PTSD and the Power of News Fasting

It’s been three weeks, and I seem to be getting along just fine. Three weeks ago, I made a “quality of life” decision when I quit watching the news. While this may seem ho-hum to many people, I have been a bona-fide news junkie for my entire adult life.

My decades-long passion for the news actually started when I was just a kid, but I won’t bore you with the long backstory. I do, however, take pride in knowing what is happening in our World-at-Large.

But of late, it has become increasingly difficult to watch the daily news. On a typical day, there are reports of war, famine, pestilence, violence, mass murders, school shootings, domestic rampages, political uncertainty, and the ever-present daily weather.

As one who lives daily with PTSD, the images are rather… triggering. But the media outlets have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. Greater market share means more advertiser revenue. And the old adage in the news industry holds true: If it bleeds, it leads.

Watching broadcast TV news often means the window of time between the warning of graphic content and the full-color hi-def display of that content is measured in milliseconds.

Blink your eyes and you can go from a weather screen to full-on gore.

It’s just the nature of the business of news.

One morning, you guessed it—three weeks ago, after an assault on my sensibilities on the morning news, I knew that it was time to retire my daily morning news watching. The images of a violent event the day before were on perpetual replay. I had had enough. Ruefully I admit that there was a period of news withdrawal. For close to a week, I fought with my TV remote at 7:00 AM. It was like an unscratched itch. But the relentless itching eventually passed.

I have an intense interest in the happenings in the World-at-Large. TV news was my window into that world. Having that window closed, leaving me in the News Dark, was not an option.

"So, what did you do?" asked the third-party narrator who dwells within.

Good question. I pivoted.

With TV news, I have zero control of what news I consume. The media gurus rapid-fire what they choose. Today I still check the news daily, but these days I check the local and national news on a couple of apps on my phone.

And in doing so, I took back control of my life.

When I scroll through headlines now, I get to choose what I consume. Headlines too gruesome or potentially PTSD-triggering content pass by. Reading those articles is simply not good for me or my mental health.

As I approach a month without TV news, I marvel at the new level of peace in my life. Gratefully, I seem to have found the elusive sweet spot: I stay up to date with happenings in the world, but no longer am pummeled with gore.

Will I ever go back to daily TV news consumption? I can comfortably say never. Why give up my newfound peace?

~D

The Mathematical Epilogue

Feelings and emotions are subjective. Data is not. By taking back 30 minutes a day that I was giving away to the news, I reclaimed 184 hours a year. That’s almost eight days a year. Found time, to fill with activities that are better for me—body, mind, and soul.