ArtFriend

So I had to find out what the verdict was with the Michael Brown case and I watched the aftermath of rioting etc. It reminded me of the Detroit riots from 1967. I was 10 years old and terrified. Anyway... strange dreams again, I was running from a sexual predator in Michigan and waking up feeling depressed.

The link here might be 2 nights of watching disturbing news, yet that has never bothered me before. Seems like I am more sensitive to almost everything since I stopped drinking. I hear a Xmas song and burst into tears. And the depression is either deeper or I am feeling it more.

I can't just seal myself off to everyone and everything. I dunno.

LBrain

hang in there art, you're doing great. focus on the positives and know that these feelings will pass.

are you engaged with any counseling for this?

ArtFriend

No but I probably should be. I think the Bill Cosby crap is also pulling up some stuff for me. I was assaulted in college and it was basically ignored by the school and the police. That is in the 1970s and the term date rape had not yet been defined. I was not drugged like many of Cosby's victims, but I was plied with a lot of alcohol. Frat party + booze = you know.

happyandfree

The news is very upsetting-I feel it too today. But we are feeling our feelings now and this is real life. There are injustices in life and often we are powerless over them. At some point we have to move on and take care of ourselves. We can pull ourselves out of the gloom by giving in some way to those who are in need. Try a random act of kindness. Try expression of gratitude.

ArtFriend

I have always found it interesting how the bad news has more capital in our minds than good news. At least that is how it is for me. It takes 10 good news stories to compensate for one bad one.

LBrain

perhaps you should consider counseling for it. no matter how strong we try to be, sometimes these experiences haunt us for the rest of our lives unless we do something about it. And the only thing sometimes is just talking it out with a counselor.

Well, if it's any consolation, I was told I look like a young Dennis Quaid, only some gray on the sides and 6'1 and 195. So don't rely too much on your crystal ball hope you smiled at least...

See someone. If you let these feelings fester it could lead you back to drink.
Hope you can get your mind off things and feel better. And stay away from the news for a while.

ArtFriend

(smile) .. well, my crystal ball was starting to fail last night. The server was going down for my ISP. So, I wrongly pegged you looking like Santa Claus. Blame Time Warner for that!

Ruby2

ArtFriend, I go through periods of depression. I find distraction helps. I posted yesterday about the morning lows. But once in a while it goes on for the day or longer. I've stopped watching television news. I scan the newspaper but don't read it as avidly as I once did. I listen to radio news. I get enraged sometimes at what I see and hear so I needed to step back for a while.

I think watching too much of the bad is like rubbing salt into an open sore, or pulling a scab off so healing can't get on. I was on maternity leave after my son was born when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Being home alone with a new born, already feeling weak as I had some complications and being fed a constant and unending diet of misery and destruction sent me into a tailspin. That was only broken when a dear friend came over one day and dragged me out of the house for a nice walk. Every day afterwards I went for a walk. And the depression lifted.

You are still recovering from the effects of drinking. It takes time for the body and mind to heal. Maybe take a break from the news for a bit. Maybe counseling might help? Feel better.

ScottFromWI

Another option is to just skip all the headline news pages for a while. You are guaranteed to find a bad story no matter what day you look, so a very viable option is to simply not look at all. It will all be there again tomorrow, and 99.99999 percent of it is 100 percent beyond our control.

I do spend quite a bit of time on the internet, but if you are careful in where you spend your time it can be very productive ( SR ) vs depressing/destructive. We got rid of Cable TV about 5 years ago and it was one of the best decisions we every made.

Bottom line, you are fragile now as your body and mind are adjusting. One simple way to avoid the reaction to bad news is to simply eliminate the source of the bad news in the first place! If something REALLY important happens I can guarantee you someone will let you know ;-)

Aellyce

Aaaarrggh... Time Warner can bring out my the anger typically buried deep inside me. My therapist says that it's good for me to get more in touch with anger, as an antidote to anxiety in some situations. But I don't like when Time Warner provides my therapy sessions!

I agree with what Brain said, Art. You may get hooked on the bad news because your mind probably unconsciously scans and focuses on disturbing things and then you dig into it. I had that massively for years in the past. It's really worth changing that pattern. Continued sobriety also helps tons with this.

