mood drops and your anxiety rises, you feel angry. You start yelling at the TV. “That’s terrible!” you scream.

Yet you can't seem to turn off the news or your feelings. It draws you in at every turn. Isn't this critical to your very survival?

That night, you’re wide awake, worrying. Your thoughts drift from your healthcare, to your parents’ assisted living, to your friend’s immigration status, to your nephew's government job, and your LGBTQ child’s well-being.

You recall vulgar, hostile, racist, and profane words spoken by influential political leaders. You feel rage.

Added to this, you’re keenly aware that you’re in an era of division, and this separates you from formerly cherished connections.

Yet, the next morning, you're turning on the news again.

How can you possibly stay sane while staying informed?

Limiting Your News Consumption

While limiting your news consumption is a first step, as it's an alternative to ignoring current events, even limited news intake can stimulate gloomy thoughts.

Yes, limit consumption, but remember that it is not just the bad news that leads to stress, but also how you approach it.

Now might be the time to increase self-care using rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT).

Changing Your Philosophy, Stubbornly

What can we learn from Dr. Albert Ellis, founder of REBT?

Dr. Ellis was steadfast in encouraging us to “stubbornly refuse” to make ourselves miserable about anything by taking time to evaluate our thinking and changing our core philosophies.

Adverse events on the news, according to REBT, are genuine contributors to our human suffering, serving as A’s (adversities) that contribute to our C’s (consequences, such as emotions/behaviors/physical reactions).

Where we have control over our experience is through our B’s (beliefs) we hold about the activating events. We disturb ourselves emotionally and behaviorally through our thinking.

Is the News Alone Causing Your Pessimism?

Because your anger, dismay, pessimism, and panic follow directly after watching the news, you conclude the news is to blame.

While validating your rational preferences for better news, REBT maintains that unhealthy negative feelings are directly due to irrational and utopian thoughts you believe.

For example, the anger you feel often stems from demands that life should be different from what it is, and that people mustn’t act unjustly or immorally. Although utopian preferences are healthy, utopian demands aren't.

If you pretend your demands are reality, you won't feel well, act well, or empower yourself to work toward reality-based goals that achieve more of what you prefer.

Indeed, Dr. Ellis concluded that when you think in a disturbed manner, you'll inevitably feel and behave in a disturbed manner.

What Is "Musturbation"?

Dr. Ellis taught that anger, fear, helplessness, and depression are the result of the demands you’re holding onto fiercely, called “musts.” He coined a term to reflect the repetitive, stubborn nature of this thinking, which he lightheartedly called “musturbation.”

Using REBT humor, he cautioned, “Though masturbation is good and delicious, musturbation is evil and pernicious.”

Watch Out for These Three "Musts"

Dr. Ellis said to search for your musts and identified three musts in particular that lead to faulty conclusions.

1. I must do well (or I’m no good).
2. You must treat me well (or you’re worthless and deserve to roast in hell).
3. The world must give me what I want precisely when I want it (or it’s awful).

Dr. Ellis encouraged us to stick with, “I’d like this, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” so you won’t disturb yourself.

Can I Change How I Feel and Act?

Dr. Ellis said that if you work and practice, you can profoundly change your philosophy, and then you can profoundly change your disturbed emotions and disturbed behaviors.

Use the scientific method on your thoughts, Dr. Ellis said, because it’s only when you think anti-scientifically that you'll disturb yourself.

How Can I Use This Method to Remain Sane?

Write down your self-disturbing ideas and then train yourself to think scientifically about them:

• Evaluate the evidence for and against your ideas.
• Look at whether your ideas truly follow from their premises.
• Ask if the thinking you're doing is leading you to work toward something better, or whether you're stuck in a loop.

Remember: Doing your own “work and practice” is the path to giving up your tendency to disturb yourself.

What Else Can I Do to Get Unstuck if I'm in a Loop?

Use resources designed to help you learn to change your underlying philosophy. Consider training yourself to use the REBT method. Work with a skillful REBT therapist if you want additional help, and study the work of Dr. Albert Ellis.

Even after you’ve thought about your thinking scientifically, remember that Dr. Ellis said that in REBT, we don’t just want you to think differently; we want this thinking to translate into healthier emotions and behaviors.

Think Rational Thoughts, Feel Healthy Feelings, Take Empowered Action

REBT encourages you to work on gaining comprehensive change (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral) so you move through life with a saner outlook, responding in undisturbed, more rational ways. Dr. Ellis emphasized that you can gain the most control over your destiny by changing your philosophy and encouraged us to take advantage of this extremely efficient and effective option.

If you begin to do this for even a few minutes a day, you will empower yourself. You may still feel sad, but you won’t shut down.

You have the power to feel sorrow and concern about the news (healthy negative emotions) without turning it into depression, discouragement, rage, panic, and pessimism (unhealthy negative emotions). And when you feel healthy negative emotions, healthy practical behaviors follow.

You cannot help the adversities that you're witnessing on the news if you're stuck in unhealthy patterns. It is when you start taking charge of your despair that you can improve what’s improvable.

To find a therapist, please visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.