I’m sure you have heard someone, maybe even yourself, say, “All this bad news just makes me sick.” CNN, of all networks, is reporting that every news alert indicating the world is “pushed further and further into crisis” takes an increasing toll on “our mental health.” CNN reports, “The world has always been stressful, but experiencing acute events occurring thousands of miles away is a new and challenging phenomenon. On any given day, it feels like the world is falling apart.” Susanne Babbel, a trauma recovery psychotherapist, says constant exposure to bad news can “derail our ability to cope healthily…we might go numb or have an overactive fear response to the perceived threat.”
CNN says the 24 hour news cycle opens us up to hearing about problems all around the world, all day every day. CNN reports that news, indeed, is getting worse: “According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, the United States experienced 16 weather and climate disasters last year, with losses exceeding $1 billion and total costs of approximately $306 billion – a national record. The United Nations’ disaster-monitoring system says that since 1970, the number of disasters worldwide has more than quadrupled, rising to about 400 per year.” CNN then poses the questions: “How can we brace for disaster and find the strength to withstand it? How will we adapt to our greater exposure to trauma? And will our mental health be sacrificed in the process?”
The answers are really two-fold: First, people can stop listening and watching so much news. I had to do that because it’s just depressing. Think of the impact it has on the mental state of those poor godless liberals who are covering and reporting the news? CNN is talking about its own staff when it is quoting a psychotherapist about overactive fear responses and being able to mentally cope with the news. Think of the frenzy in just covering the White House. These reporters have worked themselves up to the point of a near blood lust. Their mental health is clearly compromised. It’s visible by virtue of the nonsensical things they say. This translates to the public. My advice: Turn it off. Take it in small doses.
The second answer is really what the world needs. Jesus Christ told us what would happen in the latter days. He said in Matthew 24 that there would be wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. He said in verse 6, “see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” In answer to CNN’s questions, we brace for disaster and withstand it by embracing the Lord. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.” We combat the bad news by accepting the good news of the gift of salvation. While the bad news can make us sick, the good news of Christ heals. As is written in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
