Bad News Addiction

Watching the news can be bad for you. And let's face it, most news on the TV is bad news. I found this out the hard way. You see, last November my wife went to Mexico to be with her mother, who was dying. I was lonely and thought I didn't have anything else to do at home in the evening, so I started watching TV. I liked MSNBC news. So every weeknight, usually from around 6pm to 11pm or midnight I would watch MSNBC. Its news coverage is mostly about Trump. I don't like Trump and think he will go down in US history as the worst president we have ever had. Anyway, I liked watching these news programs because they reinforced my negative opinion of Trump. I started to become addicted to the news. After a while, the evening programs weren't enough, so I would wake up early most weekday mornings and watch Morning Joe, another MSNBC news program mostly about Trump, for a couple of hours. On Sunday mornings, I would watch one or two of the Sunday morning news talk shows, like Meet the Press and Face the Nation. More bad news about Trump! But that wasn't enough. I started listening to NPR radio in my car to keep up with the latest news about Trump.  I had become completely addicted to the news, and was spending more than eight hours a day watching and listening to it. I had become a news junkie. An addict. In the middle of December, I started feeling depressed.

          So I went to see a psychologist. He talked to me about how news can be negative, addicting and bad for our mental health, just like drugs.  He told me that we should practice good mental hygiene to have healthy brains,  just like we ought to have good dental hygiene (brushing and flossing our teeth every day) to have healthy teeth. We have to be careful about what we put in our brains. News can be like "mental garbage." I took his advice and completely stopped watching the news and  listening to NPR radio.  I started listening to a Classic Rock station in my car. At first it was difficult, and I was tempted to turn on MSNBC and listen to NPR radio,  but I resisted the temptations. I spent the evening reading a book, watching sports and movies on TV, and spending more time with my grown daughters and grandchildren, all things that I love to do.  I started to feel better. I was recovering from my addiction and my mental health was improving. I'm not addicted anymore, and I feel better.

          This is my advice to you. If you find yourself doing anything too many hours a day, you might have an addiction that isn't good for you. I'll leave you with this thought. I read an article recently about a research study that showed that young people (15-30 years old) spend an average of 10 hours a day on their cell phones. That is more than half of the time they are awake. I will be writing more about this subject in a later post. Could cell phones become an addiction?  Could they be bad for our mental health?  What do you think?