Hope you feel better as the day progresses

ArtFriend

Thanks Ruby! I get what you are saying and you are right. Too much CNN for me! the 24/7 news cycle is over kill. I always want to know about every detail of everything and I think that is not such a good thing. Lots of information that you can do nothing about. I was glued to the TV during Katrina and cried the whole time. Why? Maybe I am addicted to feeling bad? My aunt never read the paper or watched the news because it upset her. I used to think that was just putting your head in the sand and not dealing with reality. But...I think she was wise.

Thanks again Ruby... maybe I will walk today. Sunny and 65.

ArtFriend

Scott and Haennie - Thank you! I guess everyone is saying the same thing here. I will take heed. I went 4 years in college without watching TV because I didn't have one. But I didn't miss it a bit. Then when I started to watch again, I saw some show where a guy punched another man in the face. I was viscerally effected!!! I was so desensitized to violence by seeing it all the time that after not seeing it for 4 years it was very shocking to me.

Too funny about Time Warner haennie -they stink!

LBrain

Like Scott, I have no cable - no TV - and the difference it made in my attitude was tremendous. I used to yell at the TV with all the nonsense going on. This morning as I was picking up my wife I turned on the news for weather report. I got the full blown stupidity report about the riots and the associated nonsense with it - I'm starting to boil again right now again...

Remember this: If it is good news, it isn't news. Good news doesn't sell.

I like Scott's idea of finding good things by choosing what we look at.

by the way, we a 'scheduled' for 6-10" of snow tomorrow

Ruby2

I'm laughing Brain at the snow forecast. We had it yesterday but it didn't stick. Soon. Artfriend, you are fortunate to have 65 today. It was 22 here this morning. A walk sounds good.

I still sometimes read the bad news but it really doesn't get me anywhere other than frustrated. And sometimes I keep reading and then go on to read tangential stories on the same topic. I don't know if you ever turned over rocks as a kid to see the icky squishy slimy things underneath, just because you wanted to have that "eek" reaction? I used to. In retrospect it's sort of the thrill factor. Why do people go see horror movies? Safe contained fear. But the news is different because it's actually happening to someone, somewhere and I think that's why it's depressing and infuriating. Give it a pass for a while.

Aellyce

I get both cable and internet from them. I don't care much about the TV, like others here, I rarely watch it and have never been much of a TV person. I'm renting an apartment and the landlord provides the cable and internet from Warner... but it's usually me arguing with Costumer Service on the phone I read the news online but not daily. Once again, I think the suggestions to limit and filter what you watch are good. Maybe watch good and entertaining movies instead on Netflix or something like that.

But the internet... I'm actually doing better these days with my information/internet addiction (I posted about it here several times).

Inchworm

Hey, I was with my family at a Tiger's game the day the '67 riots broke out. We thought it was Ford Hospital burning. My dad went to get hotdogs for us, came back without any and told us to we were leaving and to GET IN THE CAR. It was terrifying and so sad for the city. The Tigers won the pennant in '68, almost won it in a' 67. It seemed healing for Detroiter's, do you remember?

JanieJ

I haven't watched TV in about ten years. Don't own one. Life is upsetting enough without that s**t.

Nuudawn

Interesting!!

I find I am far too sensitive for too much disturbing news. Always have been. I used to work in legal advocacy for prisoners (and I refused to watch the news during the period as my clients would often ask..so did you hear bout me on the news?). I dealt with angry men and difficult subject matter all day long.

It was the absolute HEIGHT of my alcoholism and suicidal ideation.

Be careful with what you "absorb".

ArtFriend

There is a saying in the tech world called GIGO = garbage in garbage out. It refers to coding software. Basically if you use crappy code the output will be crappy as well. It applies to our own human software called a brain as well. If you feed your mind with a constant diet of violence, sadness etc. and toss it in a nice alcoholic beverage...VIOLA' ! Brain a la garbage

Nuudawn

Ya know I'm starting to think we could all learn something from tech analogies. Awhile ago I was in the middle of something and someone approached me from the side already speaking at me....

It literally felt like my mind ponies had to struggle and lurch to a stop before I could even fathom redirecting my attention to this new attention seeker. It was freaking painful.

I mentioned to him that my brain was old and therefore it took awhile to "redirect". I then started to think about how computers get slow when they have too much "memory".

Soooo...perhaps I need some sort of digital lobotomy?